The Outer SPACE Series

The Outer SPACE Series will focus on contemporary performance spaces that are either experimental in their function or location or are devoted to live, creative performance research. There is a current crisis, not just in the performance world, but in other art practices around the acquisition of space. Space to bring in international artists; space run by community members; space that is affordable; space that is large enough to house multiple sized scales of work. The need for artists to move their work outside of sanitized museums and museum practices can only be facilitated by alternative spaces, but first we must come up with concrete and sustainable ways of doing so. Currently, at least in Chicago, there are many live/work spaces facilitating performance events, and doing so with varying degrees of success - but tend to always be minimalist in form/content and must always be restricted either by neighborhood regulations, inappropriate zoning, the living conditions of the folks who run the spaces, lack of funding for advertisement or residency options or are in-accessible to the differently-abled. Yet for now, they are the best spaces to look for contemporary and up-and-coming works.

Allan Kaprow, The Courtyard, 1962. Happening at the Mills Hotel, New York

The Outer SPACE Series will focus on those spaces who have attempted to work towards transforming how live-art is approached and perceived and perhaps how contemporary performance has adapted and transformed to the opportunities and restrictions they present.

| Image via Met Museum |