Astrid Breel is a live artist interested in the relationship between artist and audience and how they perform themselves in different social situations.

She is very interested in the place the audience takes in ‘completing’ a work, whether this is simply creatively interpreting it, or taking an active role in filling in the work. Making work with a sense of playfulness and surprise,  her work attempts to create an intimate encounter for the audience within which the traditional boundaries between audience and artwork are diminished, often leading to using unusual spaces for performance (such as pitching a tent in the city centre, or performing on a gallery fly floor).

Astrid is a PhD Candidate at the Research Centre for Cognition, Kinaesthetics and Performance at the University of Kent.

Her research explores participation in performance, with a focus on the audience experience,  investigating whether participation in live performance has the potential to create a more direct relationship between artist, work and audience member. She has published a paper entitled Emancipating the Spectator, in Platform Journal (Vol 6, No 1, Winter 2011).

Photo credits: Manuel Vason and Sam Jolly.