Press Release

Tate announces new online performance commissions for this autumn’s BMW Tate Live Performance Room

ChoreographersSelmaand Sofiane Ouissi and artist Alexandra Bachzetsis present two new online performance commissions for the BMW Tate Live Performance Room on 18 September and23 October 2014.Selmaand Sofiane Ouissi will respond to each other’s movements. They will be located on separate continents and united by Skype in one performance. Alexandra Bachzetsis will explore how physical gestures can represent and create identity. 

Brother and sister, Selmaand Sofiane Ouissi used Skype in their work Here(s) 2011–2012 in order to dance together while located in different cities. Through their live link-up the two artists responded to each others onscreen movements.  For BMW Tate Live Performance Room they will draw on their history of online collaboration.Selma will be in Paris and Sofiane inLondon and they will use Skype to interact. For this performance they are joined by digital artist Yacine Sebti who will create additional visual imagery. The performance is broadcast live on Tate’s Youtube channel on18 September 2014, 20.00 BST.

Award-winning artist and choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis’s work From A to B via C examines the impact of borrowed and learned physical habits. The performance moves through imaginary places and events from a ballet classroom to an online dance tutorial, exploring how our bodies incorporate skills, translate movements and inform our identities. The work, involving three dancers, was originally created for a theatre and then transformed for a live performance in an exhibition space. The performance on23 October 2014 sees the work transformed again for the online audience. 

BMW Tate Live Performance Room is a pioneering programme of live performances commissioned exclusively for online viewing and simultaneously seen by international audiences across world time zones via Tate’s Youtube channel. 

The Performance Room projects are broadcast via the Tate’s Youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive at 20.00 hrs in theUK and exactly the same moment across time zones on the specified dates - 15.00 hrs on the East Coast of America, 21.00 hrs in mainlandEurope and 23.00 hrs in Russia.

This innovative format offers international audiences an opportunity to experience entirely new works live and to join a discussion about the work online. The global online audience are encouraged to chat with other viewers via social media channels during the performance and to put questions to the artist or curator for the live Q&A by following @TateLive; using #BMWTateLive; Tate Facebook; or Tate Google+. Each online performance is archived and available to view online after the live event.

BMW Tate Live is curated by Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art and Performance and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator at Tate Modern. 

BMW Tate Live: Performance Room
Selma and Sofiane Ouissi¸ Thursday 18 September 2014 at 20.00 BST
Alexandra Bachzetsis From A to B via C, Thursday 23 October 2014 at 20.00 BST
tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive or youtube.com/tate/bmwtatelive facebook.com/tategallery • @tate #BMWTateLive 

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