Still Not Mainstream, But Taking Center Stage

Somewhere between popular theater, film, two-dimensional image, and sculpture, performance art often gets overlooked, even by the most artistically informed. There are a number of possible explanations for this cultural blind spot, but the lack of a platform is no longer one of them.

Performa, a biennial celebration of performance art, is making its second appearance in New York this fall. The project made its debut in 2005 under the leadership of director RoseLee Goldberg. It showcased the work of over 90 artists in 20 venues throughout the area. This year, 10 more cultural institutions have joined forces with Performa to bring visual performance art to New York audiences.

The biennial consists of three weeks of programming, with up to 15 events scheduled on any given day in a variety of locations. The Columbia University School of the Arts is hosting Performa TV, a continuous Internet-video broadcast to accompany the program. Performa TV creates a forum for artists, critics, curators and organizers of the event to perform, discuss, and interact on a more casual and spontaneous level. While Performa TV functions as an educational supplement to the larger Performa project, it is also a work of performance art in itself, under the direction of artist Ronnie Bass.

While a main focus of Performa is to provide a showcase for young talent, a few notable visionaries who have been leaders in the field of performance art since the sixties and seventies will be contributing work. The list includes Yoko Ono, John Cage, Carolee Schneemann, and Allan Kaprow, to name a few.

Ono’s work is included in “A Spoken Word Exhibition” and “A Series of Spoken Word Retrospectives,” at the Swiss Institute. Works in the exhibition are available only upon request, a concept that curator Mathieu Copeland implemented to create a dialogue between the gallery staff and guests as a further exploration of the spoken word.

Schneemann’s viscerally corporeal performances and films asserted her presence as a woman in the art world in the late ’60s and ’70s, but not without raising a few eyebrows—much of her performance and video art was deemed vulgar or pornographic. “Remains To Be Seen: New and Restored Films and Videos of Carolee Schneemann” provides a synthesis of her earlier and more recent work, and serves as a tribute to her prolific career and longevity as a feminist artist.

The work of the late Cage will be included in “White Noise II,” an exhibition of performances and installations of sound artists presented at White Box.

A series of events honoring the late Kaprow, who supposedly coined the term ‘happenings,’ will also be taking place. Performers will re-enact two of his most well-known pieces, “18 Happenings in 6 Parts,” and “Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofman.” The latter plays off of Hofman’s mantra that “push and pull” creates compositional strength and tension in art. Kaprow’s version consists of moving furniture around on a stage.

With a broad base of support and enthusiasm that has expanded over the past two years, Performa’s second presentation promises to repeat, if not exceed, the success of its first. Over the next three weeks, Performa will remind New York of the artistic production that it nourished decades ago, and bring to light the creativity and innovation of young artists of the present moment.