Performance Day 2016: Alfred Jarry Archipelago

More and more frequently contemporary artists are blending the codes of the visual arts with those of the stage, in an exploration of an interspace of potential art forms.

As a fundamentally multidisciplinary venture, la Ferme du Buisson has an obligation to welcome and assist practices that include performance as an active force in the transgression of conventional limitations.

For this first edition of Perofmance Day it seemed natural to invoke Alfred Jarry, that iconic scuttler of categories, as its tutelary figure. Tying in with La valse des pantins exhibition and the international Alfred Jarry Archipelago project, Performance Day is a celebration of physical and linguistic contortions, absurdist humour and blatant amateurism ; these being the tools the participating artists bring to a meticulous deconstruction of accepted standards, via approaches including marathon performances, open-air strolls and sound installations, screenings, improvised musical happenings, readings from Jarry and barroom-style discussions about « the uselessness of the theatre to the theatre ».

Performance Day is coproduced with the Playground festival, (STUK Kunstencentrum & M-Museum Leuven), with support from the Agency for Arts and Heritage of Flanders, as part of the project "Alfred Jarry Archipelago" initiated by La Ferme du Buisson Centre for Contemporary Art in Noisiel (France), Le Quartier Centre for Contemporary Art in Quimper (France) and Museo Marino Marini in Florence (Italy). The venture is part of Piano, the Franco-Italian art exchange platform, in collaboration with M-Museum and the STUK Kunstencentrum in the framework of Playground in Leuven (Belgium).