The Yellow Fish Epic Durational Performance Festival is currently taking place at Seattle University’s Hedreen Gallery. Organized since 2013 by Seattle-based artist Alice Gosti, it is one of the only festivals dedicated to durational performance in the world.

Durational performance can be defined as “a [art] form through which TIME is manifested in its original (natural) purity and brought to the forefront as pivotal to the experience.” Basically, it is an artistic performance that takes much longer than the standard two hours.

Yellow Fish performances can be a little out of the ordinary. Last year, one performance consisted of two women “submerged in an inflatable kiddie pool” for more than five hours, with a wolf hide suspended above them dripping pig blood into the water. This year’s festival kicked off last week with a performance spanning three days. Artist Adam Sekuler, a Seattleite living in Colorado, spent this time leading a communal mourning for the “buildings, organizations, and stores that we have lost in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, according to Gosti.

In spite of its unusual genre, or because of it, the Yellow Fish festival has been pretty successful. Last year the festival attracted artists from across the United States and as far away as London. This year, due to budget constraints, the festival has featured mostly local artists, but Gosti says attendance has been “really good.” The festival has also raised more than six thousand dollars through the crowdfunding campaign CHS reported on last week.

Yellow Fish is scheduled to take place daily through August 6th. The majority of the performances will take place at the Hedreen Gallery and a few will be held at the local venues such as the Velocity Dance Center and 10 degrees.

The planned 2015 lineup is below:

XV
it is just the beginning and it may last forever
July 8th to August 5th, 2015 at The Hedreen Gallery
Runn Shayo (New York)
Pol Rosenthal
Pol Budraitis
LIMITS (Corrie Befort and Jason E Anderson)
Megumi Shauna Arai
Juan Franco
Brace Evans
MKNZ Porritt
Laura Curry and Lori Dillon
Jody Kuehner
Ryan Vinson
Adam Sekuler
Keith White
Mother Tongue (kt Shores and Angelina Baldoz_
A K Mimi Allin
and special guests…

Official schedule and specific locations will be posted soon on Yellow Fish // Epic Durational Performance Festival.