Om liveart_dk

Liveart.dk was founded in 2004 in Copenhagen to promote the discussion, documentation and development of live art in Denmark. The organisation is equally inspired by the imaginative and entertaining English Live Art tradition as by the theoretical and political German theatre tradition. We have organised 10 large international festivals of Live Art for kids and adults since 2004, and over 40 discussion events, books, video series, symposia and more in the field of live art, performance art, art criticism and documentation. We collaborate with theatres, music venues, art museums and festivals in Denmark and internationally.

Thierry de Mey

Thierry de Mey Work for Live Art Danmark 2023 “Musique de Tables”, performed by Athelas Sinfonietta at Life Art for Children 2023. Musique de Tables In Thierry de Mey’s piece Musique de tables from 1985, as the name suggests, the table is used as a musical instrument. The work is written for three percussionists who, equipped only with three small wooden tables and their hands, perform a tightly choreographed rhythmic ritual that is breathtaking in its complexity. For the concert, the musicians’ hands are projected onto a large screen, enabling the audience to witness the extreme precision behind every hit, stroke, clap and knock on the three table tops. For […]

Steffi Weismann

Steffi Weismann Works for Live Art Danmark 2023 “Concert for 9 Harley Davidsons” and “Touch Amplifier” (with Özgür Erkök Moroder) at Life Art for Children 2023. Concert for 9 Harley Davidsons Nine shiny Harley Davidsons thundered down Sønder Boulevard before they arrived on and at Uncle Danny’s plad in the Meat Packing District, where they were eagerly expected by German sound artist Steffi Weismann and a crowd of intergenerational art afficionadoes. Steffi then proceeded to conduct the rugged riders of those heavy machines through an experimental score by seminal German composer (and her professor at University of the Arts in Berlin) Dieter Schnebel. Listen to their music in the video […]

Simon Steen-Andersen

Simon Steen-Andersen Work for Live Art Danmark 2023 “Black Box Music” at Life Art for Children 2023. Black Box Music In Black Box Music, a work by composer Simon Steen Andersen for solo percussion, video and ensemble, it is not the musicians, but rather the hands of the Norwegian conductor Håkon Stene that take the focus on stage. In an otherwise almost completely dark auditorium, where we scarcely see the musiscians, his hands perform in a  Black Box that reminds us of a puppet theatre, and is projected onto the wall above it. Black Box Music is an investigation, deconstruction and rethinking of the role of the conductor in a […]

Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen

Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen Works for Live Art Danmark “Musique de Tables” and “Black Box Music” at Life Art for Children 2023. We felt especially honored that the reknowned national Danish ensemble for new and avantgarde music, Athelas Sinfonietta, came to join our Live Art for Children festival in Copenhagen in 2023. The two pieces they performed, one small, one massive, both made a lasting impression on our audiences with the precision and seriousness, with which they approached slightly bonkers comcepts. Musique de Tables In Thierry de Mey’s piece Musique de tables from 1985, as the name suggests, the table is used as a musical instrument. The work is written for […]

Maria Lepistö

Maria Lepistö Work for Live Art Danmark 2023 “The Animals Were Never Alone III” Exhibition, performance and Howling Workshop at Friisland 2023 Howling Workshop at Live Art for Children. The Animals Were Never Alone III Maria opened her amazing exhibition at our project space with a choose-your-own adventure performance lecture about humans, wolves and other animals. The performance could be read as an extension of her wondrous exhibition “The Animals Were Never Alone III”. Howling Workshop For the finissage of her exhibition, Maria invited everyone to come and learn to howl like a wolf with herself and voice coach Helle Thun. The howling workshop started with listening to recordings of […]

John Huntington

John Huntington Work for Live Art Danmark 2023 “The Dark Administrator” exhibition, performance and Black Metal (!) at Friisland. The Dark Administrator John presented us with a visionary and somewhat scary live performance lecture about bureaucracy and resistance. With the office space as a starting point, the work deals with contemporary humans’ addiction to systematize everything. The performance was presented as a documentary collage of examples, stories and demonstrations, linking everyday frustrations to feelings of powerlessness. Various forms of ritual protective measures were tried and the outlines of an alternative professional role emerged. The work was accompanied by apocalyptic sounds by Swedish musician Dödsvarg. In the following exhibition a variety […]

Esther Ferrer

Esther Ferrer Works for Live Art Danmark 2022 “Performance Art Theory and Practice” and artist’s talk at Friisland Live. Performance Art Theory and Practice We felt honored when Esther Ferrer was one of two true legends of European performance art who followed our invitation to perform at our project space Friisland in March 2022 (the other one was Boris Nieslony). In both her performance and a lecture about her work, Esther took us on fascinating journeys through her long and illustruous career as a performer and thinker of performance art. She presented examples of solo performances as well as large scale sound works, like when she conducted a large group […]

Bananskolen

Bananskolen Works for Live Art Danmark 2023 “Danseskolens sublime Parfumer” at Life Art for Children 2023 Danseskolens sublime Parfumer “Bananskolen” is an open school which appears, sometimes surprisingly, in a wide variety of public contexts and claims to blend politics with art. In the emanation that appeared at our Live Art for Kids festival in Copenhagen in the fall of 2023, Bananskolen was a group of predominantly younger artists who taught the willing parts of the public, all ages included, a folk dance of their own invention. About the Artists Bananskolen is an alternative school. Its members are high school students, musicians, activists, and drop-outs. In this school sound is […]

Georg Klein (DE)

Georg Klein Work for Live Art Denmark 20017 “European Border Watch” at Horsens Happening European Border Watch As part of our Horsens Happening, Georg transformed a shop in Hospitalsgade into the office of a fictional organization called the European Border Watch. Citizens were invited to observe segments of the European exterior borders via webcam to help curb illegal imigaration. The system was inspired by an online citizen’s watch of a part of the US-Mexican border in Texas that actually exists. To help the project maintain the impression of an official organization, it had an almost official looking website that can still be visited here. Documentation of press reactions to European […]

Hue/Boy (DE)

Hue/Boy  Work for Live Art Denmark2017 Live Action Role Plays and various games for Horsens Happening The GamesHue/Boy developed a series of site specific games, one of them a Live Action Role Play (LARP) for the former Prison (Danish Fængslet) of Horsens as part of our festival Horsens Happening. In “Get Out of Jail, Free?”, curious kids and grown-ups where invited to take the roles of prisoners in the former prison building, thus returned to its historical function. In a performance without peformers, the prisoners had to sneak past attentive prison guards through different rooms of the prison and steal a key to make their way back to freedom. This […]