Performing Lines WA

After three Muffled Protests in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, the boat-people will be presenting photos and videos documenting the action as part of A.R.P (Artist Residency Program) on Cockatoo Island, Sydney next week.

Please join boat-people.org for their exhibition opening on Cockatoo Island next Thursday, Sept 9 from 6-8pm. The event will feature artists from two artist residency programs that have happened on the island in the past 12 months. There will be 2 free ferries leaving from the MCA at 5.30pm and 6.30pm. Please RSVP by September 3 to arp.rsvp@gmail.com

Images 1 – 4: boat-people, ‘Muffled Protest: Perth’, 2010 Facilitated by pvi collective, Photos by Lisa Businovski

Images 5 – 8:boat-people, ‘Muffled Protest: Sydney’, 2010, Photos by Dian McLeod

Image courtesy of boat-people.org

“The Boat People art gang are making a video work and we are inviting you to be involved.

Our borders remain the hot election issue, and we are becoming fools again, baying at strangers, terrified and stupid”.
Deborah Kelly, Aug 2010.

The day before the election, the boat-people.org and pvi collective are inviting you to wrap your head in the Australian national flag and have your image captured with us in Forest Place in Perth this Friday 20th August at 4.30pm.

The strategy – Arrive just before 4.30pm, with your flag* in a bag.

The action - Stand silently. At 4.30pm slowly wrap your head in the flag..
*flags available at all good $2 shops.

WHEN: this Friday 20th August at 4.30pm.
WHERE: Forest Place, Perth City Centre [meet outside main post office]
MORE INFO: Join the Boat-people.org Facebook group to hear about and participate in future actions across Australia.
FACILITATED BY: pvi collective on behalf of the boat-people.org

Perth tactical arts group pvi collective have a reputation for engaging the community through public intervention performances and this onewas no different.

Raising their hands to co-ordinate the Perth memorial performance of Tank Man Tango, on June 5 2009 they lead a re-enactment of the Tiananmen Square protests as part of a global public performance marking the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.

Devised by Sydney based artist Deborah Kelly, the performative public art event Tank Man Tango aimed to teach the exact steps undertaken by the iconic “tank man”, who on 5 June 1989, stood face to face against the army tanks on Tiananmen Square.

“…carrying two shopping bags in his hands, trying to communicate, to correspond, to dodge and weave, to …dance… with the tanks. Tank Man Tango will be a momentary monument to the Tiananmen Square protestors, a memorial made of dancing bodies in cities around the world. An echo across time and space, multiplied against forgetting; an image, a public participatory performance; an enduring online artifact.” Deborah Kelly, Artist

pvi collective ran the Perth public event with resident CIA Studio artists Hydra Poesis. The collective lead a ‘how-to’ demonstration of the “tank man” steps at CIA studios on June 4th ready for the public performance on June 5th at Forest Place in Perth city.

“It is an honour to be a part of such a meaningful and powerful memorial. Even 20 years on, the impact of the tank man footage still resonates and for us it poetically highlights the power of the individual against impossible odds.” pvi collective

Performances of Tank Man Tango from around the world will be documented and the material exhibited at Serial Space in Sydney from June 5 2009 as part of the 649 exhibition curated by Mark Gerada.

For more information on the Tank Man Tango project visit http://www.forget2forget.net

Sarah Rowbottam, Communications Manager, Performing Lines WA

Images by: Bohdan Warchomij