Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances during the preview week of the 55th Venice Biennale. This is the eighth in the Agendas series, which since 1999 has examined different aspects of contemporary art practice. This year’s event focuses on performance art and the alternative scene: its history, legacy and future.

Program:

Wednesday 29 May: Live Art—Are you here? Were you there?
Breakfast: 9am Event: 10am–12pm
Chaired by Jean Wainwright, speakers include Kathy Battista, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Lois Keidan, Lauren A Wright and artists Marcia Farquhar, Joan Jonas, Marta Jovanovic, Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke.

As performance art becomes increasingly visible in the programs and collections of major museums and galleries, this event aims to evaluate the current status of performance and live art. A series of brief presentations will ask whether this inclusion kills the element of risk often related to performance or if live practices enable institutions to challenge their audiences. The session will also consider the unintended performer and raise issues that encompass disability and gender.

Thursday 30 May: Speed Dating—Working the Room
Breakfast: 8:30am Event: 9am–10am
Speed date with Kathy Battista, Sacha Craddock, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Marta Jovanovic, Brett Littman, Beral Madra, Richard Mosse, Andrea Pagnes, Verena Stenke, Hilde Teerlinck, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Jinny Yu, among others.

Discussions and debates are important catalysts for action and often one-to-one conversations can be the most instrumental. This event plays with the idea of speed dating and the notion of working the room by removing the concept of an audience; every participant becomes an active part of the session.

Friday 31 May: The Alternative Scene: International Art Production
Event: 9am–12pm, with breakfast
International curators and artists will consider the status of biennials and art events as sites for the production of live artworks. It will ask whether these create enriched cultural landscapes through fringe events and cooperation among organisations, or whether their concentration of resources and audiences can be counterproductive. Are projects involving educational institutions and residencies alongside these ‘main events’ able to change the habits of a globalised art world, where values and formats are intended to be exportable and repeatable?

Table I: The biennales as platforms for production
Chair: Vittorio Urbani.
Panelists: Noura al Sayeh, Ruben Arevshatyan, Penelope Curtis, Reem Fadda, Branko Franceschi, Magda Guruli, Maria Hlavajova, Beral Madra, Salwa Mikdadi, Jonathan Watkins, Ala Younis.

Table II. Emerging Models
Chair: Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.
Panelists: Kathrin Becker, Antonia Carver, Marina Fokidis, Hoor Al Qasimi, Stefanie James, Yasmina Reggad, Berenice Saliou, Georg Schöllhammer.

Table III. No-profit Intermediation
Chair: Elisa Genna.
Panelists: Aurora Di Mauro. Deniz Erbas, Franco Gazzarri, Agnes Kohlmeyer, Kalliopi Lemos, Terry Smith. Jinny Yu.

PODCAST: Art On Air – The Clocktower Gallery