Bill Aitchison is a British performance artist, theatre director and curator who works in and between performance, writing, video and audio. At the centre of the work is a sense of the potential of the moment and sense of being part of something unrepeatable. His performances are both rigorously structured and dynamic in their execution. Each are significantly different, though as a whole have a consistent style being open-ended, formally precise and using dry humour. Work in other media extends and adapts these strategies.
“amusing, intelligent and sensual” Frankfurter Allgemeine
“guerilla Live Art like this should be seen more” Live Art Magazine
“I basically spent the duration of the show, just under an hour, with either an untameable smile on my face or straight out laughter reverberating throughout my all.” NTS Radio
The work plays upon the dividing lines of the personal and the public, and those between art and everyday life. As well as using theatres and galleries, projects may also be placed in living city spaces or designed for an online platform, creating different levels of intimacy and complicity between the artist and spectator. These performances can be living situations, but so too can they be tightly rehearsed works. Sometime they are both.
This work has been presented in contexts such as:
UK: British Council Edinburgh Showcase, The Bluecoat, Victoria & Albert Museum, ICA, BAC, Richmix, South London Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Chelsea Theatre, ICIA Bath
China: OPEN Performance Art Festival Beijing, UP-ON Festival Chengdu, Bookworm International Literary Festival Beijing, Shenzhen Live Art Festival, Guling Lu Artspace Nanjing, CEAC Xiamen, Xintiandi Fringe Festival Shanghai, Phoenix Flower Festival Shenzhen, V Art Centre Shanghai, Rolling Snowball Quanzhou, Jue Festival Shanghai, Shenyang International Performance Art Festival, Burnt by Snow Festival, Above the Clouds Festival, AMNUA Museum Nanjing, Cement Park Shanghai, Art Tour Live Tianjin, Shenzhen Fringe Festival
US: NYC International Fringe, The Brick Williamsburg
France: Infr’action Festival, American Centre for The Arts
Belgium: Playground Festival STUK, Volksroom Brussels, Nadine Brussels
Netherlands: Frascati, Melkweg, Koninklijke Schouwburg, Over het Ij Festival, Grand Theatre Groningen, Twente Biennale Enschede, Lodge 22 Dordrecht
Germany: FFT Dusseldorf, Plateaux Festival, Wunder der Präire, KammerMachen, Artheater Köln, Orangerie Köln, Theaterdiscounter Berlin, Month of Performance Art Berlin, Arttours Stuttgart, Grimmuseum Berlin, B-Tour Berlin
Hong Kong: HK Arts Centre, CUHK, CCCD, Green Wave Art, Baptist University
Croatia, Art Radioniza Lazareti Dubrovnik, Shadowcasters Festival Zagreb
Israel: ZAZ Festival Performance Art Platform Tel Aviv, The Lab Jerusalem
Australia: RMIT Gallery Melbourne, Kings Atrium Melbourne
Finland: MUU Contemporary Art Centre Helsinki
Iran: IIFUT Festival Tehran
Italy: Infr’action Venezia, Festival Villagio d’Artista Verbania
Egypt: Cairo Video Festival
Romania: Simultan Festival
Switzerland: Perform Now Festival
Aitchison regularly works in different roles in collaborative projects. He is a highly experienced performer, co-writer, and artistic adviser having worked on many events and productions in the fields of conceptual dance, artist’s video and experimental theatre.
Aitchison studied at the University of Wolverhampton and Middlesex University, is a graduate of Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique, completed a practice-based PhD at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2007) entitled From A-Z to II-VI: Integrating Corporeal Mime into a Performance Art Practice. He has published critical articles and reviews, taught at graduate and postgraduate level, and presented his work at numerous talks and conferences around the world. He is an associate professor in theatre and performance at UIC Zhuhai.