Performance Art in London

By CW Contributor on 29/4/2019

This summer sees a huge range of performance art on offer in London, from family friendly events and street acrobats to more conceptual offerings. Here is your guide to the most interesting events.

Fantastic Feats, various locations in London

Fantastic Feats is a 6-month long festival of performances and exhibitions celebrating landmark moments in the construction of London’s greatest buildings. As part of its programme a troupe of performers will jump, flip and spin its way through the city. Bodies in Urban Spaces will include dancers and free runners interacting with landmark buildings in mind-bending ways. You will be able to catch the performers from 13 –14 June.

On 25 July dance troupe Motion House will deliver a performance called Wild, which will see circus artists navigating fields of poles with incredible strength and agility. These choreographed acts of endurance will explore the disconnect between the urban population and the natural world.

Locations to be confirmed.

WHEN

31 May – 1 December 2019

WHERE

Various locations in London

Bureau de Change, Tate Britain

Tate has announced a new fund enabling the museum to stage performances from the national collection. Rose Finn-Kelcey’s Bureau de Change (1987) will run between 1 April and 11 August at Tate Britain and takes the form of an installation of £1,000 worth of coins laid out in the outline of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The piece will be watched by an actor, dressed in period uniform, monitored by a CCTV camera that will transmit the footage to a screen in the gallery. The work was made after one of Van Gogh’s paintings sold for a record £24.5 million.

Image: Rose Finn-Kelcey, Bureau de Change. Tate Photography

WHEN

1 April – 11 August

WHERE

Tate Britain

Block Universe, various locations in London

For dedicated fans of performance art Block Universe festival returns with a 14 day programme bringing together new works, talks, screenings and workshops staged across London. Venues are to include Tate, the Imperial War Museum, LADA, Barbican and The Swiss Church, with Cork Street Galleries acting as the festival hub. Highlights will include an afternoon of poetry readings at White Chapel Gallery exploring the relationship between experimental writing and performance and a brand new opera by irreverent musicians Ravioli Me Away at The Albany.

WHEN

18 May to 2 June 2019

WHERE

Various Locations in London

Body Disruptions, Waddington Custot

Performance art meets sculpture with Body Disruptions at Waddington Custot, an exhibition of works by artist and performer Alice Anderson. Her copper wire sculptures and gestural drawings will form the backdrop to performances of a new work entitled Transitional Dances, which sees the artist joined by a chorus of dancers and drummers. French born Anderson is interested in our humanness in an increasingly digital world and her work sets out to explore memory and connectivity at a time when gestures and actions are increasingly stored electronically.

WHEN

12 March – 10 May

WHERE

Waddington Custot

10000 Gestures, Tate Modern

For 2 nights in June renowned choreographer and dancer Boris Charmatz will bring his 2017 work 10000 Gestures to Tate Modern for a performance in the Turbine Hall. The work consists of 10,000 unrepeated gestures performed by 24 dancers, which examines dance's relationship to time. The two shows will be accompanied by a programme of free events.

WHEN

22 & 23 June

WHERE

Tate Modern