It’s Time: The Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival

by Autumn Hays

It’s that time of the year again. Summer is here and this tends to be a prime time all over the world for performance art festivals. The best part is, if you are in Chicago you don’t have to go anywhere to experience some of the finest international performance art. Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival has entered its third year. This year the dates for the festival run June 5-8^th and 12^th-15^th. This years line up proves once again to be very promising. If you are interested in performance art it is an event not to miss.

Rapid Pulse is curated by Steven L. Bridges, Julie Laffin, Joseph Ravens, and Giana Gambino. Together, they bring a wide range of artists to Chicago each year. Rapid Pulse seems to touch on a wide range of genres, embracing theater, visual art, public practice, video, tech, music, and dance all the while dedicated to presenting work that is essentially performance art. If you have not had much experience with performance art or wish to have more, Rapid Pulse delivers a selection of artists that will provide you with a comprehensive look at performance art all in one festival. The lack of typecasting within performance art and the curation of this festival is part of what makes Rapid Pulse dynamic.

This year they will present works from notable artists, real heavy hitters in the performance art world. One of these artists is Kira O’Reilly (UK/IRELAND) who works with tightly controlled body movements that will leave you mesmerized. Then there is Alastair Maclennan (UK/IRELAND) who creates  durational performances and sculptures with eerie and nostalgic objects. The multi-member performance group known for their radical actions and border crossings of all kinds, La Pocha Nostra (USA/Mexico) will also be performing. I’m very excited to have the chance to see Lai Thi Dieu Ha (Vietnam) who created a work that used bird feathers to explore sexual identity in a provocative work that in her home country was extremely controversial. As well as Jason Lim (Singapore) will also present his delicate and introspective work; He is a notable figure in performance art and directs “Future of Imagination” in Singapore.

As expected, Rapid Pulse includes emerging artists who you may not have heard of, but you should get to know. I am very excited to see the work of Jessica Elaine Blinkhorn(US) whose work deals with disability and intimacy, Julie Vulcan (Australia) whose meditative work with salt explores ideas of transcendence, and Raquel Punto(Mexico) who deals with filth as a form of performatve evidence. Aiming to foster a supportive community of performance art and artists here in Chicago, Rapid Pulse also features talented local performers such as Mical Samama, Mikey McParlane, and the Antibody Cooperation, among others. In all they have 28 live artist presentations in vivid, exuberant, poetic, and boundary pushing performances and it is definitely worth attending!

 

Besides the performances which mostly are held at Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Rapid Pulse has a wide range of additional offerings. There is an amazing video series of performance art videos held at the Nightingale Cinema. This year they added a performance art workshop lead by Kira O’Reilly that is an amazing opportunity for local performance makers. Though perhaps not as attended as the performance work itself, the festival offers artists talks and panel discussions that are not to be missed deviling into the cusp of the most relevant perfomantive discourse. Still the jewel of the festival is the live performative events and I know this summer I will not be missing a single performance.

Full List of participating Artists: Alastair Maclennan, Alison Crocetta, Anna Brown, Antibody Corp, Boryana Rossa, Carlos Martiel, Diaz Lewis, Disorientalism, Espand, Freya Björg Olafson, Jason Lim, Jessica Blinkhorn, Julie Vulcan, Kira O’reilly, Lai Thi Dieu Ha, La Pocha Nostra, Linda Hesh, Manuel Vason, Matthew Prest, Michal Samama, Mikey Mcparlane, Peter Reese, Raquel, Punto, Sandrine Schaefer, Teoma Naccarato. For the full schedule and more information visit: rapidpulse.org