Abbas Akhavan
Julieta Aranda
Carlos Motta
Robert Ashley
Tyler Ashley
Ed Atkins
Haroon Mirza
James Richards
Tarek Atoui
Elena Bajo
Eleanor Bauer
Nils Bech
Sergei Tcherepnin
Bendik Giske
Juan Betancurth
Justin Vivian Bond
iona rozeal brown
Jonathan Burrows
Mateo Fargion
Gerard Byrne
Asli Cavusoglu
Boris Charmatz
Spartacus Chetwynd
Youmna Chlala
Otomo Yoshihide
Christian Marclay
Jace Clayton
Will Cotton
VJ Demencia
Rene Juan de la Cruz-Napoli
Elmgreen & Dragset
Tamar Ettun
Jack Ferver
Michelle Mola
Simon Fujiwara
Andrea Geyer
Sharon Hayes
Ashley Hunt
Katya Sander
David Thorne
Liz Glynn
Bibbe Hansen
Trajal Harrell
Pablo Helguera
Stewart Home
Mika Rottenberg
Jon Kessler
Fatima Al Qadiri
Khalid al Gharaballi
Ben Kinmont
Ragnar Kjartansson
Milan Knizak
Alison Knowles
Jessica Higgins
Joshua Selman
Liz Magic Laser
L'Encyclopedie de la parole
Guy Maddin
Antonio Manuel
Ursula Mayer
Tom McCarthy
Dennis McNulty
Jonathan Meese
Nathaniel Mellors
Andrei Monastyrski
Laurent Montaron
Daido Moriyama
MPA
Shelly Nadashi
Laurel Nakadate
James Franco
Shirin Neshat
Rashaad Newsome
Club Nutz
Tyson Reeder
Scott Reeder
Dennis Oppenheim
Alison O'Daniel
Mai-Thu Perret
Maria Petschnig
Michael Portnoy
Public Movement
Lili Reynaud-Dewar
robbinschilds
Athi-Patra Ruga
Dina Seiden
Doug Skinner
Michael Smith
Frances Stark
Eric Steen
Matthew Stone
Christine Sun Kim
Mateo Tannatt
Zefrey Throwell
Naama Tsabar
Wu Tsang
Masha Tupitsyn
Guido van der Werve
Nicoline van Harskamp
Jonathan VanDyke
Varispeed
Marianne Vitale
Philip von Zweck
Laurence Wagner
Bedwyr Williams
Ming Wong
Zhou Xiaohu
Raphael Zarka
RoseLee Goldberg
Fourth edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance. It features more than 100 international artists and 10 new performa commissions in spectacuar city-wide events. An innovative program breaking down the boundaries between visual art, music, dance, poetry, fashion, architecture, graphic design, and the culinary arts. Presented in collaboration with a consortium of more than 50 arts institutions and over 50 curators, as well as a network of public spaces and private venues across the city.
Performa is pleased to announce its fourth visual art
performance biennial, Performa 11, taking place November 1–21, 2011, throughout
New York City. Performa 11 will feature performances by over 100 of the most exciting
contemporary artists, including 12 Performa Commissions by acclaimed artists from
around the world, as well as Performa Premieres and a host of new works by up-and-
coming artists. This yearʼs biennial will be a thrilling showcase of live culture across all
artistic disciplines, taking place at over 80 venues throughout New York City and
presented in collaboration with a consortium of over 40 arts and cultural organizations.
Since Performaʼs first biennial took New York City by storm in 2005, Performa has
succeeded in presenting the nationʼs first and only live visual art performance biennial.
It has become one of the most anticipated art events in the country and internationally,
having reached an audience of over 70,000 people. With its biennial, Performa has not
only changed the course of performance art history, but it has also caused a ripple effect
around the world with museums, organizations, and festivals incorporating performance into
their programming. Once again, Performa will present its critically acclaimed series of
Commissions and Premieres, many by artists who have never worked live before, and will
create a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see, hear, and taste the freshest ideas, enjoy new
artistic perspectives, and experience New York City like never before.
RoseLee Goldberg, Performaʼs Founding Director and Curator, says, “In just five years,
Performa has changed peopleʼs minds about the very nature and meaning of artistsʼ
performance. It has shown it to be an inspiring, profound, and accessible platform for exciting
new ideas. Performa gives the public a highly selected but broad overview of performance in
different disciplines, and, in just three weeks, viewers can come to understand the most
important new developments in contemporary art and culture. It is thrilling to work with
Performa artists to realize their extraordinary visions.”
PROGRAM
Over its three-week run, the Performa Hub, designed by nOffice, will function as the
biennialʼs headquarters, offering a venue for special performances, screenings, panel
discussions, bookshop, lounge, and a visitor information center. To program this yearʼs
biennial, Performa will draw upon the rich cultural landscape of New York City by partnering
with over 40 innovative local arts and cultural organizations. Working with this consortium of
presenting partners, the biennial will create a lively dialogue through different disciplines
working and thinking together. This collaboration creates an exciting cultural atmosphere; a
unique cross-pollination think tank with an exchange of ideas, sharing of resources, and new
connections between organizations and arts professionals.
Performa Board of Directors Chair Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn adds, “Performaʼs
biennial will once again transform the landscape of New York and send a jolt of energy
throughout the city. Performa 11 will provide a unique opportunity to see live events in all
disciplines of the arts. Whether a modest performance or a large-scale production, there is
always a sense that you have to be there.”
COMMISSIONS
A central part of Performaʼs biennials are its Commissions, which originate exciting new
performances by visual artists, many of whom have never worked live before. This year,
Performa will present 12 new Performa Commissions by both established and up-and-
coming artists. Artists receive unparallel support to realize powerful, intellectually reflective,
and artistically innovative works of live performance that vary widely in scale, taking place at
venues from a small local bar to a large opera house.
To date, Performa has commissioned 24 projects by 45 artists, including Francis Alÿs
(Performa 05); Jesper Just (Performa 05); Sanford Biggers (Performa 07); Isaac Julien
(Performa 07); Carols Amorales (Performa 07); Daria Martin (Performa 07); Japanther
(Performa 07); Nathalie Djurberg (Performa 07); Christian Jankowski (Performa 07);
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (Performa 09); Mike Kelley (Performa 09); Guy Ben-Ner
(Performa 09); Candice Breitz (Performa 09); Omer Fast (Performa 09); Arto Lindsay
(Performa 09); Christian Tomaszewski (Performa 09); Yeondoo Jung (Performa 09); and
Wangechi Mutu (Performa 09), among others, many of which have gone on to tour
internationally. In addition to the Commissions, a series of Performa Premieres and a host of
other new work will be shown during the biennial.
Acclaimed international artists to receive
Performa 11 Commissions are are Shirin Neshat, Elmgreen & Dragset, Ragnar Kjartansson, iona rozeal brown, Guy Maddin, Simon Fujiwara, Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler, Frances Stark, Ming Wong, Tarek Atoui, Gerard Bryne, and Liz Magic Laser. Additional
artists to receive Performa Premieres are Nathaniel Mellors, Mai-Thu Perret, and Zhou
Xiaohu.
The
Performa Premieres program presents exceptional live work that has never been seen in
New York. Additional Performa Premiere artists include Robert Ashley and Boris Charmatz.
HISTORICAL AND RESEARCH THEMES
Along with presenting new work, Performa also provides a link to the past with historical and
research themes focusing on performance history from the twentieth century. This yearʼs
research theme, Language, Translation, and Misinformation will investigate the use of
language in the field of performance by visual artists versus that of theater actors. The two
historical themes, Russian Constructivism (1913–1940s) and Fluxus (1960s) — which
both used language in a visual art context — along with the research theme will act as a
point of departure for the work selected for the biennial program.
FUNDING
Lead support for has been provided by Toby Devan Lewis; Lambent Foundation Fund of
Tides Foundation; and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major support has
been provided by Sharjah Art Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; The David and
Elaine Potter Foundation; Christieʼs; Imagine Ireland; and Paddle8. Additional support has
been provided by Depart Foundation for the Discussion Exhibition and Production of Art;
Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York; The Cultural Services of the French
Embassy/Maison Francaise and Institut Francais; New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs; Consulate General of Denmark in New York; Etant Donnés Contemporary Art;
FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance, a program of the National Dance Project/New
England Foundation for the Arts and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New
York, and FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), with lead funding from Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation; The Dedalus Foundation; Office
for Contemporary Art Norway; Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts;
Arts Council Norway; SAHA, Toshiba; Dorothea Leonhardt Fund, Communities Foundation of
Texas; Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam; Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of
Israel in NY; Artis – Contemporary Israeli Art Fund; The American-Scandinavian Foundation;
Helena Rubinstein Foundation; Moon and Stars Project of The American Turkish Society;
Foundation of Contemporary Arts; the Performa Board of Directors; the Performa Producers
Circle; the Performa Curators Circle; and the Performa Visionaries. Media sponsorship has
been provided by Art in America, W Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Frieze, artnet, and Whitewall.
ABOUT PERFORMA 11
Performa 11, the fourth edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art
performance presented by Performa, will be held in New York City from November 1–21,
2011. The three-week biennial will showcase new work by more than 100 of the most
exciting artists working today, in an innovative program breaking down the boundaries
between visual art, music, dance, poetry, fashion, architecture, graphic design, and the
culinary arts. Presented in collaboration with a consortium of more than 50 arts institutions
and 25 curators, as well as a network of public spaces and private venues across the city,
Performa 11 will ignite New York City with energy and ideas, acting as a vital “think tank”
linking minds across the five boroughs and bringing audiences together for brilliant new
performances in all disciplines.
Founded in 2004 by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, Performa is the leading
organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of
twentieth-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first
century. Performa launched New Yorkʼs first performance biennial, Performa 05, in 2005,
followed by Performa 07 (2007), and Performa 09 (2009).
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Julieta Aranda and Carlos Motta Broken English
Tuesday, November 1 - Monday, November 21
For Performa 11, Julieta Aranda and Carlos Motta (b. 1975, Mexico City, Mexico; b. 1978 Bogota, Colombia) have invited a group of international contributors to reflect on New York City as a cross-cultural terrain and as a public space for constant cultural translations and negotiations, in a publication/supplement titled Broken English. Working with the curatorial threads of Performa 11, the supplement will act as a witness of New York’s cultural history and will present writings by artists and cultural producers that have been active in different capacities for the past 30 years, including:
Joey Arias/Carlos Motta, Defne Ayas, Michael Baers, Sarnath Banerjee, Andy Bichlbaum, Julio Camba, Asli Çavuşoğlu, Carolina Caycedo, Samuel R. Delany, Jimmie Durham, Liam Gillick, David Harvey, Ashley Hunt, Adam Kleinman, Runo Lagomarsino, Kim Levin, Yates McKee, Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective, OWS Architecture Committee, Raqs Media Collective, Martha Rosler, Kim Turcot DiFruscia/Elizabeth Povinelli, Anton Vidokle/Andrei Monastyrski, Jeff Weintraub, and Carla Zaccagnini.
Treating New York City as site for all sorts of personal and collective encounters/misses/near-misses, the supplement promises to be a fertile ground for a discussion of issues of urbanism, architecture, cultural policy, art production, the role of underground etc. (The publication will focus on the suspension of individual and group ideologies, cultural behaviors, moral attitudes, lifestyles, and beliefs when faced with other people and communities in the urban environment.). For the design of the supplement, Aranda and Motta will draw from Constructivist and propaganda aesthetics, featuring both new commissioned texts as well as reprints of historical texts. A public launch is scheduled for November 12. A Performa Project. Curated by Defne Ayas.
Aranda and Motta's collaboration started with Arts & Leisure, a one-time tabloid newspaper commissioned by Art in General and co-published with e-flux in 2005. The tabloid drew its title from the New York Time's cultural section making emphasis on its equivalence of arts and/to leisure. Using a journalistic style to inquire about the crisis pertaining art criticism and complacency with commercial structures of art discussion, the project presented poignant texts, articles, texts and humorous contributions (cross word puzzles, horoscope, letters to the editor, etc.) by over 20 international cultural producers.
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Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life
Wednesday, November 2 - Saturday, November 19
Over 100 works dating primarily from the 1960s and '70s and a performance by Larry Miller offer a fresh look at Fluxus, designed to spark multiple interpretations, exploring the works' relationships to key themes of human existence and what they can teach us about our own position in the world. Presented by Grey Art Gallery. Curated by Jacquelynn Baas.
On view November 2 - 19, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 11 am - 6 pm, Wednesday 11 am - 8 pm, Saturday 11 am - 5 pm.
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33 Fragments of Russian Performance
Wednesday, November 2 - Wednesday, November 23
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow and Performa Present
33 Fragments of Russian Performance
Opening Reception, November 2, 2011, 5-8 pm
Performa and Garage Center for Contemporary Culture present a major new collaborative project entitled 33 Fragments of Russian Performance as part of Performa 11, on view November 2–23, 2011. The exhibition will include performance archives, photographs, and videos documenting Russian performance in both the historical avant-garde of the 1920s and contemporary periods. Presented at the Performa Hub and curated by Garage curator Yulia Aksenova in collaboration with Performa Founding Director and Curator RoseLee Goldberg, the exhibition will also include a lecture by renowned Russian art critic Alexandra Obukhova and a performance by Andrey Kuzkin.
33 Fragments will explore the rich tradition of performance in Russia and its development during the 20th and 21st centuries. Performance art, or ‘live’ art, emerged strongly in the Russian art scene of the 1960s, although performance was popular in the projects of the avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century. The avant-garde artists of the 1920s were pioneers who created entirely new means for articulating ideas to reach the mass public emancipated by the revolution. Using experimental techniques and mixing genres, they sought to release their works from the constraints of traditional, established artistic media, focusing instead on their bodies within time and space.
Presented in two parts; the first section will trace the early development of performance with documentation from visionary early Russian performance artists Mikhail Larionov, Ilya Zdanevich, Mikhail Matyushin, Alexey Kruchenykh, Nina Kogan, Valentin Parnakh, Vera Maya, Nikolai Forreger, Arseniy Avramov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergey Eisenstein, and others. The second part will be devoted to performance’s resurgence in the politically turbulent 1960s and 1970s and follows the genre’s evolution into its current form in the 21st century. The exhibition illustrates the crucial position of performance and its discourses for non-official, underground movements, notably Moscow Conceptualism, Sots Art, and their key protagonists: Collective Actions and Komar and Melamid. 33 Fragments documents performance’s changing tactics, from New Wave’s mocking sarcasm to the anarchic gestures of Moscow Actionism, to finally present its most vocal current practitioners: Elena Kovylina, Andrei Kuzkin, Liza Morozova, and others.
Presenting Russian performance in all its diversity, the exhibition demonstrates the integral role it has played in the country’s artistic development and the crucial means for freedom of speech it has offered in a century marked by political repression and censorship. Performance in Russia became an essential vehicle for engaging with a multitude of discourses in art, politics and society at the most critical moments in Russian history. This has persisted into the 21st century as a new generation of performance artists continues to tackle issues at the core of contemporary Russian society.
As one of the biennial’s historical themes, centering on Russian Constructivism, Performa 11 will present a series of seminars, workshops and conferences which contemplates the early 20th century Russian avant-garde and considers its power and continuing relevance. 33 Fragments also marks a continued partnership between Performa and Garage which began with the third installment of the exhibition 100 Years of Performance, curated by RoseLee Goldberg and Klaus Biesenbach, and presented at Garage in Moscow in 2010.
On view November 2 - 23, 2011
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See complete program here: http://11.performa-arts.org/
Image: Elmgreen & Dragset, rendering for Happy Days in the Art World, 2011. Courtesy the artists.
For press inquiries and image requests contact:
Ashley Tickle Press and Marketing Manager 212.366.5700 ashley@performa-arts.org
Concetta Duncan Senior Account Executive Fitz & Co + 1 212 627 1455 x232 concetta@fitzandco.com
Opening Night of Performa 11 with feature the world premiere performance by Elmgreen & Dragset, followed by an exceptional party featuring a retrospective of live performances by the artists.
Tue, Nov 1, 7:30 pm
Elmgreen & Dragset: Happy Days in the Art World
Opening Night Benefit Tue, Nov 1, 7:00 pm
Performa Hub
233 Mott Street - New York