Artlog / Finding Your Way Through the Performa Biennial

Grace-Yvette Gemmell

Proportional_710_elmgreen-dragset-happy-days-in-the-art-world-2011.-work-in-progress.-photo-copyright-elmar-vestner

Elmgreen & Dragset, rendering for Happy Days in the Art World, 2011. Courtesy of Performa and the artists.

Judging from the lineup at Performa this year, RoseLee Goldberg has again assembled a daring range of new performance work for 2011’s biennial, from the labyrinthine personal narratives driving Simon Fujiwara’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf, to Shirin Neshat’s seditious iconographies of resistance in OverRuled, and the unconventional blending of musical genres propelling Robert Ashley’s iconic experimental opera That Morning Thing. Elmgreen and Dragset even convinced Goldberg to let them mount a fairly traditional theater piece, a rare occurrence for Performa. Read below for highlights from the schedule, including Artlog’s nightly Performa After Hours at Gallery Bar. You can also watch our recent interviews with Goldberg here and here.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf
November 9 and 10, 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand Street

Typical of his intricate approach to narrative, Simon Fujiwara layers the autobiographical with the fantastic and the absurd to produce theatrical performances that are more self-reflexive anecdote than autobiography in the strict sense. Slipping excerpts from previous acclaimed work into his latest three-act performance, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Fujiwara merges the subjects of homosexuality, family dynamics, and Abstract Expressionist painting through his sinuous style of storytelling.

OverRuled
Friday, November 11, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 12, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 12, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Cedar Lake, 547 West 26th Street

Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat performs and directs OverRuled, a mannered courtroom drama that references current and historical uprisings in the Middle East. Among the artists and singers in the cast are the Iranian actor Mohammad B. Gaffari and the popular musician Mohsen Namjoo. Building on previous works such as Turbulent (1998), a musical duet exploring gender roles, and The Last Word (2003), the trial of a poet, OverRuled explores acts of defiance and resistance from an exiled perspective that keeps the tensions between the social and the personal cunningly in view. OverRuled marks the tenth anniversary of RoseLee Goldberg enlisting Neshat to create her first live work, Logic of the Birds, a commission which ultimately led to Goldberg’s establishment of Performa.

That Morning Thing
Saturday, November 19, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 20, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 20, 21 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Monday, November 21, 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street

Robert Ashley, known for his multi-disciplinary projects that incorporate electronics and nontraditional music making techniques into established musical genres, presents what should prove a definitive restaging of That Morning Thing, his iconic experimental opera in three acts with an epilogue. Although performed only three times in the late 1960s, Ashley’s legendary opera established itself as a definitive voice capturing the zeitgeist of America.

Performa Ha!
Sunday, November 6, 9:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 13, 9:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 20, 9:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Ha!, 163 W 46 Street

Stand-up comedy meets conceptual art in three weekend showings of Performa Ha! Curated by Mark Beasley, the show’s lineup is composed of artists, musicians, and comedians who explore disturbing themes by way of the absurd and surreal, hyperbolic pathos and dark humor. Acts include Dina Seiden, Michael Smith, Bedwyr Williams, and Hennessey Youngman.

Fluxus Weekend
Friday, November 11, 5:00 pm – 12:00 p.m.
Various venues

Taking its cue from the interdisciplinary, cross-genre pursuits of Fluxus, Performa presents Fluxus Weekend, a 5-part, 52-hour event of actions, including a concert featuring historical and contemporary musicians interpreting scores from the early years of Fluxus and a program of new films by young artists premiering guerilla-style around New York. Anticipated participating artists include Alison Knowles with Jessica Higgins and Joshua Selman, Jonas Mekas, Larry Miller, Milan Knizak, Amy Granat, Peter Coffin, Marina Rosenfeld, Ben Vautier, Zeffrey Throwell, Guido van der Werve, Adam Chodzko, Christoph Draeger, Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Lisa Oppenheim, and Marianne Vitale, plus many more.

Performa After Hours
November 2-21, Tuesday – Sunday, 9:00 p.m. – midnight
Opening party: November 2, 2011 9:00 p.m. – midnight
Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard Street

Harkening back to New York’s infamous late night culture of the 1970s and ’80s, Performa After Hours is a late night get-together during the biennial where people can come and join the artists, curators, and organizers of Performa 11 for drinks, conversation, and impromptu performances. Featuring the special Performa Jalapeño Margarita Cocktail by Tanteo Spirits.