Global performance artists to hit Kolkata Jan 23

Over 20 performance artists from India and countries like Switzerland, Serbia and Japan will put up interactive and intriguing live acts and installations here as part of a festival beginning Jan 23.

The Kolkata International Performance Art Festival 2015 (KIPAF) will see innovative use of public spaces by well-known proponents of performance art, according to the organisers.

Be it recycled art (by Katarina Rasic from Serbia) or poetry in action using simple props like chopsticks (by Seiji Shimoda from Japan) or dance improvisations (by Swiss artist Dorothea Rust), the streets of Kolkata will be abuzz with new concepts till Jan 26.

Organised by Performers independent (Pi), an independent artists' collective, the 2015 edition aims to "explore the concept and materiality of space in its multiplicity and complexity and reveal the possible contestations that are both visible and invisible".

KIPAF was initiated in 2013 and is held Jan 23-26 every year. The schedules and locations will be announced at a later date.

As a prelude to the fest, local artists are decorating pavements in many areas of Kolkata, like Park Street, with graffiti and paints.