Guerilla Performance Locator call for participation

[anna balint]

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS - "Guerilla Performance Locator" website
   

Suffragettes Invented Performance Art - make a spectacle of yourself for the Guerilla 
Performance Locator


Artists Leslie Hill and Helen Paris have created the Guerilla Performance Locator, a 
live net map of art and activism at this time of global crisis.
As belief in direct public action surges in the face of impending war, the Guerilla 
Performance Locator brings non-violent
politically motivated performances and iconoclastic art works together by inviting 
contributions from artists and activists around the world.

Long before Karen Finley smeared chocolate on her bottom, Annie Sprinkle showed us 
her cervix or Orlan began her course of reconstructive cosmetic surgery, comely 
Edwardian ladies were pioneering a new hybrid art form in which the personal was 
political. As a catalyst for other artists to produce contributions to the site, Hill 
and Paris present Suffragettes Invented Performance Art: Make a Spectacle of 
Yourself, in which they pay homage to suffragettes by recreating some of their work 
in contemporary political contexts.

This project is one of six to be commissioned by the BBC and the Arts Council of 
England for the prestigious Shooting Live Artists scheme 2003, co-funded by Studio of 
the North and managed by b.tv. Like all the commissions, the Guerilla Performance 
Locator centres around the use of new digital media with live art and will be 
exclusive to the Shooting Live Artists site for the next two years.

The Guerilla Performance Locator
The unique website invites people to make public spectacles of themselves for things 
they believe in, following in the great tradition of the suffragettes, who coined the 
phrase 'the personal is political'. Work is invited from around the world on any 
political subject and can be submitted via the website at 
www.placelessness.com/guerilla 

'Guerilla Performance' is defined as any nonviolent act undertaken by individuals to 
draw public attention to a political issue.  The site will act as a mapping of 
iconoclastic works by artist and activists and the political issues and ideas they 
are fighting for.

The collected works will plot a global map of art and activism. The work is being 
disseminated through the BBC's leading contemporary arts website: 
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/shootinglive

The site is online from the 14th February 2003 and will remain on the BBC Shooting 
Live Artists site for two years after which Hill and Paris will maintain the site in 
perpetuity.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/shootinglive    |     www.placelessness.com/guerilla

Leslie Hill and Helen Paris
are internationally acclaimed artists working in performance, video and digital arts, 
known for their edgy, humorous interrogations of contemporary culture and politics, 
work which has been called 'as smart as it is seductive'. Their company, curious.com, 
was formed in 1996 has been supported by institutions such as the Arts Council of 
England, the National Endowment for the Arts (USA), the National Center for 
Biological Sciences (India) and the Australia Council. The company's work has been 
exhibited and published widely. Hill and Paris's recent book, 'Guerilla Performance 
and Multimedia' is published by Continuum. Details of their work can be seen 
at:www.placelessness.com .
Frequently Asked Questions regarding submissions for the Guerilla Performance 
Locator:


Images should be submitted as jpegs, no wider or higher than 200 pixels. After the 
work has been submitted, it will appear on the GPL map. Artists with questions about 
their submissions are free to contact Hill and Paris at placelessness at aol.com.

Does my submission have to be a new piece made specifically for this site?
No, you can submit a description and image of any of your work that you feel fits the 
bill of political performance or making a spectacle of yourself for something you 
believe in, whether it was today or 25 years ago. If you identify as an activist 
rather than an artist we are also very interested in your submission.

If it was a group piece do I need copyright permission from everyone in the group?
You only need copyright permission from another person if you are sending an image 
that you don't hold the copyright to (a photograph taken by a professional 
photographer for example) or a piece of text written by someone other than you. In 
these cases, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the writer or 
photographer even if they represent your work.

Why does submitting an image to the site mean in terms of my own copyright over my 
work? What does it mean to give the GPL site and the BBC copyright 'in perpetuity'? 
Submitting an image and description of your work does not mean that the BBC gains the 
copyright to your entire piece. It means simply that you grant Hill and Paris and the 
BBC the copyright to display the image and text that you submit to the site on the 
Guerilla Performance Locator as well as the right to archive your image and text as 
part of the project and potentially display it in future broadcasts about the project 
or a continuing version of the site.

Shooting Live Artists
is produced and funded by The Culture Company, The Arts Council of England, The BBC 
and The Studio of the North with support from the European Regional Development Fund.

The six leading contemporary artists commissioned by the BBC and the Arts Council of 
England to produce work that fuses technology with live art performance are:
Daniel Gosling
Leslie Hill & Helen Paris
Third Angel
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Ronald Fraser-Munroe
Completely Naked & Furtherfield
For more information about the Shooting Live Artists please contact Andi Stamp, 
Executive Producer on: t: 0114 - 225 -
4616   e:b.tv at theculturecompany.co.uk