Action Script: Symposium on Performance Art Practice and Documentation in Asia

Performance art is flourishing throughout Asia. Divergent performance practices are found in every country around the region. Such practices are closely related to Asia's social, political, and cultural circumstances and are a signifficant contribution to Asia's thriving contemporary art scene.

Both Centre for Community Cultural Development (CCCD) and the Asia People's Theatre Festival Society (APTFS) have been significant promoters of performance art in Hong Kong, through organising international festivals, local community tours, and workshops in third-party institutions and community organisations. After bringing overseas artists to or hosting them in Hong Kong in the spirit of exchange since CCCS's establishment and sponsoring artists' participation in overseas festivals more recently, CCCD believes that the time is now for Asia's performance artists to come together. To quote Lee Wen, we must'ask questions to gind a way to choose the directions or paths we should take on the crossroads of various possibilities...and hopefully we can agree to rake similar paths and help each other.' In gathering together such an active and influential group of people in the field to discuss the future of performance art in Asia, this initiative illustrates CCCD's commitment to the future of the art form and its network of practitioners.

While performance art provides key elements to the regions's art historical narratives, the art form is inherently intangible and impermanent and its preservation of particular concern. In response to the need created by the robust development of performance art in the region, Asia Art Archive (AAA) is also taking steps to establish a focused archival collection regarding the art practice. Over the next decade, the Archive will collect, collate, and preserve documentation of performance art in and of Asia. AAA will amass materials of this vital, ephemeral art form within the context of global contemporary art and culture and will then make the collection accessible for educational and research purposes, encouraging open, critical discourse about both the practice and history of performance art.

AAA officially announces its performance art initiative during the fall of 2010 on the occasiion of its 10th Anniversary. At this time, several pilot projects and collections will have been completed, including: substantial research on and documentation of Hong Kong performance art from 1975 and 2005; the assemnling of a private video collection documenting performance art in Southeast Asia (from 1988 to 2007) by Malaysia-based artist Ray Langenbach; and the collection of and research on contemporary Indian performance art practice since the late 1990s. The initiative will encompass more than ten individual performance art collections by AAA's 20th anniversary.

Action Script - Symposium on Performance Art Practive and Documentation in Asia was organised by AAA in collaboration with the Centre for Communitu Cultural Development (CCCD) to announce this initiative. Over the course of five days, the conference will bring together artists, curators, scholars, researchers, and others interested in the field in dialogue and debate that will contextualise the exciting evolution of performance art in Asia.

THe symposium includes round-table seminars, panel discussions, live performances, a workshop and AAA material display around Hong Kong.

The round table seminar will consist of two parts: 1) a panel presentation addressing the challenges of archiving performance art, and 2) a discussion about the future and potential cultivation of performance art in Asia over the next ten years. Critical debate regarding the archiving and historicising such a subversive art form will be highligted.