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LIVE AT THE END OF THE CENTURY PERFORMANCE NETWORK
SYMPOSIUM
grunt is currently producing the Festival LIVE AT THE END OF THE CENTURY in
conjunction with 11 other Vancouver visual art institutions. (See attached for
programming and participants) During the festival we will hold a small symposium
inviting curators of performance from across Canada to meet with their counterparts and
artists on the West Coast.
The PERFORMANCE NETWORK SYMPOSIUM will bring together 7 (seven) curators
from across Canada to meet with 8 - 1 0 curators from the West Coast. The timing,
October 2 1 - 2 5 , 1999, during the festival will allow participants to view a selection of
festival events during the evening and attend meetings during the day.
The purpose of the symposium is to develop and explore networking opportunities for
performance art, exchange information on festivals, symposium and publications both
nationally and internationally. Participants were chosen for their ongoing commitment as
producers and curators to performance practice in Canada. Organizations are a selection
of centres with ongoing programs in performance art in Canada.
Symposium will consist of two half days of meeting between participants and one full
day session to be attended by performance community and interested public. Sunday's
symposium will allow each participant to give a 15-minute synopsis of Performance Art
in his or her community. Video cabaret on Sunday night will screen selections from the
festival, tapes brought by visiting curators and tapes provided by performance artists.
While symposium is scheduled during the festival it is not advertised in the festival
publicity but will be announced to audiences throughout the festival. While public is
invited to attend the Sunday sessions the main emphasis will be on networking between
curators and performance artists.
This project will be the first national meeting in performance art in many years. In the
intervening years communities have developed without national connections although
some have been effective in developing international contacts. As well the individual

nature of commnity practice is often lost without the context in which it was produced
and this symposium will alllow us to educate ourselves on the different histories which
exist coast to coast. Performance Network Symposium will allow information sharing to
go on extensively renewing old connections and developing new ones. It focus in the
artist run centre network community and encourage the medium with the network of
artist centres. Information from the symposium will be distribute to the artists centre
network through the echo listserve maintained by Oboro.
PERFORMANCE NETWORK SYMPOSIUM will provide a vital first step in the
renewal of the performance network within Canada. It is an attempt to end the isolation
performance art has fallen into in the last decade. It will make the renewal of the form
that has been occuring across Canada obvious outside the individual communities and
begin providing national and international opportunities for artists.

VANCOUVER participants
Eric Metcalfe
Todd Davis
Glenn Alteen
ADAD
Brice Canyon
Paul Wong
Tagny Duff
Winston Xi

Performance Curator
Director/ curator
Director/ curator
Curator
Special Projects curator
Director/ curator
Curator
Curator

Other Canadian participants
Brenda Cleniuk
Lori Blondeau
Barbara Carter
Gabriel Doucet Donida
Josee Tremblay
Paul Couillard
Sylvie Gilbert

Director
Curator
Co-ordinator
Curator
Curator
Curator
Curator

Western Front
Open Space
grunt
Havana
grunt
On Edge
Video In

Neutral Ground, Regina
Tribe, Saskatoon
Struts, Sackville, NB
Halifax, NS
Studio 303, Montreal
FADO, Toronto
Oboro, Montreal