Proximity Festival is the first one-on-one intimate performance platform of its kind.

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Based in Perth Western Australia, Proximity is a national artist platform known for commissioning unique intimate experiences for audiences of one at a time. Each year Proximity takes over a venue in its entirety and invite artists from all disciplines to re-purpose buildings and seek out alternative uses for hidden, forgotten or negative spaces. Curatorially the Festival considers works that are experiential, challenge the notion of the audience/performer relationship and embody a sense of creative risk-taking in experiences for an audience of one.

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Artists are commissioned to make new works which activate space in unanticipated ways and place the audience at the core of the experience. Since 2012 our audiences have meditated on the breath, planned their remains after death, climbed rooftops in search of love, sat behind the wheel with a learner driver, learned to twerk, discovered what memory tastes like, stargazed, re-mapped their perceptions of boarders, created the sound of the wetlands, disappeared into cinematic imagination, sex talked, and sung karaoke full throttle to Whitney in public galleries.

 

Proximity was co-founded in 2012 by James Berlyn, Sarah Rowbottam and Kelli McCluskey.

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PROXIMITY FESTIVAL 2012

 

22 January – 19 February 2012
The Blue Room Theatre, Perth WA

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Held over four glorious summer Sunday afternoons during the Summer Nights Festival and Perth Fringe World, Proximity transformed every corner of the two-storey Blue Room Theatre building with 12 world premiere performances tailor-made for an audience of one.

Audiences could experience a private tap dance, go on a tandem bike ride, discover how sweet their life is, join THE UNION, test their limits with a game of strip poker, learn how to take a 3 minute shower or help prepare a 3 hour slowfood Sunday dinner.

 

Program A
Janette McGinty (WA), Jen Jamieson (WA), Claudia Alessi / Rhiannon Newton (WA), Sarah Rowbottam (WA)
Program B
Nikki Jones (WA), Janet Carter (WA), Helen Russo (WA), Russya Connor (WA)
Program C
Sarah Nelson (WA), James Berlyn (WA), Renae Coles (WA), Jackson Eaton (WA)

 

Curators James Berlyn and Sarah Rowbottam
Producer Sarah Rowbottam
Provocateur Kelli Mccluskey
Stage Manager Mary Wolfla
Volunteers Emily Chancellor, Tom Cramond, Paula Coops and Palmy Palida

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proximityfestival.com/2012-festival/

 

Proximity Festival and Mobile Moments acknowledges the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation.
We recognise their continuing connection to the land, waters and community and pay our respects to elders past, present and future.