Performance art, according to the Tate means “Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted.” Installation art, according to Wikipedia is “an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space.” This year’s Fringe offers several performance art and installation pieces of varying topics. Here are three to think about:
How about taking time out of the day to pause, listen and reflect? The Horizon Showcase: A Crash Course in Cloudspotting immersive audio installation and performance is an “intimate audio-sensory journey exploring the depths of human connection and the subversive act of lying down.” Exploring how people “living with invisible disabilities and chronic illnesses about their attempts to rest in public” others across the UK will participate remotely to “illuminate the space with a gentle choreography of lights, showing patterns of rest unfolding at real time. Playing at Summerhall (Offsite) @ Institut Français d’Ecosse.
An immersive-multimedia exhibit with ritual dance-theatre performance-installation by Jian Yi “tunes into the collective psyche with audiences to create a dreaming state of mind; an architecture of queer futurity.”Weathervanes is a thirty minute experience playing at Summerhall “features an ensemble of dancers with a live musician, and multimedia/FX created by Cryptic artist Heather Lander.”
If you would like to spend an entire day in an eight-hour performance installation look for the Horizon Showcase: Always Ready playing at Summerhall (Offsite) @ The Lifecare Centre, Stockbridge. This sounds like a unique combination of elements “using materials, text, song, sound, and movement to bring together plant, human and machine. Drawing on practices of weaving, pattern singing, and textile machines.” With songs and dances that “encapsulate themes of practice and perseverance” you can come and go during the first seven hours and choose to stay for a performance during the last hour.
Think about having a change of pace during the fringe by seeking different genres of performance and art – and finding time to reflect and breathe!
Jo Tomalin is FringeReview’s dance and physical theatre reviewer at the Edinburgh Fringe and also reviews elsewhere in the wo
