From the original Festival website:

This discussion, on the final day of the 30th anniversary National Review of Live Art, considers the legacy of the festival and the live artists it has supported. Performance tends to be defined by ephemerality and disappearance. Remembering Performance brings together artists and academics to discuss ways in which performance remains present; how live works are remembered; and how they continue to circulate in culture.

Conversation will question how events are conserved, passed-on between generations of artists and audiences and where the traces they leave are held. What is the difference between our memories of performance events that moved us and the documents that record them, between memory and the archive? Is the legacy of the NRLA preserved for the future in the video archive and published catalogue, or kept alive in the memories of those who were there, performing and spectating?

Presentations of projects and different approaches will touch on the role of: collective memory, personal recollections and oral histories; critical writing, reviews and publications; archival documents, video recordings and photography; objects, residues and remains; re-enactment, re-use and recreation.

The 30-year history of NRLA is different for every one of us, we recall different works and remember the same works differently. What is the future of past performances and how are our memories coloured by encounters with documentation and texts produced after the event?

NB: Changes to the programme. Due to illness at the time of the talk Claire MacDonald’s paper was read by Fiona Wright, who was then invited to present her own paper. Geraldine Pilgrim sustained a broken ankle whilst in Glasgow, so her thoughts were read out by the Chair, Paul Clarke. Tom Marshman also joined the panel alongside Paul Clarke to speak about their joint venture, the Performance Reenactment Society.