It’s flu season, which means you’ll need plenty of fluids, medical masks and of course your weekly Art Rx.
This week’s prescription is a heavy dose of Performa 11 with just a taste of the must-see highlights of this year’s festival. The three-week event can be overwhelming, but thankfully the Hyperallergic doctor is in to help you through it.
Zefrey Throwell’s strip poker project, “I’ll Raise You One…” (via Art in General), and an image being used to advertise Public Movement’s “Positions” (via Performa)
Public Protest Art
When: November 4 and Sunday November 6, 1pm – 2pm
Where: Washington Square Park on November 4, Union Square/South Plaza on November 6
The New Museum and the Israeli Art Fund joins Performa to present the first US performance of the Israeli research and action group Public Movement. Taking a cue from Occupy Wall Street, “Positions” is a choreographed demonstration that asks people to take a stand on any number of urgent issues. This could just turn into another OWS General Assembly meeting.
Make a Photobook with Photographer Daido Moriyama
When: Friday, November 4, 2pm — 4pm and 6pm – 9pm, Saturday November 5, 12pm – 3pm and 5pm – 8pm
Where: Aperture Foundation (547 W 27 street, Chelsea, Manhattan)
Famed Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama is re-creating his 1971 performance “Printing Show” at Aperture Foundation. Visitors will find the artist stationed at a photocopy machine duplicating his photographic prints of images made in Tokyo over the last 15 years. Visitors will then select, edit and sequence the sheets to create an ad-hoc photobook titled TKY. Known for his obsessive documentation of the seedy underbelly of Shinjuku, Japan, Moriyama is sure to be an interesting character to meet. However, this performance will set you back $75.
Ha! Performing Comedy in Performance
When: Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 9pm
Where: HA! Comedy Club (163 West 46th Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
Who said performance art had to be serious? This is the first of three Sundays of conceptual jokes by artists, comedians and musicians. Participants in this series include Dina Seiden, Bedwyr Williams, Michael Smith and YouTube sensation Hennessey Youngman.
Your Shot of Russian Art
When: Thursday, November 10, 6pm – 7pm
Where: E-flux (311 East Broadway, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
Take a break from all of the performances at Performa with a lecture by the esteemed Russian curator Boris Groys who curated the Russian Pavillion at this year’s Venice Biennale. Groys will be discussing the artist he chose for the Biennale, Andrew Monastryski.
Star Wars and the Rhetoric of Power
When: Thursday November 10, 3pm – 4pm
Where: Performa Hub (233 Mott Street, SoHo, Manhattan)
Brooklyn artist John Powers, aka Star Wars Modern, will host a lecture, “Star Wars and the Rhetoric of Power.” Powers treats the Star Wars saga not as a literary fantasy, but as a historical artifact of Cold War America, or an “America rebelling against the massive Modernist urban development and mute abstract art they associated with the racist and sexist paternalism of their own Empire.” This event is enough to give any Star Wars fan/conspiracy theorist a huge boner. You may also remember we hosted Powers during an event last year at Hyperallergic HQ.
The Fluxus Colony That Never Was
When: Several events on Friday November 11 – Sunday November, 13, check the Performa calendar for the location and times of each event
Back in the 1960s Fluxus artist George Maciunas took a trip along with artists Milan Knizák, Yoshi Wada and actor Robert De Niro to Ginger Island, an uninhabited place in the Caribbean. Maciunas’ dream was to create a Fluxus colony and unique city on the island, but the experience ended up being very traumatic and is today surrounded by various myths and urban legends. The Ginger Island Project at Performa takes inspiration from this mysterious trip. Visitors can check out several events including an exhibition with artists who were involved with “Ginger Island,” a film installation at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and a sound project by Marina Rosenfeld at a pop-up venue in Soho/Chinatown.
7 Days of Strip Poker as Art
When: November 12 – 19, 2011
Where: Art in General Space (79 Walker Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan)
Before there was Occupy Wall Street, there was Zefrey Throwell’s “Occularpation: Wall Street” where people got naked in the middle of the Financial District on a busy Monday morning. Now Throwell is taking clothes off again with his continuous project for Performa, “I’ll Raise You One.” Each day from 10:30am – 6pm, seven players will gamble away their clothes until their in the buff and then start all over again.
