DaDaFest International 2012 [UK]

DaDaFest International 2012 Dates and Theme Announced

DaDaFest, the International Festival of Disability and Deaf Arts is returning in Summer 2012 from 13^th July – 2^nd September. Based in established arts venues across Liverpool, the festival will build on the successes of the previous ten festivals in presenting the very best work by leading disability and deaf artists from across the globe.

DaDaFest International 2012 will include high-profile collaborations with international artists, further work with young people, development of the festival online and continuation of successful events such as Young DaDaFest and the DaDa Awards.

With links to the Cultural Olympiad programme, the Festival will offer a cultural celebration in the North West alongside the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Events will range from a major international visual arts exhibition, cutting-edge comedy to deaf culture events and leading international musicians, with a programme that will both entertain and present artforms from different cultural perspectives. The theme for DaDaFest International 2012 is TransActions - Fluid Bodies: Shifting Identities, which will look at how disability affects the lives of us all, examining exchanges that occur between people and technology and how our sense of identity is bound up with our changing bodies.

A highlight of DaDaFest International 2012 will be Niet Normaal (translated from Dutch as ‘Not Normal’) programmed by co-curators Garry Robson and Ine Gevers in partnership with the Bluecoat. An adaptation of a successful Amsterdam-based exhibition (http://www.nietnormaal.nl) Niet Normaal includes new commissions and an accompanying programme of talks and films posing the questions ‘what is normal and who decides?’. Examining this through art celebrates difference in the Olympic and Paralympic year, in the context of a disability and deaf arts festival.

Disability Arts and Culture has grown over the last 20 years into a discernibly confident and accomplished artistic movement of expression around experiences of disability. DaDaFest was the first and is now the biggest, most comprehensive and challenging festival of Disability & Deaf Arts in the world.

For more information please contact Ruth Adams on 0151 707 0427 email: rutha@dadahello.com or Bill Elms Associates on 0151 708 5158 email: info@billelms.com