trace: second season report

Trace opened it's second season of time based work on the 12th january 2002 with a performance and installation by the grandaddy of Brit performance art Stuart Brisley. In keeping with the notion of starting each season with a well established practitioner we were honoured to have one of England’s most decisive contributors to late twentieth century avant-gard in visual art.

Brisley was followed by a series of performances and installation exhibitions by artists that further raised Cardiff’s profile as centre for live art. In February Julie Andree Tremblay represented a new generation of emerging artists from Quebec. Tremblay's work supported by the Quebec Cultural Delegation served as an introduction to a major Wales-Quebec exchange between Trace and Le Lieu centre en Art Actuel. This partnership will produce a Quebec event in Cardiff in 2003 and a Welsh performance programme Quebec in 2004. This exchange will also include a number of educational and writers exchanges. The exchange is being supported by the Quebec government and Wales Arts International.

In March Brian Connolly from Northern ireland created a complex collaboration with the public turning the gallery into both war room and demolition site. This was followed in April by Morgan O'Hara from the USA who took the opportunity to explore some risky territory in relation to the public’s preconceptions of her performance produce.

The season finished with a double programme of work by two of Poland’s oldest and most respected artists Zpigniuew Warpechowski and Jerzy Beres. This was a rare and enlightening experience for those present. Both artists last presented work at Chapter in Cardiff in 1979. Their show was a very rare opportunity and a welcome return to experience first hand their generous and thought provoking actions. Trace also took the opportunity to arrange performances for the Poles at the Dartington Gallery in Devon.

The third season begins on Saturday October 19th with a performance by veteran cyber punk space cadet and founder of international Neoism Istvan Kantor AKA Monty Cantsin from Toronto. Our programme for 2002-2003 is then as follows:

November - Irma Optimist [Finland]

December - Glyn Davies Marshall [England]

2003

January - Jordan Mackenzie [England]

February - Hiromi Shirai [Japan]

March - Valentin Torrens [Spain]

April - J Cobb & Bob [James Cobb & Bobdog Catlin] [Texas, USA]

May - Louise Liliefeldt [Canada]

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