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'History Lesson Guangzhou': a durational Install-action (Performance-Installation), as part of the 1st Guangzhou Live, International Action Art Festival

“History Lesson – Guangzhou” was a durational ‘Install-action’ within the 1st. International Action Art Festival, in Guangzhou, China. This performance art event involved internationally respected Performance Artists including: Ying Mei Duan from China, John Court & Bill Drummond from the UK, Alastair MacLennan, Roi Vaara & Boris Nieslony of Black Market International. Kurt Johnannessen from Norway etc. The Festival was sponsored by a wide range of International funders. Connolly was invited by the Curator Jonas Stampe.

The artwork was a durational Performance/Installation, known as ‘Install-action’, (a description/title for a new area of Performance Art which Connolly developed and named in the mid 1990’s). The ‘Install-action’ was scheduled for the opening night of the Festival and he performed for the first two evenings of the programme.

Connolly’s research focused on global human rights issues in relation to the socio-political context of The final spatial structure for the artwork was devised while on location and in response to both the architecture and festival context of contemporary China. Connolly utilised research imagery derived from both Irish and Chinese history and included a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was censored by the Festival Organisers just prior to the presentation of the artwork. Each artwork evolved with the table as a symbolic cultural motif or metaphor for humanity.

A further ‘History Lesson’ - Site Specific Performance Artwork was evolved in response to The Black and White Hall at Queen's University, Belfast as part of the Art of Encounter Project in 2012.