THE FOUNDATION FOR ART IN ZERO-G
year zero / polaroid haiku (06.99)

installation / poetry, Central College St. Martins, London



accompanying text to performance:

YEAR ZERO : the point beyond which anything can happen

Monday 21st June 1999 was declared by the Foundation for Art in Zero-G as the dawn of Year Zero - the point beyond which anything can happen. The following manifesto was published to co-incide with Year Zero and the launch of the Foundation:

It is the belief of the Foundation that all conventional defintions of art, artists and the audience must be eradicated if art is to flourish in space. Indeed, a Foundation for Art in Zero-G can only exist within a culture that has been liberated from such traditional thought processes.

Emancipation from contemporary conventions pre-empts the inevitable shift in the practical application of art in zero gravity. The use of gravity in physical performances, the use of air as a carrier in the playing of reverbatory instruments, the use of four walls within which to 'hang art' - all are no longer feasible, or indeed desirable, in space. Both the creative process and the exhibition process of art will be radically re-appraised in space.

In short, all bets are off.

The Foundation for Art in Zero-G believes that such a re-appraisal can begin today - right where we are sitting now. It seeks to rid itself of the need for the crutches of existent modes of creation and exhibition and, more importantly, for the need to 'brand' art into its relative types.

Hence, a national council for art with its multitudinal departments is declared invalid. Hence, the tags not only of "inter-disciplinary" and "multi-media", but additionally those of "visual art" or "the performing arts", are declared invalid.

Ultimately, all prior context is declared invalid.

It is at this stage that the Foundation creates a benchmark - declaring this to be the point beyond which anything can happen, declaring this to be the dawn of YEAR ZERO.




YEAR ZERO was staged as part of the SPACE 1999 festival produced by the Association of Autonomous Astronauts. companion text

YEAR ZERO participants:

Julie Bacon : AQUARANTINE INTERCOURSE, incontinently itinerant, interdisciplinary living in n degrees

Andy Smith (Project One) : THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH SPACE, a meditation on the possibilites and practice of taking performance into new landscapes

Stuart Buchanan: POLAROID HAIKU, crossing innumerable borders with simultaneous actions

Photos by Lisa Fleming

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