Bbeyond officially came into being on 22 May 2001 as a result of individual artists’ interests in Performance Art and as an indirect result of a proposal by Artur Tajber (Kraków). In 1999, Tajber visited Catalyst Arts, Belfast with the view to establishing and developing existing mutual links between Northern Ireland and Poland[1]. Prior to this instigation, intermittent coordinated performance art events in Northern Ireland were initiated by Art & Research Exchange (ARE 1978-1988[2]).

Prior to ARE, Alastair MacLennan eminently and essentially influenced solo performances since 1975 and had the greatest impact and significance on performance art gaining a foot hold, in Belfast. Literally, his signification with presence as artist-teacher had an important effect on students[3], without his being (t)here, it’s impossible to think how performance art could have been maintained and developed.

In the wake of ARE ceasing operations in 1988, Richard Martel was one of the last artists invited by ARE. He made ‘Poetry for Non-Academics’, in the Rotterdam Pub, Belfast. Then later, in July 1989, as a direct result of discussions involving MacLennan, Brian Kennedy, Brian Connolly, Nick Stewart and Mutus Libre at Immagini Del Silenzio event, Novalesa, Italy, initiated the Available Resources project, 1991, Derry, (Orchard Gallery, Derry) mainly under the resourceful co-ordination of Brian Connolly who made this project a reality. Following the Available Resources event its subsequent counterpart Exchange Resources 1995, (Catalyst Arts, Belfast,) actuated Catalyst Arts FIX biennial performance art festival in 1996. Primarily, these latter events from Available Resources onwards laid the groundwork for the later emergence of Bbeyond.

In 1999 Brian Patterson and Malgosia Orysiak (Butterwick) began a series of discussions, later involving other artists based in Northern Ireland, on potential projects that could be realised to establish further exchanges between Northern Ireland and Poland.[1] After approaching established art organisations with our proposal, we realised that our intention couldn’t materialise because it was going to affect their autonomy and budgeting of their program of events. As a result of these initial discussions, we realised that we had to undertake the setting up of an organisation ourselves. This outcome led to the formation of an informal committee to establish what later became known as Bbeyond. The artists involved in this development stage included; Brian Patterson, Malgosia Orysiak, Alastair MacLennan, Brian Connolly, Brian Kennedy, Rainer Pagel and Peter Richards.

Later, this Mission Statement was developed:

Bbeyond is committed to promoting the practice of performance art and artists in Northern Ireland and further afield.

Our aim is to raise people’s consciousness of live/performance art as being integral to the world in and around us, inspiring reflection and enriching lived experience.

We host artists of international reputation throughout the performance art world and encourage newer artists to experience performance art practices for themselves.

Bbeyond encourages greater access to and appreciation of this visually based art form, through facilitating modes of active private/public participation, allowing people from all sectors of society, not just the traditional arts, to experience and enjoy performance art directly.

The working objectives have a two-fold nature, one the ‘actual’, the other liminal, one based on the physical/literal journey, the other on a more elusive journeying through the process of being and becoming.

[1] Between 1993 -1998, Polish artists’ instigated the following events involving artists from Belfast and Dublin:-

1993:- Irish Days I, Baltic Art Centre, Ustka, Castle of Imagination Bytow, and QQ Gallery, Krakow, Poland.  

1994:- Irish Days II, Baltic Art Centre, Ustka and Castle of Imagination Bytow, Poland .

1995, Irish Days III, 1995, Baltic Art Centre, Ustka, Poland .

1998, Irish Days IV,  1998, Baltic Art Centre, Ustka  and Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland.

[2] ARE performance art events hosted at 22 Lombard St, Belfast

·         1980 - Alastair MacLennan, AS IS , 8hr performance, with another ‘Untitled’ 3hr performance.

·         1981 - Zbigniew Warpechowski and Roland Millar make performances, reported in CIRCA No2, Feb 1982, p7-10

·         1983, 17-19 Nov, Three Days of Live Art, featuring the following artists:- Alastair MacLennan, Nick Stewart, John Carson, Danny McCarthy,  Frances Saunders,  Roland Millar, Kathy Rogers, Rachael Looby (a pseudonym) Anthony Sheehan, Michael Millward. Angela McCabe, Andre Stitt, Patrick Ireland. See Circa No.14, Jan/Feb1984, p38-40.

[3] To mention some of these early student artists based in Northern Ireland; Nick Stewart, John Carson, Andre Stitt, Angela McCabe, Phillip Roycroft, Vicky Adams, Vivien Crane, Damien Coyle, Sue Triesman, Michael Arbuckle, Julie Stephenson, Helen Cruiks, Viven Burnside, Rainer Pagel, Tony Hill and Brian Connolly.

[4] Bbeyond eventually materialised this initial plan in 2009, with the I AM (JESTEM) Project, see pani No.3, I AM/JESTEM Edition, 2010, Bbeyond Publications.