Happiness, within and without

“Happiness, within and without” is the theme of this 19th edition of Europe's preeminent international performance art festival, Live Action, curated by Jonas Stampe, Senior Curator & Senior Researcher at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. For 19 years the festival has explored contemporary art's ability to meet and engage with the citizens on the street in a unique exhibition model that presents art both within the safe walls of the art institution for an intimate articulation and experience. As well as in the common ground of public space, offering unexpected aesthetic and conceptual experiences to its inhabitants. In this, Live Action stands out in the field as an event that never compromises with its two main characteristics: to be avant-garde and popular, placing art on the street, among the inhabitants. Articulating humour, joy and commitment, but of course also the seriousness with which contemporary art can apprehend the world. This year is no different.

Yet each edition is special because of the individual artists invited, their original work and their personal backgrounds. Each comes with a story, narrative or not, but a story about life with art embodied in an action. They do not play or act, they do not represent anything or anyone, but articulate their ideas and emotions through their own being. It is this persistent continuity and annual renewal that makes Live Action such an outstanding experience, presenting artists for the first time and revisiting others who have developed new work. In a programme that seeks human excellence rather than artistic failure, in other words, art that dares to be itself and nothing else.