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TEST and The Present Tense, two Boston based performance art organizations, team up again to produce the third annual Contaminate festival of performance art. Showcasing the work of over 25 artists, the festival will take place at the Midway Studios building, located at 15 Channel Center Street in Boston’s Fort Point. The live art works will be presented over the two nights, with a different line up each night; videos will be shown both nights in a screening room.

Background: Over the past five years, a vital live art scene has been cultivated by the influx of young performance artists who have settled in Boston—attracting the attention of practitioners all over the globe. Aided by the long-standing presence of Mobius, a strong performance art program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a supportive, dedicated audience base, numerous producers have sprung up, including TEST, The Present Tense, Encounterworks, and The Butcher Shoppe’s Slaughterhouse shows.

Each team is firmly committed to showcasing art whose appeal lays not its commercial value, but in its expressive quality. Working with a do-it-yourself mentality, these producers utilize unlikely spaces including a parking lot, organizers’ homes and backyards, as well as at more established art spaces. On a shoestring budget, they have showcased work by local and international artists alike, collecting donations at the door to help cover the participating artists’ travel expenses.

The Artists: Contaminate will feature performances or installations by the following artists:

Nick Buffon (Boston, MA)
Robert Ladislas Derr (Ohio)
Peter Dobill (NY, NY)
Lalie Douglas (Canada)
Deva Eveland (Chicago, Illinois)
Travis McCoy Fuller (Boston/Rome)
Peter Grzybowski (NY, NY)
Sandy Huckleberry (Boston, MA)
Faith Johnson (Boston, MA)
Kristina Lenzi & Mari Novotny-Jones (Salt Lake City, UT/Boston, MA)
Qfwfq duo (MA)
Vicky Sabourin (Quebec)
Genevieve Sideleau (Quebec)
Malcolm Smith (CA)
Maya Urbanowicz (Boston, MA)
Paul Waddell (CA)
Willem Willhelmus (Helsink, Finland).

A separate screening room will be showing video works by:

Rachelle Beaudoin (New Hampshire)
Paul Carter and Alexandra Zierle (Falmouth, UK)
Erin Donnelly (Boston)
Linda Ford and Pam Martin(San Francisco)
Heather Kapplow (Boston)
Christopher Robbins (New York/Serbia)
Kate V. Robertson (Glasgow,UK)
Tony Schwenson(Australia)
Alejandro Uranga (Mexico/Spain)
Sen Voodoo (Australia)
Justene William (Australia)

This year, the festival strives to create an environment where all forms of performance are represented. Including live actions, tableau vivant installations, multi-media interactive productions, and video works, Contaminate3 brings together disparate practices rarely seen side-by-side. The many works presented via or including elements of video question the “liveness” often assumed to be inherent to performance art and opens up discussions of time, representation, and the role of media in our lives through its pervasiveness in art.

The Present Tense is active in organizing performance art events and festivals in the Boston area that include the work of local, national and international artists working in experimental time based media. The Present Tense aspires to create accessible environments for performance art to be made and witnessed in, through engaging avid viewers of performance while simultaneously introducing new audiences to this often- misunderstood art medium.

TEST is a series of performance art events that take place between two and four times throughout the year, collaboratively and energetically produced by seven individuals living and working in Boston. TEST brings together both established and emerging artists, encouraging all to try out new directions in their work. Collectively, TEST and The Present Tense have produced more than a dozen events, showing the work of over fifty artists. These include Marilyn Arsem (Boston), Kevin Brewersdorf (Providence), CoachTV (Boston) Deva Eveland (Chicago), Hiroko Kikuchi (Boston), Kristina Lenzi (Salt Lake City), Jamie McMurry (Los Angeles), Christian Messier (Quebec, Canada), and Francis O’Shaughnessy (Quebec, Canada), and Ean White (Boston).

CONTAMINATE 3

A two-day festival of performance, installation and video art