Staging Identities in the Age of Social Media

In 2024, our Live Art for Children festival will be 10 years old. This 11th festival is planned to take place at ARKEN in November 2024 and once again showcase performance art from around the world to an intergenerational audience of schools and families. The festival is about the relationship between body, identity, roles and media such as TV, film, internet, roleplay, avatars, VR and theater after the year 2000 – and about the great freedom, fear and sensitivity that characterizes the online generation.

In gaming universes, one can embody any gender or body. With an app, one can speak any language. American and Korean TikTokers, YouTubers, and bloggers are just a click away, modifying their bodies with makeup and surgery as easily as virtual avatars do. Techniques and approaches from the art-created world seamlessly blend with the physical. This inspires many younger artists, whom we present here to highlight the freedom and joy of new possibilities for “creating oneself” and existing in the world.

Twelve international artists present live performances, performance installations, performance films, and performance workshops for children and youth in a collaboration between ARKEN and Live Art Denmark.

Rosana Cade (UK) and Ivor MacAskill (UK) have developed The Making of Pinocchio since 2018, parallel to Ivor’s gender transition to “a real boy.” Tim Spooner (UK), participating with an independent work at LAFB24, is the brilliant scenographer. The work is presented as a performance film with a talk.

Tim Spooner (UK): “Performance with Puppets” is an exploration of the peripheral and an attempt to disappear. A performance installation and experiment measuring causes and effects between specific coordinates: fingertips, shoulder blades, toes, the wall, and the floor.

Isaac Nissen (DK): You scan QR codes from posters featuring characters from “Illville” and receive hints to solve a puzzle. All characters are the same person (Isaac). The project stems from Isaac’s focus on mental health.

Stine Marie Jacobsen: Group-Think explores collective intelligence. The project trains young people in decision-making for political actions, civil protests, and demonstrations where people act in groups. It’s about taking care of oneself as an individual while also caring for and listening to others. As part of the project, participants film themselves in groups for TikTok.

Jörn Burmester (DE) presents his “Critique of the World Machine”: an installation where children create live images projected and interpreted by adults. Speech is computer-translated into texts that are exhibited. The project explores art understanding and established interpretations of images and experiences. The traditional roles of children and adults are swapped in an equal dialogue.

Live Art Denmark (DK): “Everyday Life – The World’s Most Boring Performance.” An interactive performance for 5-10-year-olds and their adults about the actions and roles we take for granted daily. The performance quotes and reconstructs works by over 20 renowned performance artists and feminists.

Playing Up: Gender – developed by LADA (UK), Fundustheater (DE), and Live Art Denmark. We focused on recreating Shaun Leonardo’s 2006 performance El Conquistador vs. the Invisible Man and Cassils’ Cuts. A Traditional Sculpture. Los Angeles 2011-2013.

Boaz Barkan (DK): “Our Other Body”: A dissection of Israeli Boaz’s naked body. A performance lecture on where the body’s racism organ is located.

Rosie Gibbens (UK) interacts with poodle-like “body parts” and machines. Her practice revolves around absurd, mechanical, or automatic everyday actions and gender roles in consumer society.

Louise Orwin (UK) hosts a workshop where participants develop their own social media persona. Screenshot:

Marsian DeLellis (US) works with fame and media. In “Real Doll,” a famous Danish children’s TV character gets larger lips, a Brazilian butt, etc. Participants can join as nurses and enter or leave the “operating room.”

Louise Orwin (UK): FAME Hungry – explores social media fame and challenges TikTok live.

Three articles from Bastard and Iscene.

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Skab-dig-Live-Art-for-born-har-fokus-pa-identitet-Iscene

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And the program

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Thanks to Augustinusfonden and Statens Kunstfond for support.