S.P.A.N.E 2021: WATER

The videos in S.P.A.N.E. 2021: WATER focus on performances and actions that engage with water in provocative, thoughtful and surprising ways. As we move into the heat of the summer, we become more aware of how essential and fundamental water is for all life. Composed of only hydrogen and oxygen, it exists in myriad of forms, from the liquid the sustains all creatures and plants, to ice, snow, rain, and vapours that we feel on a humid day. A large percentage of our body is made up of water and every living cell needs it to keep functioning. Watching and listening to what the water has to say to us; observing its life force, is a way of honouring and respecting this most fundamental of elements.  

- Johannes Zits

 

Working in nature, interacting with it or just being there can be inspiring. These activities may also spark one’s imagination and create the potential for performances. Capturing these performances opens the possibility for its ephemerality to be revisited and shared. S.P.A.N.E. (Screening of Performance Art in the Natural Environment) was originally conceived ten years ago as a platform for collectively viewing and discussing videos of performances. S.P.A.N.E. 2021, is curated by artist/curator Johannes Zits, whose own practice shares an affinity with cultures in which humanity is seen as continuous with nature.

Zits will present a selection of diverse works where the performers are interacting within a natural setting. Each of the videos presented at SPANE 2021 will reference one of the four basic elements: WATER, AIR, LAND and FIRE. Each artist has a distinct relationship with the other-than-human element they are engaged with and in some way it’s sentience is considered consciously or unconsciously. In each of these videos, nature is more than a background or passive element and forms an integral part of the “narrative”.