BIFPA 2026 is coming!

We are delighted to be hosting BIFPA (Belfast International Festival of Performance Art) for 2026. With a range of invited artists, working nationally and internationally, as well as specific commissions, contributions from the student community, and a diverse range of performances, talks, lectures and workshops, we hope you can join us for this exciting programme taking place over five days. 

With enormous thanks to the dedicated BIFPA organising committee, as well as Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, Bbeyond and Catalyst Arts.

Follow BIFPA on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

About the artists

Denys Blacker

Denys Blacker (London, 1961) is a transdisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance art, drawing, sculpture and video. She has lived and worked in Catalunya since 1987 and has shown her work internationally for over 30 years. She is co-founder of the all-women performance group Ocells al Cap (Birds in the Head) and a member of the International performance group, Wolf in the Winter. Blacker’s interest lies in the way we intercommunicate and how we develop our individual and communal capacity for adaptability and contingency. She explores the artistic, social and political implications of engaging with embodied, intuitive and visceral ways of knowing. 

In 2019, she was awarded a PhD from the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, (England). Her research Interconnection, Synchronicity and Consciousness in Improvised Performance Art Practices, has led her to explore the boundaries between subject and object and between self and other, to reveal how we might communicate in ways that go beyond the cognitive senses, including the possibilities of telepathy and precognition.

selina bonelli 

selina bonelli works both within the landscape and with found ‘everyday’ objects and ‘passed-on’ materials. They are currently exploring abandoned conflict architecture through performance and sound. They hope to develop an affective trail of embodied withnessing, a being with personal, collective and more than human collaborators.

selina also seeks to expand on a listening through what touch can be in the gaps outside of language, to uncover the resonances trapped in ruins, utterances and hauntings. selina bonelli is a current researcher at Ulster University, a founding member of SITE- a collaborative open source queer group making work in the rural-public realm, a member of Live Art Ireland,  PAE-Aktionslabor e.V. and an associate artist at Performance Space, London.

Thomas Reul

Thomas Reul is interested in the potential arising from the encounter of different elements. He explorers this collaborative performance approach also in duo or group performances. The challenge is to find a form of communication that respects and retains the individual rhythms, intentions and perceptions in a situation.

Thomas lives and works in Cologne. He is a performer, organiser of various projects and events, performance documentary photographer and an active member of PAE Aktionslabor eV. since 2015. His work has been shown in Asia, Europe and South America.

Jayne Cherry 

Jayne Cherry is an artist living and working in the countryside of Co.Down, Northern Ireland and was brought up with a deep respect for the ground we walk on and all who breathe upon it, including those we cannot see.

Experiencing grief and trauma as a child informs her daily life and nurse training introduced her to her own vulnerability when confronted by uncomfortable subjects which often include death, pain and discomfort. Her performance actions keep her attached to reality and she intentionally lives to inform her work, which can form into objects, drawing or sound.

Volodymyr Topiy 

Volodymyr Topiy was born in 1979 in the small town of Sudova Vyshnya, Ukraine. He studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts. In 2013, he received the Gaude Polonia scholarship from the Polish Minister of Culture. Topiy works across a range of media, including performance art, installation, painting, graphics, and iconography. His works have been exhibited in Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Japan, Ireland, and Lithuania. 

美秋 Miaki 

Miaki's practice centers on painting and performance. As of 2026, she is an MFA student in the Global Art Practice (GAP) program at Tokyo University of the Arts. She is also involved in organizing and producing performance events, as well as managing an archival platform.

In her painting practice, she reinterprets the structures of classical history painting and attempts to translate the question "What does the performative mean today?" into images that incorporate the human figure.

Kate Guelke

Kate Guelke is a Northern Irish opera-maker with a performance art practice. She was recently selected by Cois Ceim to develop this practice during an 'off-site' residency. 

She is a recent A-N Bursary and DDASF award recipient. Previous performances include 'The Bare Necessities' (Imagine Festival). Kate is currently directing 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' for Stage Beyond and preparing her adaptation of F L Green's novel 'Odd Man Out' for premiere at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, 2026.

Image: Denys Blacker and Paloma Orts with Ocells al Cap Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona. Photo by Claudia Serrahima 2024

PS² is primarily supported by: The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Belfast City Council through the Artists' Studios & Workspace Organisational Grant; and Arts & Business NI Blueprint Investment Grant.

Selected programmes are funded by: Belfast City Council Bank of Ideas, Necessity, Freelands Foundation and Arts Council England, Esmé Mitchell Trust, and project partners including NI Screen and Outburst Queer Arts Festival.