The Month of Performance Art-Berlin (MPA-B) is a 31 day, city-wide and artist-run platform for independent performance art practices, running annually in May, that connects and brings together hundreds of artists, spaces, networks and initiatives who collectively contribute to a unique and radical month-long programme, featuring: indoor and outdoor performances, site-specific interventions, talks, workshops, screenings, public encounters and interactions, dinners, durational and days-long actions and other formats and projects which do not have, or reject, any definition.

MPA–B was founded in 2011 with 5 main objectives at its core:

1) to facilitate connections and cooperation amongst venues, curators, networks, organisations and other independent players working in the field of performance art;

2) to support and draw attention to Berlin’s unique community of performance artists and practitioners;

3) to foster innovative critical discourses, practice-based exchanges and interactions between performance art makers and new audiences;

4) to explore new models and methodologies of curating, producing, promoting, sustaining, creating, making, understanding and talking about performance art;

5) to document the history of contemporary performance art practices in the city through the annual Berlin Performance Art Report.

During its past three editions, MPA–B took place at over 90 locations in 10 city neighbourhoods; facilitated local and transnational collaborations, partnerships and artists’ mobility; promoted and interconnected independent spaces and performance art practices working at the fringe of mainstream and funded performing arts structure, and brought a new, daring, experimental and unique platform dedicated to performance art to the city’s broad cultural panorama.

As a non-profit, non-funded and artist-led platform, and with its jointly assembled programme, MPA–B represents - and strives to continue to work towards - new models and strategies of self-administration, self-efficacy and survival against a backdrop of commercial, state funded and exclusive cultural and artistic projects in the city.

Participants contributing to the MPA–B programme are independently responsible for curating and organising their own performance art project, determined by their interests, curatorial enquiries, networks, spacial requirements, and budget capabilities.

This diversity of approaches sets MPA–B as a platform apart from most festivals and makes it a unique project reflecting the individuality, experiences and creative force of the city’s independent performance art community.