Actors stage special theatrical performances for pets

Austrian duo Alex Bailey and Krõõt Juurak are the artists behind Performances For Pets, a project which provides theatrical entertainment to pets of the world.So far, they’ve performed for more than 80 pets across Europe, and have being showing off their tricks to the South West public as part of this week's Bristol Biennial.





Alex and Krõõt began their pet performance business after admiring pets and realising they had a lot of untapped creativity and art appreciation to offer. They explain that pets are artists too, performing art through their behaviour. And so Alex and Krõõt wanted to give back to pets, who they see as their equals, by providing them with their own source of artistic stimulation.





Firstly, the artists travel to the home of the pet, meeting the animal and their owner. They ask about the pet’s character, his or her likes and dislikes, and then adapt the performance to the pet and the location. Performances have not always gone according to plan though. Once they turned up to perform to what they thought was a pair of micro-pigs, only to be confronted by two pigs that were same size as them who had been separated for fighting.


YouTube link.

The pair were also once on the receiving end of what appeared to be amorous attention from one poodle as they performed on the floor, which Mr Bailey said was "somewhat inconvenient". He added: "When researching this behaviour we subsequently discovered that it wasn't connected to anything remotely sexual but resulted from a mixture of confusion and excitement. Really it was a compliment, a form of dog standing ovation."