Welcome to issue 9 of liveartwork DVD, a unique publication showcasing contemporary live art.

After a bit of break, the latest issue of liveartwork DVD has an interesting mixture of work from both emerging artists and some of the most well established figures in international performance art.

We start with a performance from Norbert Klassen, a founding member of Black Market International and one of Europe's foremost performance artists. Linda Franke is an emerging artist from Berlin who works with a unique combination of performance, sculture and installation. Ulysses Castellanos is another emerging artist, this time from Toronto. His chaotic and extreme performances are underlied by a complex use of text and compelling characters. Jamie McMurry, Julie Andrée T. and Helge Meyer are three highly accomplished solo performance artists who are seem here, for the first time, presenting a unique collaborative performance. This is the second appearance on liveartwork DVD for Florian Feigl, here he presents a recent performance which is part of a more expansive project which will enventually comprise of 300 performance actions lasting a total of 24 hours. Lastly there is a beautifully considered and subtly physical solo peformance from German artist BBB Johannes Deimling, which was presented at the last 7a*11d festival in Toronto, last October.

The DVD has a total running time of about 94 minutes.

Scroll down to see more detaills about the featured artists.

To get a copy of liveartwork DVD issue 9 click on the 'order' link above.

Born in 1941 in Duisburg, Germany, Norbert Klassen has been living since 1964 in Switzerland. Klassen was the Director of Theater an der Winkelwiese in Zürich. In 1979-80 he studied dance therapy and speech training in New York. Since 1980 he has been a teacher at the Drama School in Bern. He taught performance art at F+F Schule für Gestaltung in Zürich and diverse master classes in various performance techniques in Germany and Finland throughout the 80s and 90s.
Since 1990 Klassen has been occupied mostly by intermedia projects, including exhibitions in Germany and Finland. He regularly works as a stage director at the Theater an der Effingerstrasse in Bern and, as an actor, has regular engagements in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He has been a member of the performance group Black Market International since 1979 and sees himself mainly as a performance artist, presenting his work in solo and collaborative contexts around the world and contributing to the development of an international performance art network, primarily through his ongoing festival project, Bone, which has been held annually in Bern for over 11 years.

Vivat Fluxus is a series of recreations of individual actions from some of the classic Fluxus performances from the 60s. As an observer and participant in some of the early Fluxus events, Klassen hopes to convey something of the atmosphere and intentions of early Fluxus work to a contemporary audience. His initial action in the performance, of throwing several eggs at the wall is in reference to the audience reaction to some Fluxus events - their anticipation of the 'extreme and shocking' nature of the events was so built up that they would pelt the stage with fruit, vegetables and eggs even before the first performance. This hysterical reaction was often undercut by the minimal and self deprecating actions that would actually be staged.

Video duration: 22'03"
Some spoken text in English and German (with English subtitles)

Contact:
Bone Performance Festival
www.bone-performance.com

The performance artist Linda Franke works in an unusually sensual way and constructs a narrative which reveals her affinity to surrealist paintings and a fantastically bizarre world of film images. Complex room installations involving costumes and masks are basic elements in her performances, which generally are ephemeral experiences that happen only. The visual aspect is emphasised by the use of materials such as silicon, rubber, foam, wax, fabric, wood and food and is combined with sound elements from different music genres ranging from jazz to opera. The often motionless scenes suggests a comparison with the tradition of Tableau Vivants - or living pictures. Linda Franke studied in Weimar, Berlin and London and currently lives in Berlin.

Hallo?! - There is a monster and a woman in a hut in the middle of a desert. No one knows what is going to happen.
Doppelheinz - The performer has two pairs of arms and legs is stuck in a doorway. Each pair of extremities is busy with a different action, like keeping a fountain going or turning a jar around. The multitasking can be viewed through a window from outside or from inside the space.
Sigfrida - Eight people eat carrots out of eight arms from this mother-like creature. The scene becomes increasingly ecstatic. The blond hero repeats the word "herrlich" (delicious) and starts to sing and yodel to express pleasure.

Video duration: 12'33"
No spoken text

Credits
Hallo?!
Performance and Installation: Linda Franke
Camera and Soundtrack: Fritz Bornstück

Doppelheinz
Performance and Props: Linda Franke
Camera: Dionis Escorsa
Editing: Linda Franke

Sigfrida
Performers: Linda Franke, Christiane Frey, Pascal Gingras, Jan Hofman, Yala Juchman, Filipa Raposo, Rosa, Philipp Stargala, Markus Stein
Camera: Fritz Bornstück
Editing & Costumes: Linda Franke

Contact
www.lindafranke.com

"I use dumb forms of representation as a vehicle to connect directly with the audience. My 'Recombinant Performances' collide multiple/disparate elements taken from high and low culture wherein these elements are remixed, cannibalized and regurgitated. This is merely an excuse for the performer/audience interaction, which is the actual piece."

Virus from Outer Space - The performance collides 8 mm footage from the lunar space walk, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Iggy Pop's "Nightclubbing" and slowed-down Detroit techno in order to describe a fictitious virus from outer space that has infected the population of planet Earth, and whose symptoms include morning erections for men and menstrual flow for women. It also causes the sufferer to buy things that he or she does not need.
The Youngest Rockstar in History - The performance collides music by Jimi Hendrix via Kronos Quartet, old Italian 45's, a makeshift teepee, the music of Elvis via Michael Daugherty, and Butter 08, I painted myself with mars black oil paint, dressed like Axl Rose and interviewed "Baby Dough", AKA "The Youngest Rockstar in History" together with the audience.

Video duration: 17'05"
English spoken text

Credits
Virus from Outer Space
Camera: Sarah Goldstein
The Youngest Rockstar in History
Camera: Alvaro C. Curated by Derek Mainella

Contact
ulyssescastellanos 'at' hotmail.com
www.ulyssesdadabase.com

Jamie McMurry has been active as an artist, organizer and educator in the fields of performance, installation, video and conceptual art for more than 15 years. He currently resides in Los Angeles, USA and teaches at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

Helge Meyer established the Performance Art Group System HM2T with Marco Teubner in 1998. He also performs with the group Black Market International. In 2007 he finished a doctoral thesis about the image of pain in performance art. Currently he teaches Art and Theatre in high school and at the University of Hildesheim.

For Julie Andrée T. , practicing art should be a reflection of daily life and the dark ages we are presently in. Body and space are the centre of her research. She use the body as a space and as a vehicle for metaphor and poetry. She has been making performance and installations since 1994. She is also involved with Black Market International.

Physical Triptych - Ones interactions with people everyday in either the public or private realm are determined by our pre-conceived impressions of those people, whether stranger of friend. The complexity of the formulas used to assess others is vast and different from person to person. Such formulas are employed in a passing one-time moment or over years of exposure. Our work was to embody through actions these perceptions of each other as artists, friends and fellow human beings. The performance of Physical Triptych at the Momentum festival was the first performance developed as a collaboration between these three artists.

Video duration: 17'47"
No spoken text


Contact
Julie Andrée T.
julieandree 'at' hotmail.com
Jamie McMurry
thepowderkeg 'at' hotmail.com
Helge Meyer
info 'at' performance-art-research.de

Feigl has been creating performance art work since 1997. Besides his solo work Feigl collaborates with various artists and artists' collectives (Wagner-Feigl-Forschung/Festspiele, prodesse&delectare). Feigl teaches performance art workshops, co-organises the Performer Stammtisch (a monthly performance art event in Berlin) and writes about performance art for German and international fanzines and art magazines. Recent works focus on artistic practice as research and the organisation of knowledge. Of specific interest within these fields is the application of artistic practices within processes of urban and sociological development as well as co-operative entrepreneurship.

Under the title Prologue for 300 varying sets of performances and demonstrations are presented. The single performances - each exactly five minutes long - will be part of a body of about 300 sequences which will form the planned 24 hour experimental video film 300. The performances included in 300 will cover various and very different types of performances such as artistic, social, sculptural/iconographic, ethnological and many more.

Video duration: 14'36"
A little spoken text in German with English subtitles

Contact
Florian Feigl
florianfeigl 'at' alice-dsl.de

BBB Johannes Deimling uses everyday objects to create a living image reflecting a society full of contradictions, sentimentality, stupidity, creativity and cooperation. Finding ideas and suggestions from the banality of daily life, Deimling transforms topics such as patience, will, war, religion and transportation into physical images.
The artist's head is often a focus in the work, as an integral part of a living sculpture or as material in a performance. Since 1988, BBB Johannes Deimling has worked as an artist in the fields of performance art video, installation, drawing and music. His work has been presented at events and festivals in Europe, Israel, Canada and Cuba. Since 1998, Deimling has devoted much of his practice to lecturing on performance art at various academic institutions including: F+F (Switzerland) since 1998 and the Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia.

No Rose Without A Thorn - "I stand in front of the audience and look each visitor directly in the eyes. On the floor are lying four white strings and one handkerchief. I pull off my clothes a bind them with the white strings to my head. With both hands I start to roughly scratch my skin until red weals grow visible. I stop scratching and take the white handkerchief and rub down my body. Out of this handkerchief I form a flower and offer it to the audience until someone takes it."

Video duration: 12'29"
No spoken text

Contact
www.bbbjohannesdeimling.de
bbb 'at' bbbjohannesdeimling.de