Vittoria Matarrese on Performance at Palais de Tokyo

Vittoria Matarrese, artistic director of cultural programming and special projects at Palais de Tokyo, discusses the state of performance art and the museum's initiatives. She defines contemporary performance as lacking rules, characterized by absolute freedom of expression and immediacy. Matarrese curates the DO DISTURB festival, now in its fourth edition, which features over 30 artists in three days with at least 20 performances daily. The festival aims to de-institutionalize performance and make it accessible to diverse audiences, including families. Partners include MoMA PS1, Tate Modern, Hayward Gallery, Human Resources Los Angeles, A4 Art Foundation Cape Town, Verbo Festival São Paulo, and Vinyl Factory. This year's edition focuses on new performance geographies, with many female artists and a return of text through orality. Matarrese also launched La Manutention, a residency program supporting performance production, with a dedicated house within Palais de Tokyo opening in October 2018. She mentions bringing Anne Imhof to France in 2015 and Tino Sehgal's carte blanche in 2016. Matarrese will serve as a jury member for the Centrale Fies performance prize in Italy this summer.