'PUBLIC'

For 2007, LIVE proposes the curatorial theme of ‘Public’. Public is always local - yet defines global. Who and where
are we? Who and where are others? How are we similar? How are we different? What do we have in common?
In interpreting ‘Public’, performative art might manifest as; an action presented in public, an intervention into public,
the participation of public, or a descriptive reference to public. Intent, form and expression can shift and change. The
theme of ‘Public’ affords us occasion to examine performance art both locally and globally. A new generation of artists is reinventing boundaries through an exploding world-wide network of organizations, venues, symposia and festivals.

With the internet as the highway, talent is emerging everywhere and everyone is talking to one another. This awakening is inclusive of anyone from anywhere, regardless of background, privilege, training or theoretical pretext and celebrates a new democratization of intellect. Freed from materialist economics, temporal artistic activity is by nature demonstrative, social and political. Like the world-music phenomenon, like the multicultural mosaic of our city, this transcultural blending of identities, histories and politics is mashing expression.

Appropriate to the theme, we are examining performance art that describes the world we live in; art that addresses
issues of community and identity, art as activism, art as a mechanism for social change, art that questions the nature of power, art that celebrates life.

Lets take this opportunity to adventure outside the white box and the black box and into the public domain.