UK PREMIERE

Presented with DanceXchange

HIGHER is inspired by the experience of clubbing and club dancing. This form of dance, not easily ascribed to any category, takes the cultural role of a social dance and features various techniques, styles and influences and exemplifies what is the ultimate purpose of dancing: self expression.

Philosopher Julia Kristeva once said: “ As to be human embraced political, sexual, religious, familiar identity, we are undergoing a time of major identity crises. We need to find a language that transcends the human in order to overcome such crises and awake a new Renaissance. This language can be dance”. I interpret this cathartic power of dance, as a form of prayer and celebration of existence. I found in the club a place for such transcendant activity, upholding the comparison of clubs to churches, however obscured by the most common understanding of clubbing as a mere recreational activity.

While trying to transfer the magical essence of the club to the theatrical/representational context of the black box, and trusting in dance as the practice that compensates for the fact that we can never be each other, we attempt to become one.

HIGHER is included in the Fierce Weekend Pass which can be purchased here.

Michele Rizzo – HIGHER from Rencontres chorégraphiques on Vimeo.

Concept and Choreography: Michele Rizzo
Music: Lorenzo Senni
Performance: Juan Pablo Camara, Max Goran, Michele Rizzo
Light design: Michele Rizzo
Production: Frascati Theatre and ICK Amsterdam
Special thanks to Lucas Heistinger, Bogomir Doringer, Katerina Bakatzaki

“I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him” “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me” Donald “She talks like a truck driver” Trump Depression Hotline Tour

Part of Be The Change: An Edwardian Tearoom Late

These award-winning wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth-loving urban activists return to the UK to spread their word. If you’re concerned about a world rife with global advertising, multinational control, climate change, packaging, supermarket domination, TV merchandising and all the rampant free marketeering epitomised by the US President, this is for you. If you’re not, this is REALLY for you!

The Church of Stop Shopping is a New York based secular political religion founded in 1999. Since “I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him” “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me” Donald “She talks like a truck driver” Trump, the Frankenstein of shopping culture, won – or stole the election, the church has been a repository of community anguish. Under the direction of Savitri D They have paraded, boycotted and protested while singing multiple harmonies. The choir has opened for Neil Young, been produced by Laurie Anderson, and hosted a benefit for Black Lives Matter with Joan Baez.

Presented with Free Radical

Fierce have teamed up with Free Radical to collide activism and art in grand surroundings at this special event. Featuring international artists with activism and politics at the heart of their work, as well as performances and film screenings there will be a crowd-sourced Protest-Playlist and a chance to go on activist-speed dates with artists, plus more to be announced.

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir (USA)
“I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him” “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me” Donald “She talks like a truck driver” Trump Depression Hotline Tour

These award-winning wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth-loving urban activists return to the UK to spread their word. If you’re concerned about a world rife with global advertising, multinational control, climate change, packaging, supermarket domination, TV merchandising and all the rampant free marketeering epitomised by the US President, this is for you. If you’re not, this is REALLY for you!

The Church of Stop Shopping is a New York based secular political religion founded in 1999. Since “I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him” “All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me” Donald “She talks like a truck driver” Trump, the Frankenstein of shopping culture, won – or stole the election, the church has been a repository of community anguish. Under the direction of Savitri D They have paraded, boycotted and protested while singing multiple harmonies. The choir has opened for Neil Young, been produced by Laurie Anderson, and hosted a benefit for Black Lives Matter with Joan Baez.

Noemi Lakmaier (UK)
We are for you because we are against them

‘We are for you because we are against them’ invites the public to take on the role of voyeur, and observe an elaborately staged dinner party. Eight diners will participate in this public gesture which combines both elements of the uncanny and absurd. A normally private dinner party becomes the object of the public gaze. Notions of ‘we’, ‘them’ and ‘other’ shift across the registers of both the personal and political.

Inspired by the child’s ‘weeble’ toy marketed during the 1970’s with the slogan “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”, this work highlighted central concerns of the artist’s practice around issues of control and power and how we assert and relinquish both. A sense of the absurd coupled with what the artist terms her “tendency towards dangerous behaviour” is evident in the work, where power shifted uncomfortably from the artist to the spectators in the gallery, who were invited to interact with the piece.

Tickets for a very limited place in this 3 course immersive dining experience for just £20 can be booked here.

Vivian Chinasa Ezhuga (UK)
Ghana Must Go and Britney Spears
A Fierce commission
WORLD PREMIERE

Ghana Must Go and Britney Spears is a new performance exploring xenophobia and the cultural stigma that comes from this.  Oops I did it again will explore the trenches of human activity when looking at xenophobia and how this process has led many people to leave a place they call home in this present day.

Ghana Must Go and Britney Spears is a Fierce commission, made possible through Fierce FWD 2017.

Reetu Sattar (BD)
Sokol Dukher Prodip: the unsung song

Lets exchange warmth!

In the name of Sympathy, Empathy, Humanity, Human, Savagery, Last, Divided, Lives, Soil, Being, Forever, Loss, Breathe, Stateless and Tradition.

Words that floating around us. Words that we come across every single day. Here I invite you to come and join me to listen to my song unsung. Song lost in despair. I am here from the other part of earth to be with you to share a time lost in questions. Questions that don’t have any particular answers. When asking is also answering then why ask. When standing beside, holding hands, and keeping silence shows the way of solidarity then come and hold my hands and lets have stain together.

Lets exchange warmth!

In the name of Sympathy, Empathy, Humanity, Human, Savagery, Last, Divided, Lives, Soil, Being, Forever, Loss, Breathe, Stateless and Tradition.

Words that floating around us. Words that we come across every single day. Here I invite you to come and join me to listen to my song unsung. Song lost in despair. I am here from the other part of earth to be with you to share a time lost in questions. Questions that don’t have any particular answers. When asking is also answering then why ask. When standing beside, holding hands, and keeping silence shows the way of solidarity then come and hold my hands and lets have stain together.

Stain wash later but have it inside you. Lets create a memory.

We are standing at a point what known to our civilization from prehistoric era. Earth is orbiting as civilization fights on supremacy. But may be its time to gain strength from each other. Show respect to our own resilience. Get some peace watching each other.

Here I am bringing hope from a country of despair. Here I am sharing warmth from the country of rising sadness. Here I am while standing against a wall but still spreading hands.

Wont you come and listen my unsung song to be sad for two minute in silence?

This event forms part of our late night takeover of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery ‘Be The Change: An Edwardian Tearoom Late’.

Biography

Reetu Sattar is a Dhaka-based theatre actor, director and performance artist working with performativity, video, text and objects. Her time-based work explores presence and absence, memory, loss, resilience and the ephemerality of existence. She enjoys her journey of transition between performance and theatre. So the works are consciously away from theatrical practice but it adds voice, conversations, sound, props, costume and sculptural elements as spontaneous necessity.

Reetu’s recent exhibitions and performances include Para/Site, Hong Kong (2017), Jim Thompson Art Centre , Bangkok (2017), Fierce Festival, Birmingham (2017), Chobimela ix, International Photography Festival, Bangladesh (2017), 16^th and 17th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh (2014 and 2016); Britto, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2016); Bengal Performance Art Week (2016); Bengal Foundation Visual Arts, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2016); National Art Exhibition, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (2015); Forashgonj Orphanange, Old Dhaka, Bangladesh (2015) and South Asian Media Academy, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2014), Dhaka Art Summit (2014).

Presented in Collaboration with Culture Central and the Birmingham Weekender. Supported by British Council.

Images: Harano Sur, 17th Asian Art Biennale, 2016, Photo: Forhad Rahman. Courtesy of the artist.

‘We are for you because we are against them’ invites the public to take on the role of voyeur, and observe an elaborately staged dinner party. Eight diners will participate in this public gesture which combines both elements of the uncanny and absurd. A normally private dinner party becomes the object of the public gaze. Notions of ‘we’, ‘them’ and ‘other’ shift across the registers of both the personal and political.

Inspired by the child’s ‘weeble’ toy marketed during the 1970’s with the slogan “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down”, this work highlighted central concerns of the artist’s practice around issues of control and power and how we assert and relinquish both. A sense of the absurd coupled with what the artist terms her “tendency towards dangerous behaviour” is evident in the work, where power shifted uncomfortably from the artist to the spectators in the gallery, who were invited to interact with the piece.

Eight lucky diners will have the chance to participate in this unique dining experience. Tickets are available on a first come first served basis, and participants receive a three course meal and beverages.

Diners should arrive at 6pm for a 6.30pm start.

This performance takes place as part of Be The Change: An Edwardian Tearoom Late at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

(16+)

UK PREMIERE

Buy tickets for the Sunday performance here

Inside the room, dungeon-esque encounters and ordinary domestic lingering exercise a politic that comes with care taking, danger and amnesia.  Aughterlony and Rosenblit alongside Gutierrez and Self on sound, maintain a complicated relationship to order that encourages cracks and leaks inside architectures for gathering. A free-standing wall, a roaming kitchen island and decaying bodies are part of a disruptive ecology that needs constant adjustment. Rhythmic sorcery drives the effort despite the un-governability of ingredients. Is this a construction site or a cooking show? The room offers an expanded horizon, no longer obliged to rid oneself of the things that supposedly suspend progress.

With local guest performer Emily Warner.

Fierce Says: We’ve loved Simone Aughterlony ever since she presented her show Supernatural (by Simone Aughterlony, Antonija Livingstone and Hahn Rowe) at the festival in 2015 and discovering the art of Jen Rosenblit has been a highlight of the past year. When we saw this strange, immersive piece in a Berlin warehouse we knew we had to bring it. Whilst we weren’t 100% sure what we’d witnessed we knew it felt it good, with a banging soundscape from Miguel Gutierrez and Colin Self too..

Everything Fits In The Room is included in the Fierce Weekend Pass which can be purchased here.

Teaser_Everything Fits In The Room from Simone Aughterlony on Vimeo.

Created in the frame of Utopian Realities, a co-production of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of 100 Years of Now, curated by HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) International Guest Performance Fund for Dance.

Simone Aughterlony also leads workshop A Necessary Ecology with Artsadmin 14-15 October

(16+)

UK PREMIERE

Buy tickets for the Saturday performance here

Inside the room, dungeon-esque encounters and ordinary domestic lingering exercise a politic that comes with care taking, danger and amnesia.  Aughterlony and Rosenblit alongside Gutierrez and Self on sound, maintain a complicated relationship to order that encourages cracks and leaks inside architectures for gathering. A free-standing wall, a roaming kitchen island and decaying bodies are part of a disruptive ecology that needs constant adjustment. Rhythmic sorcery drives the effort despite the un-governability of ingredients. Is this a construction site or a cooking show? The room offers an expanded horizon, no longer obliged to rid oneself of the things that supposedly suspend progress.

With local guest performer Emily Warner.

Fierce Says: We’ve loved Simone Aughterlony ever since she presented her show Supernatural (by Simone Aughterlony, Antonija Livingstone and Hahn Rowe) at the festival in 2015 and discovering the art of Jen Rosenblit has been a highlight of the past year. When we saw this strange, immersive piece in a Berlin warehouse we knew we had to bring it. Whilst we weren’t 100% sure what we’d witnessed we knew it felt it good, with a banging soundscape from Miguel Gutierrez and Colin Self too.

Everything Fits In The Room is included in the Fierce Weekend Pass which can be purchased here.

Teaser_Everything Fits In The Room from Simone Aughterlony on Vimeo.

Created in the frame of Utopian Realities, a co-production of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of 100 Years of Now, curated by HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) International Guest Performance Fund for Dance.

Simone Aughterlony also leads workshop A Necessary Ecology with Artsadmin 14-15 October

Presented with Ort Gallery

Taking momentum from one of the key issues shaping public debate, artist Eca Eps explores the chaos presented by conflict and migration and civic nationalism. Utilising elements of speech, sound and play in a participatory performance, the artist draws on the materiality of water as a leveller that cuts across territorial boundaries, with emphasis on its dualistic capacity to constitute both a barrier and a lifeline, underscored by the spatial provenance of a derelict gala pool.

This event is presented as part of Eca Eps’s From Chibok To Calais exhibition at Ort Gallery, Balsall Heath (12–5pm Tuesday – Saturday, until 11 November).

#performanceartnow

UK PREMIERE

“In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.”

Or in other words: There is hardly any object the young multi-talented Belgian Louis Vanhaverbeke cannot incorporate into his sound-world. Frisbees, watering cans, drum computers, camping cookers, skateboards, record players, plastic toys and disposable items are some of the ingredients he assembles to create a sensational kinetic sound installation.

The award-winning and exceptional performer moves through his Multiverse with playful ease. He raps, fiddles around and comes up with ever-new ideas. What seems to be chaotic at first glance turns out to be a sophisticated, high-precision and witty performance which captivates audiences with its exuberant creativity and originality.

Fierce Says: Louis Vanhaverbeke is about to lift off. Catch him whilst you can in his debut UK performances before he majorly hits the big time. A visual theatrical treat with much more to it than initially meets the eye. This is one neat show that left us looking to the stars with a brilliant soundtrack to boot.

Multiverse is included in the Fierce Weekend Pass which can be purchased here.

Dramaturge: Dries Douibi
Production: CAMPO arts centre, Ghent

This is a drop in event. BSL interpreted

Presented in city centre shopping areas, Demonstrating the World takes the form of a durational public performance disguised as an everyday consumerist demo.

In Demonstrating the World, Aaron Williamson explores the ‘alien’ or ‘other’ through an absurdly elaborate, live reinterpretation of YouTube ‘How-To’ videos. Drawing from this contemporary archive of ‘folk performance’, Williamson enacts everyday tasks such as opening a cupboard, removing a jacket, or sitting on a chair, with detailed step-by-step instructions. He illustrates the required posture, hand-shapes and describes the shifting of muscular tension – both reinforcing and destabilising their apparent familiarity.

Demonstrating the World is presented on a purpose-built mobile performance platform that houses a radically displaced domestic interior, designed in collaboration with architect Ida Martin. Separated from their expected practical function, this unique series of household objects provides an opportunity to demonstrate the sculptural qualities of ergonomic design.

Fierce Says: Aaron is a legend of UK Performance Art. This piece sees him at his absurd best in a preposterous demonstration of the most mundane things. We first saw him try this piece out in a car park in Hackney stood on a chair with a 7 foot high microphone. It’s boring as hell, but bet you £5 you’ll get engrossed for much longer than intended.

Supported by Unlimited with funding from Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Arts Council Wales and Spirit of 2012.