A four-day international performance art festival is slated to kick off in the Capital this week. The fest, scheduled to start from Sept 19, will feature artists from six different nations—Nepal, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Japan—who will showcase their art at several venues in the Valley. The fest will feature a total of 23 artists—13 artists representing Nepal and 10 from abroad. The fest is being organised by Bindu Space for Artists.

“This is the first large-scale performance art fest being held in Nepal. In line with the soaring popularity of performance arts around the world, we are attempting to bring the art form so to make Nepali art enthusiasts aware of the global phenomenon,” said Prithvi Shreshta, of Bindu Space of Artists.

Performance arts—first introduced in the 1960’s—is popular for its primary focus, where an artist turns into an art, spontaneously, without any prior rehearsal. It can happen in any situation that involves four core elements: time, space, the performer’s body, or presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience.

In Nepal, the Bindu Space for Artists has been working with performance artists since 2007. In the decade since its introduction, the organisation has been conducting workshops, interactions, exhibitions and artist residencies, in an effort to contribute to this unique form of art.

The first day of the forthcoming fest will see an interaction among the artists and art enthusiasts; while the second and third day will see performances being exhibited in Taragaon Museum in Bouddha and Dolagiri HSS, in Changunarayan.

Representing Nepal at the fest will be artists Saurganga Darshandhari, Sarita Dangol, Anil Subba and Amrit Karki, among others.