Bbeyond

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Bbeyond began its officially existence in 21st May 2001 with its Constitution, hosting its first project, Place in the Market, in St. George’s Market during the Friday markets on 12th and 19th Oct 2001.

Bbeyond has grown from a few people with determined interests to promote Performance Art, now we are a Membership organisation with a 30 strong members.

Some of our most significant projects have been Place in the Market, Open Relations I and II, In Place of Passing, the 6 Exchange projects with Quebec, Finland, Norway, Canada, Spain and Germany. Other significant projects were I AM, East/West via Belfast, AIMing because it involved 3 veterans of performance art from Poland, namely Jerzy Beres, Jan Swidzinski (both now deceased) and Zbigniew Warpechowski. Other projects include, Chaos, Black Market, Duo Days and Triple AAA.

To date Bbeyond has hosted a total of over 170 Activities, involving 88 Performance Monthly meetings, 18 Solo/themed projects, 18 invites to perform, 17 Lectures/Talks/Discussions, 16 Workshops, 6 direct Exchanges with Quebec, Finland, Norway, Canada, Spain and Germany, 7 Open Sessions and 4 Holding Times.

One of the most significant things to emerge in the process of development is the involvement of Performance Monthly meetings, these have become integral to Bbeyond and form a large part of what we do as an organisation and are now know for in the Performance Art world. The Performance Monthly meetings are unfunded and other performance artists and organisations are taking the idea and making them a reality, in British Colombia Canada, Quebec, Germany, Poland and Mexico.

Bbeyond has produced to date 2 publications on its activities, namely, In Place of Passing and pani No.3.

Bbeyond is committed to promoting the practice of performance art and artists in Northern Ireland and further afield. Our aim is to raise people’s consciousness of live/performance art as being integral to the world in and around us, inspiring reflection and enriching lived experience.

We host artists of international reputation throughout the performance art world and encourage newer artists to experience performance art practices for themselves. Bbeyond encourages greater access to and appreciation of this visually based art form, through facilitating modes of active private/public participation, allowing people from all sectors of society, not just the traditional arts, to experience and enjoy performance art directly.

Performance Art through its various practitioners were engaged directly or indirectly and poetically throughout the Troubles, Bbeyond only came into existence in the Post Troubles era but sees its work especially the Performance Monthly meetings as holistic, and empathetic contributions to the Post Troubles. The Troubles maybe over but the hurt they caused still is an ongoing wound that hasn’t properly healed.