Defined loosely as work which 'disrupts borders, breaks rules, defies traditions, resists definitions, asks questions, activates audiences and exposes the gaps' (Live Art Development Agency), Live Art has featured strongly in the British Council's arts programme. Beginning with the About Time Season of Performance Work from the UK, jointly curated by Project Arts Centre and the British Council in November 2004, we continue our exploration of the form as part of the Bodily Functions programme in Cork.

Presented in partnership with the Granary Theatre and Cork 2005, Bodily Functions is a year long programme of performances, residencies, installations and interventions featuring a range of Irish and UK artists including Anne Seagrave, Aine Phillips, Aideen Barry, Franko B, Alastair MacLennon, Amanda Coogan and Andre Stitt.

Franko B’s Oh Lover Boy is a 13 minute performance whereby a painting appears on the bed where the performer has been lying, his forearms pierced by a canal needle in each arm. A second piece by Franko B – Why Are You Here (Aktion 893) – invites a group of 8 audience members to take a number and enter a waiting room. When their number is called, the participant enters an empty room, removes their clothes and rings a bell to alert the assistant. Franko B enters the room fully clothed.

Love Etc features a new work by renowned UK performance artist Andre Stitt. Concerned with ideas of empathy and compassion, Andre Stitt’s new work for Bodily Functions celebrates and explores one of the most fundamental and complex of human emotions in relation to spirituality, desire and the divisive forces of capitalist culture. The installation/performance takes place in the main shopping areas of Cork city just before Christmas.

The culmination of the year long programme is a Live Art Symposium (Granary Theatre, 30th Sept – 2nd Oct) which will feature a UK Emerging Artists Platform. Speakers and performers include many of the artists who have taken part in the programme alongside invited guests.