Projects tagged "Performance"

The Universe in Verse
Practitioner:
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings Community, Artists, writers, scientists, and musicians
Date:
Apr 28 2018
“The real wealth of the Nation,” marine biologist and author Rachel Carson wrote in her courageous 1953 protest letter, “lies in the resources of the earth — soil, water, forests, minerals, and wildlife… Their administration is not properly, and cannot be, a matter of politics.” Carson’s legacy inspired the creation of Earth Day and the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, whose hard-won environmental regulations are now being undone in the
P.A.I.N.
Practitioner:
Nan Goldin
Date:
Mar 10 2017
Anti-opioid activists unfurled banners and scattered pill bottles on Saturday inside the Sackler Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is named for a family connected to the powerful painkilling drug OxyContin. The protest, which was organized by a group started by the celebrated photographer Nan Goldin, started just after 4 p.m., when several dozen people converged at the Temple of Dendur inside the wing.
Sex at the Specs
Practitioner:
School for Creative Activism
Date:
Apr 2 2015
The “Perceiving Freedom” glasses sculpture on Cape Town’s Sea Point promenade looking towards Robben Island, commemorates late President Nelson Mandela and the values of freedom and equality.
Shaving hair performance art in response to the gender discrimination existing in the Chinese educational system
Practitioner:
Xiao Meili, Liang Xiaomen, Li Maizi
Date:
Aug 23 2012
In early July 2012, after the Chinese college entrance examination results were announced, the media found that many colleges and universities had gender bias on the admitted scores, and the maximum difference between men and women was up to 40 points. This finding aroused widespread concern and dissatisfaction from the public.
#DontMuteDC and Moechella Protest
Practitioner:
Don't Mute DC and Long Live Go-Go
Date:
Apr 7 2019
In response to white gentrifiers trying to silence go-go music on the corners of Florida Avenue and 7th Avenue, activists and D.C. residents poured into the streets by blasting go-go music and celebrating its rich history within the city. For those unfamiliar, go-go music is at the heart of D.C. culture and features live bands playing covers of, and sometimes original, music with all different types of drums and other percussion instruments.
Soviet Disco
Practitioner:
Soviet Union
Date:
Jan 1 1977
The origin of the Soviet disco tradition, one that lasts to this day in the DJ-laden nightlife of Moscow and St. Petersburg, lay in the Stalinist era. Western culture – modernism, cubism, rock and roll, all that good stuff – was “decadent,” perhaps even a plot by Trotskyists or the Western intelligentsia to dull the steely nerves of the Soviet people. But dancing – this was a-OK.
Walkthrough
Practitioner:
Walid Raad
Date:
Oct 12 2015
MoMA presents the first comprehensive American survey of the leading contemporary artist Walid Raad (b. 1967, Lebanon), featuring his work in photography, video, sculpture, and performance from the last 25 years.
The Prometheus Project
Practitioner:
American Repertory Theater
Date:
Mar 1 2012
The Prometheus Project is a partnership between the American Repertory Theater and Amnesty International to bring the theater arts to the service of human rights advocacy.
Bread and Puppet Theatre: Insurrection Resurrection Service Circus
Practitioner:
Bread and Puppet
Date:
Jul 1 2020
The Insurrection-Resurrection Service Circus is this summer’s [started in 2020 and is ongoing] contribution to the iconic Bread and Puppet Circus tradition beloved by audiences worldwide for nearly 2 generations — a bright, raucous melee of short acts governed by a brass band, addressing the heart of the current moment using diverse puppetry styles and spanning many moods, from slapstick to the sublime.
A Lesson on Diversity & Inclusion from the Savage X Fenty Show
Practitioner:
Rihanna
Date:
Sep 1 2018
Yesterday, I procrastinated my way to watching the Savage X Fenty Show, and I was left in complete awe of Rihanna. She truly is a powerhouse, but on top of that, all her brands; Fenty Beauty, Savage X Fenty and Fenty have intentionally left no one behind.
Lift the Skirt / What the Skirt Lifts / What the Skirt Raises
Practitioner:
Arthur Moinet, Academie de Nantes
Date:
May 16 2014
What the Skirt Lifts is a day long protest against gender discrimination initiated by student Arthur Moinet and sanctioned by the Académie de Nantes, made up of local school officials. Both male and female students were encouraged to school wearing skirts. Those who did not feel comfortable wearing skirts were invited to participate by wearing a sticker which read: I am fighting against sexism, are you?
Heritage loss and the Importance of the Past
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 1995
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) by Ai Weiwei is a highly provocative work of art. This series of three black and white photographs portray the artist holding a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty urn that, frame by frame, he drops, it falls, and shatters. As much a work of photography as a work of performance art, in each still an unaffected Ai looks directly at the camera aware of his destructiveness.
“Don’t Call Me Chief”: Native Artists Protest Racist NFL Mascots
Practitioner:
No More Native Mascots
Date:
Feb 12 2023
PHOENIX — As Super Bowl LVII was getting underway in Glendale, Arizona, on February 12, artist and Apache Skateboards founder Douglas Miles (San Carlos Apache, Akimel O’odham) was protesting racist mascots in the NFL by painting a mural-style portrait of Geronimo with the words “Don’t Call Me Chief” for a community event at Grassrootz, a Black- and worker-owned bookstore near downtown Phoenix.
Refugees tell their stories by starring in Danish ballet
Practitioner:
Christian Lollike, Royal Danish Theatre
Date:
Jan 29 2016
As Denmark moves to deter refugees from crossing its borders, a new theater production dramatizing their plight seeks to change how many in the country perceive their new neighbors. Uropa: An Asylum-Seeker’s Ballet, [is] a dance piece performed in part by refugees portraying themselves.
You Need to Calm Down
Practitioner:
Taylor Swift
Date:
Jun 17 2019
Everything You Need to Know About The Equality Act & Taylor Swift's Petition to Pass It In her latest song and music video for “You Need To Calm Down,” Taylor Swift is celebrating Pride the best way she knows how — by telling homophobic bigots to pipe down. Both in the video and in the song’s lyrics, the singer establishes herself as a clear ally to the community, singing “Shade never made anybody less gay.”
Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda
Practitioner:
netflix
Date:
Mar 5 2024
Following the backlash of Netflix's support of Dave Chappelle's "The Closer" comedy special, which featured racist transphobic "jokes", Hannah Gadsby took a deal with Netflix to create a comedy special featuring genderqueer comics. The show, titled 'Gender Agenda', was tapped in the Alexandra Palace Theatre in London and released on Netflix on March 5, 2024.
Las hijas de Violencia
Practitioner:
Las hijas de Violencia
Date:
Jan 1 2016
Born as a side project Las hijas de Violencia approaches the subject of street harassment and gender based violence through performance art, punk and video that is addressing socially legitimized male violence. "As actresses and as women we feel directly affected and consider it urgent to address the real cause of the problem: its ideological nature.
Why Did Francis Alÿs Push A Block Of Ice For 9 Hours?
Practitioner:
Francis Alÿs
Date:
Jan 1 1997
What is Francis Alÿs known for? Francis Alÿs is known for using poetic and metaphorical techniques to highlight the political and social realities of his city. Often, the issues he addresses range from national border politics to globalism and areas of conflict in his community and the effects of modernism.
Occupation of Alcatraz Island
Practitioner:
Native American Activists
Date:
Nov 20 1969
The beacon flashed incessantly. On. Off. On again. Like some sort of traffic light gone crazy, it pierced the thick nighttime mist hovering over San Francisco Bay. The light sent a message five miles across the dark waters from Ghirardelli Square to Alcatraz Island. There, cheers erupted as the light flashed the words, "Go Indians!"
DR Congo: performing for change
Practitioner:
Goma Cultural Centre
Date:
Dec 11 2016
Driving along an ordinary dirt road, it's hard to miss the Goma Cultural Centre with its bright blue gate, emblazoned with the Congolese flag. "As you can see, we are proud to be Congolese around here," said Belamy Paluku, a volunteer manager at the youth centre.
Mashrou’ Leila
Practitioner:
Mashrou’ Leila
Date:
Sep 1 2018
CAIRO — Seven Egyptians were arrested on charges of promoting homosexuality after concertgoers waved rainbow-colored flags at a rock concert in Cairo last week, Egyptian officials said. The arrests were the latest assault on social freedoms in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose government has imposed harsh restrictions on free speech and led an aggressive campaign against gays.
The Crossings
Practitioner:
Anne Basting
Date:
Apr 30 2014
Using Performance Art to Alert Drivers to Look Out for Pedestrians A series of three street performances taking place this Thursday and Friday carries a simple message - remember to see and stop for pedestrians.
Melting Point: Francis Alÿs's 'Paradox of Praxis' and the Futility of Effort
Practitioner:
Francis Alÿs
Date:
Jan 1 1997
In many of his works, the Belgian-Mexican conceptual and performance provocateur Francis Alÿs questions the relationship between action, effort, and outcome. His works tend to inspire one toward a blurring of lines between the actions done in artistic expression and those in social response, making the viewer question the value and effect of the toil.
The Vivienne Foundation
Practitioner:
Vivienne Westwood
Date:
Dec 15 2022
The Vivienne Foundation exists to honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne's creativity and activism. Since the start of her career in the 1970s, Vivienne was renowned not only for her fashion design, but also her activism. Vivienne always utilised her platform of prestige to make the world a better place.
Mona Lisa undamaged after protesters at the Louvre throw soup at Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece
Practitioner:
Riposte Alimentaire
Date:
Jan 28 2024
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (around 1503-19) was attacked at the Musée du Louvre, in Paris, today by environmental activists who threw soup over the world's most-recognised and most-viewed painting. The celebrated portrait, which has been protected by security glass for the past 70 years, was not damaged in the attack.

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