Beth Greenhalgh, Bloody Poetry, image courtesy of the artist
The International Performance Festival Cardiff begins its inaugural season of eclectic performances, workshops and events from artists across the world over three weeks in June.
Recently announcing the results of its Open Call, the full calendar of the International Performance Festival Cardiff is now available with an artistic programme of performance works from artists in Cardiff and from across the world. Beginning next Tuesday 3 June, the festival opens with the “Acoustic Tuesday” music club featuring Cardiff song pioneers Frankie Armstrong, the Welsh medieval music duo Bragod (Robert Evans and Mary-Anne Roberts) at the Riverside Community Development Centre. The festival then moves to Chapter Arts Centre, the festival’s lead venue, for the UK premiere of “Sicilia” by renowned French theatre group La Communauté Inavouable (5-7 June).
During the following weeks the festival includes an impressive programme of participatory workshops for children and all ages led by the Cardiff based artist Davida Hewlett (ever thought of what Super-Gran might get-up to in your local neighbourhood?), as part of a world-class programme of artists, such as the New York choreographer Beth Gill who will be in residence at Chapter Arts Centre as well as presenting a new work-in-progress (“Core”, 14 June) and the Brazilian visual artist Laura Lima (recent winner of the BACA 2014 (Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art, Maastricht), one of Europe’s most prestigious international art prizes) who is returning to Cardiff (following her acclaimed work “To Age” created at Chapter ten years ago) as part of the performance installation piece “SONG” produced with Australia’s Ranters Theatre from Melbourne.
Included in the Open Call is the work of Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales award winner Paul Jenkins who will be presenting a collaborative work made with the Alma Alter Theatre Laboratory from Sofia, Bulgaria, presented at Dempsey’s pub theatre (12 & 15 June). The piece titled “Godot versus Beckett” is a playful homage to Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, performed through the physical language developed by Alma Alter Theatre inspired through the influences of Polish experimental theatre.
As a special late-night performance, Turkish theatre-makers Memet Ali Alabora and Pinar Ogun are working with acclaimed novelist Meltem Arikan on a new work “Recalling Love: And Woman and Man” that will be staged at the cafe-bar Ten Feet Tall in Cardiff city centre (15 June). Alabora, Ogun and Arikan were the creative team now based in Cardiff behind the groundbreaking performance “Mi Minor” staged in Istanbul in 2012 and that became subject of a major human rights and censorship controversy when it was accused in the Turkish media of initiating the 2013 democracy movement that took place in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.
All together the International Performance Festival Cardiff, directed by James Tyson, shows the incredible breadth and diversity of the performance scene in Cardiff across music, theatre, dance and visual arts, and aims to provide a new biennial festival offering inspiration from around the world to UK audiences.
You will find full details of the programme at www.intangiblestudio.co.uk/ipfc and www.chapter.org and through #IPFC14.
You will find Chapter at Market Road, Canton, CF5 1QE
