From 6 to 8 May 2022, the 20th edition of the Act Performance Festival will take place in Biel/ Bienne. This year’s anniversary edition looks back on 20 years of ACT as a three-day festival with performances, lectures, workshops and networking events. ACT 2022 sees itself as an open laboratory for testing performative projects and artistic strategies and as a source of inspiration for the future of performance art. It is intended to be a place of conversation, awareness and encounter open to all: by and for artists and equally for the public.

The festival brings together art students for a national gathering around performance art. ACT 2022 builds on existing collaborations and also contributes to the artistic exchange between the different language regions of Switzerland. ACT 2022 is organized by the art academies EDHEA Valais, F+F School of Art and Design, Zurich, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel, HEAD – Geneva, HSLU Lucerne School of Art and Design, SfG BB School of Design Bern and Biel, Bern Academy of the Arts HKB and ZHdK Zurich University of the Arts.

The program will take place at various locations in Biel/Bienne, which offer the festival a unique platform. In addition to the partners PANCH, Apreperf, Literaturinstitut Biel/Bienne, Lokal-int, Schlachthof Kulturzentrum, Kunsttreibhaus, Le Singe and DISPO, who are part of the festival, special guests and emerging artists will be invited.

ACT is the oldest collaboration of its kind – a 20-year supra-regional partnering of various Swiss art academies. New this year is the focus on only one city, instead of the annual series of performance events in different cities. The aim is to promote discourse and exchange, strengthen synergies and networks, build on existing potential and facilitate new collaborations throughout Switzerland.

ACT was launched in spring 2003 by a network of performers and lecturers from the art academies in Bern, Zurich, Aarau and Basel. The first performance events dedicated exclusively to student works took place in these four cities. The festival was founded with the desire for students from various Swiss art schools to meet and test their performances in public.

The dynamic between the works, the performers and the audience that accompanies the live situation is of central importance for performance practice – and thus also for ACT.

HEAD students programm 
Friday 06.05.2022
16.45 pm – Black Box
Orfeo (HEAD) (Lili Orfeo Aurora)
SONG : From Brokenness to One's Home Within (Kokoro) – 15 min

18.00 pm - Schlachthof / Les Abattoirs
Bérénice Courtin (HEAD)
Webs of Power – 20 min

Saturday 07.05.2022
11.00 am - Kunsttreibhaus
Yiran Tang (HEAD)
Energy – Long durational

12.00 am - Schlachthof /Les Abattoirs
Sonny (HEAD)
JE SUIS – appr. 20 min

16.15 pm – Conference
Chris Whyte (HEAD)
Why I joined the dark forces and so should you – 25 min

17.10 pm - Lokal-int
Gabriel Shields-Hanau & Magdalena Marrone (HEAD)
before the gates of heaven i stand destracted – 1h

18.30 pm – Black Box
Charlotte Perret & Alice Oechslin (HEAD)
Concert Comète – 10 min

18.45 pm – Black Box
Claire Guignet (HEAD)
DISCO FEVER – 15 min

20.48 pm – Chrystal Palace
Melissa Biondo & Loren Tschannen (HEAD)
GO-GO GO – 2h

Sunday 08.05.2022
11.30 am – Outside
Antoine Weil with Melissa Biondo, Emi Curty, Zoé Gronchi, Alice Oechslin (HEAD)
Ready set Go – 30 mi

11.45 am – Chrystal Palace
Melinux Niark (HEAD)
MiMo et Olga – 20 min

12.15 am – Black Box
Zoé Gronchi (HEAD)
Awakening – 8 min

15.00 pm - Lokal-int
Lola & Lola (HEAD)
Don't be drunk with Lolas –appr. 15 min

15.30 pm - Lokal-int
Balam Ronan (HEAD)
Cuerpo y suelo – appr.10 min

14.30 pm – 4 Pasquart -Salle Poma
Giuliana Beya Dridi (HEAD)
Entangled – 30 min

16.00 pm
Gaillard Prune (HEAD)
PARFOIS JE ME DEMANDE SI JE SUIS FOI OU FOLIE. QUAND JE SORS LA FOULE ME REGARDE – 20 min

More information & full program
www.act-perform.net