Performance Art Week Aotearoa Returns To Wellington In Spring 2023 For Its Fourth Biannual Festival

Performance Art Week Aotearoa (PAWA) is thrilled to be returning to Aotearoa this spring! Running from 1st - 5th November in the Capital and proudly hosted by the Adam Art Gallery with selected works in public spaces across Wellington city. In addition to the main festival, for the first time, PAWA will also host a performance art tour, showcasing this years international performance art & artists to audiences in venues across Aotearoa’s main cities and regional centres, with performances in Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin.

PAWA 2023 has proudly brought together an expertly curated line up for this year's festival, with celebrated performance artists attending from around the globe and Aotearoa. Two talented international artists will be joining the exceptional local lineup, from South Korea and Poland/Finland. They join three local Wellington artists and a further six artists from around New Zealand.

The festival aims to showcase works that are challenging, engaging, and meaningful, full of unique experiences and with something for everyone. Across the week the festival presents world class, live artistry, giving New Zealanders a very rare chance to see these incredible local and international artists in action across the week. Alongside this PAWA includes a series of expert discussions, panels, and workshops.

“At the forefront PAWA celebrates performance art. It's an art form where truly ‘anything can happen’. Performance art is at the forefront of experimental art, at its core it responds to what is, engages with people, crosses boundaries and makes us question things.” Sara Cowdell (Artistic Director, PAWA)

Due to the nature of the artform, artists and the public should expect the unexpected, with performances happening in no one way or place. Performances may be durational - running across a day, or site-specific - experienced from the windiest site in Wellington. They may be experienced one on one - From the passenger seat of a car or in a group setting - from within Adam Art Gallery. They may be Interactive, meditative or intense! You may be confronted, confused, amazed or full of emotions. This is all part of the beauty that is Performance Art Week Aotearoa!

Curated in 2023 by by Sara Cowdell, PAWA’s artistic director and performance artist/ lecturer, Mark Harvey. Mark has a career in performance art spanning over 20 years, having performed extensively overseas and within New Zealand. Mark is also a lecturer in dance at Auckland University.

New Zealander Sara Cowdell started PAWA in 2017 at aged 25, as a performance artist herself, she saw a huge gap in the performance art space in Aotearoa. As a talented, young, ambitious, artist and programmer, this has meant juggling the festival in recent years with traveling and working internationally. As a team, there are no two better people in New Zealand to run a performance art festival, for 2023 Mark has had his eye on the local talent and Sara on those coming from abroad.

“The festival is all about Imagining how we can do things differently, how we design festivals to create conducive environments for very good art. I’m passionate about cross-culturalism through art practice, and producing highly impactful events.” Sara Cowdell

PAWA 2023 is proudly supported by Wellington Public Art Fund and Wellington Council Arts and Culture Fund, The Finnish Cultural Foundation and The Daejeon Arts and Culture Foundation. Most events at the festival are free but workshops and some evening performances will incur a small cost of between $15-25.

Artist line up now announced with Full Programme live and tickets on sale from September 30th

“I finally understand performance art and its importance. I was healed emotionally through some performances, forced to think by others, and completely mesmerised by others.”

-Jess Crompton, Audience Member 2018.

MEDIA/PRESS IMAGES FOR PAWA 2023 CAN BE FOUND HERE

Website www.performanceartweekaotearoa.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/Performanceartweekaotearoa

Instagram www.instagram.com/performanceartweekaotearoa

Full list of artists for PAWA 2023:

Eunsun Heo (South Korea) https://www.heoeunsun.com/

Tomasz Szrama(Poland/Finland) https://www.tomaszszrama.com/

Louie Zalk-Neale (NZ) https://www.instagram.com/louiemole/

Sam Trubridge (NZ) https://www.samtrubridge.com/

Julieanna Preston (NZ) http://www.julieannapreston.space/

val smith (NZ) https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/val-smith

Audrey Baldwin (NZ) https://audreybaldwin.art/

John Vea (NZ) https://archive.tautai.org/artist/john-vea/

Layne Waerea (NZ) https://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/layne-waerea

ABOUT PAWA:

Performance Art Week Aotearoa (PAWA) is the leading platform for performance art in New Zealand, running events year round and hosting a biannual festival in November. PAWA has produced three festivals prior to 2023 and five stand-alone events over the past six years, alongside publishing a blog about performance art. PAWA brings together a wide variety of performance artists from around Aotearoa New Zealand and the world with the intent to stimulate critical discourse, broaden audiences, and strengthen artistic and collaborative ties.

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