Vox member Beth Heinly has organized a series of performances taking place in the Underground Pedestrian Concourse, Center City under the moniker of Open Call Guerilla Outdoor Performance Festival: Spring Edition aka OCGOPF. The aim of these performances is meant to experiment with the usage of public space & the public as audience through performance art. In 2014, Heinly organized a similar weekend performance festival in the Wissahickon Park.
A statement from Heinly:
“OCGOPF recalls street performances and guerrilla theater brought forth from various movements occurring internationally stemming from the Situationists, Fluxus Movements throughout the 1960’s and more recently performance happenings more occurring in the 1990’s as Relational Aesthetics to contemporary art evolving within Social Practice. Common links are a celebration of the surreal and the critique of capitalism through testing the boundaries of freedom of expression using street performance. Some performances even directly recall the performance instructions created by artists within the Fluxus Movement. Another similarity pairing OCGOPF to the performance artists who came before is our unified effort to bring performance art out of the gallery and into public space. Each performance is a reaction to the urban space itself and the dialog the artist wishes to bring forth in either an act of surreal gesture, institutional critique or aesthetic response to the environment. What defines OCGOPF is the singular small gestures of performance lumped together through time & space that together create a spectacle for the public audience. We are not a unified voice through our performances, but in the gesture itself, embracing individual expression. These thoughts and reading about art movements were inspirational to the 1st Open Call Guerilla Outdoor Performance Festival which took place in Wissahickon Park, Guerilla being the keyword noting my inspired call to action likening to Guerrilla Theater, but within the urban landscape I’ve seen artists respond in a different tone defining OCGOPF with these past movements that have come before us. In closing a call to action to you, the audience, come find us and take in the performance that is everyday within our city.”
The destination for performances will be City Hall’s Underground Concourse also known simply as the Underground Concourse or Pedestrian Concourse. This is 3.5 mile stretch of underground tunnels centrally located under Philadelphia’s City Hall. Printed maps for locations to the 22 performances will be located throughout the SEPTA concourse. You may also use the online map to locate performances at ocgopf.tumblr.com. The schedule include works by Vox members Beth Heinly and Matt Kalasky.
