Organizer Information
PERFORMNORD is initiated by the Danish Arts Foundation (Statens Kunstfond), Denmark's principal state arts-funding body, established by an act of the Danish Parliament in 1964 and operating under the Ministry of Culture. The Foundation works at arm's length from government through a system of expert committees — including its Committee for Performing Arts Project Funding — distributing hundreds of millions of Danish kroner annually to individual artists, projects, and institutions across disciplines. PERFORMNORD is initiated by the Foundation's Performing Arts Committee and developed in collaboration with the corresponding national funding bodies of Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
The event itself will be produced by Copenhagen International Theatre (Københavns Internationale Teater, KIT), through its Metropolis platform. KIT has produced performing arts in Copenhagen for nearly 50 years, with Metropolis established in 2007 as a program for performance-based, site-specific, and location-based work in public space. Metropolis is known for staging works on Refshaleøen, Copenhagen's former shipyard, and has built a reputation as one of Europe's leading platforms for site-specific art, supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and the City of Copenhagen.
Title & Description
PERFORMNORD 2027 — Nordic Platform for Performance Art
PERFORMNORD is the first international platform dedicated to performance art from the Nordic countries, taking place in Copenhagen 2–12 September 2027. Its stated aim is to strengthen and develop awareness of performance art as an interdisciplinary art form within the Nordic region, and to situate and promote Nordic performance art in an international context. The platform will invite 40–50 key Nordic professional performance artists whose work engages an international context, supporting them in forming international collaborations. It is intended as potentially the first of a series of rotating Nordic performance biennales, with the inaugural edition produced by Copenhagen International Theatre / Metropolis and its programme selected by a 16-person Nordic expert panel.
The programme combines a professional platform (2–5 September) for invited international programmers and professionals with a public programme (2–12 September), including live performances, studio presentations, and a dialogue programme of talks, interviews, and workshops. Its hub will be located on Refshaleøen, Copenhagen's former shipyard, with additional events staged city-wide.
Theme
Performance art as an interdisciplinary, cross-cutting art form — the call emphasizes performance art's defining qualities of live action, real-time presence, and time-based/ephemeral character, while embracing an open definition spanning solo works, group works, and collaborative or site-based creation.
Categories
- Performance
- Visual Arts
- Theatre
- Dance
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Site-specific
- Curatorial
Eligibility
- Open to professional artists and groups who define their practice, and/or a particular work, as performance art
- Artists may come from performing arts, visual arts, music/sound, or other disciplinary backgrounds, but live performance must be a defining characteristic of the work
- Open to Nordic and international professional artists living and working in the Nordic countries (Denmark including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden)
- Also open to Nordic professional artists based and practicing outside the Nordic countries
- Applicants must be available for the professional platform, 2–5 September 2027
- Selected productions/works must be available for international presentation following PERFORMNORD in 2027/28
Program Benefits & Awards
- Coverage of travel costs for selected artists
- Coverage of lodging costs for selected artists
- Coverage of local logistics costs
- A participation fee for selected artists, based on support available from individual Nordic national arts agencies and independent foundations
- Possible extended run of selected productions as part of Metropolis' ongoing site-specific/site-sensitive programme
- Possible pre-site visits and short residencies offered to prepare site-specific work, in some cases
- Access to studio spaces (15–25 m²) for artists selected for studio presentations, allocated daily
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 18 September 2026
- Nordic Panel Evaluation Deadline: 15 December 2026
- Pre-Invitations Sent to Selected Artists: immediately after 15 December 2026
- Final Programme Confirmation Deadline: 15 March 2027
- Professional Platform: 2–5 September 2027
- Public Programme: 2–12 September 2027
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Additional Details
Selection proceeds in stages: the secretariat first assesses formal eligibility, individual national panel members assess and prioritize applications from their own country, and the full 16-member Nordic panel then evaluates all prioritized applicants according to sub-genre, artistic quality, format quality, international potential, and logistics. The panel may also directly approach individual artists outside the standard application process. Because each participating country has its own funding procedures and deadlines, the secretariat coordinates directly with national arts funding agencies to secure travel grants and funding for selected artists, with a common final confirmation deadline of 15 March 2027.