VITAL 2007 Announces Dates: 20th - 23rd November 2007

20th 21st November 2007 Performance Dates, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK
22nd 23rd November 2007 Conference Dates, John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Have you bought your tickets and planned your visit yet?
Limited capacity now available for performances
Tickets available from here

Special notice: due to unforseen circumstances, Yang Zhi Chao is unable to perform at Vital 07. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

VITAL International Live Art festival is back and this year will take place in Manchester and Liverpool. After the success of VITAL 06, 07 promises another city wide Live Art festival with two days of back to back performances at Chinese Arts Centre and venues in Manchester. In addition to the performance aspect of this year's festival, VITAL 07 will partner with Liverpool John Moores University to host a two-day conference looking at the use of the body within Chinese arts. The aim of the conference is to document current practice and critical thinking, invite an international audience to come and debate Chinese arts and make a link between historical and contemporary arts practice.
The conference and the two festivals will be turned into a publication in 2008 so that there is a legacy for this work, enabling it to be shared with a much greater audience.

Vital 07: Essence of performance
20th and 21st November 2007, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester UK

VITAL 07 Artists Announced

Vital 07 is a chance to experience the powerful, yet fundamentally simple, emotional relationship between the artist and the audience. With the use of technology playing an ever-increasing role in many artworks, the engagement between two people is often lost in the dazzling use of new media. Live Art is all about communication and Vital 07 will strip away the reliance on props and gimmicks to expose the essence of performance.

The selected artists are all engaging performers with a clear message to convey. Coming from around the world, they do not share a common language, yet their work is universal, dealing with issues such as power, identity and economics, that everyone can relate to. All of the selected artists are of Chinese descent, from China, Hong Kong and the Chinese Diaspora. Aside from their ethnicity, what links them is a passion to involve others in their work and to create an awareness of their situation.

Vital 07 Artists

Ying Mei Duan (Germany), Lee Wen (Singapore), Hao Lang (China), He Cheng Yao (China), Zhou Bin (China), Marcus Young (USA), LEUNG Po-shan, Anthony (Hong Kong), Jenevieve Chang (UK), Yadong Hao (UK), Becky Ip (Canada), Yang Zhi Chao (China), Brendan Fan (UK), Rosa Mei (Belgium), Jason Lim (Singapore), Lushan Liu (UK), Poshui (China).

Vital Bodies International conference
22nd and 23rd November 2007, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Vital Bodies is a two-day international conference, organised in conjunction with the Vital 07 festival. VITAL 07 continues the major programme of Live Art events by Chinese Arts Centre. Vital Bodies will consider both historical and aesthetic representations of 'the body' in visual art practices by artists of Chinese descent, bringing into dialogue a broad range of participants including artists, theorists, curators, policy-makers and arts educators.

Speakers:
Becky Ip (Canada), Patricia Karetzky (USA), Dr. Thomas Berghuis (Australia), Yang Zhichao (China), Lee Wen (Singapore), Lesley Sanderson (UK), Yeung Yang (Hong Kong), Dr Tsai Kun-Lin (UK) Dr Tsen Wang (Taiwan), Nuria Querol (Spain), Ming-Yuen (USA), Zhou Bin (China), Nicole Wong (USA)

More information on the programme page.