2012 Time-Based Art Festival Guide
August 8th, 2012Portland’s Time-Based Art Festival (which everyone simply calls TBA) celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, which means 10 years of bringing challenging, perplexing, satisfying and even exhilarating art to the city. TBA is the city’s best window into the restless, ever-evolving world of the avant-garde, both American and international, especially in the performing arts but also the visual, and from Sept. 6-16 it changes the flavor of the culture here.
Centered again this year at its hub in the old Washington High School on the city’s east side, TBA spreads to performing spaces across the city with multiple events on any given day, from full-scale productions to lectures and workshops. This year’s festival is headlined by performance pioneer Laurie Anderson, but before she performs on the festival’s closing day, lots of other opportunities for puzzlement and inspiration beckon:
Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol, El Rumor del Incendio
Opening Night – Sept. 6
Washington High School (Southeast Stark and 13th Avenue)
The festival begins with an outdoor performance and video projection spectacle courtesy of New York’s Big Art Group, and the opening of both the festival’s visual arts show and its late-night cabaret, The Works.
Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol – Sept. 7-9 and 10-12
Winningstad Theatre (1111 S.W. Broadway) and BodyVox (1201 NW 17th Ave.)
This Mexico City collective, dedicated to fashioning history into performances for the contemporary stage, performs a “documentary play” about the reform movement in Mexico in the ‘60s, then reprises its account of the disappearance of Mexico City’s water resources since the time of the Conquistadors.
Nora Chipaumire – Sept. 7-8
Lincoln Hall (1620 S.W. Park Ave.)
Zimbabwe-born choreographer/dancer Chipaumire investigates feminine ideals and her personal iconography in “Miriam,” drawing on the lives of the mother of Jesus, the sister of Moses and South African singer Miriam Makeba.
Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug – Sept. 9
Lincoln Hall (1620 S.W. Park Ave.)
Yamazaki is an international butoh star, but his TBA piece will be “glowing,” which merges the primal approach of butoh with more traditional dance and theater forms.
Perforations – Sept. 10-11
Washington High (Southeast Stark and 13th Avenue)
Perforations is an annual fringe festival in Zagreb, Croatia, and this show is a sort of “best of” drawn from that festival, featuring site-specific performance art by three of Eastern Europe’s most challenging artists.
Keith Hennessy, Turbulence; photo: Robbie Sweeney, courtesy of the artist.
Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero – Sept. 11-14
Imago Theatre (17 S.E. Eighth Ave.)
From San Francisco, Circo Zero will perform “Turbulence (a dance about the economy),” which combines dance, happenings and political theater to take on the issue of economic justice in the global economy.
Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabaka – Sept. 13-15
Winningstad Theatre (1111 S.W. Broadway)
Linyekula lives and works in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his dances reflect the constant violence, civil war and social collapse around him, though they also argue, surprisingly, for the power of hope and creativity. He’ll be performing his first evening-length solo, “Le Cargo.”
Gob Squad – Sept. 13-15
Lincoln Hall (1620 S.W. Park Ave.)
The Berlin-based group will perform “Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good),” which plunges into the heart of Andy Warhol’s 1960s and his experimental movie, “Kitchen,” resulting in funhouse mirrors confusing reality and … something else.
chelfitsch – Sept. 14-15
Washington High School (Southeast Stark and 13th Avenue)
In “Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech,” the Japanese troupe chelfitsch, founded by Toshiki Okada, explores everyday life in Tokyo with its characteristic wit and compassion.
Aki Onda – Sept. 16
Lincoln Hall (1620 S.W. Park Ave.)
Onda has assembled several of the leading exponents of avant-garde music in Japan for this concert, which combines literature, sound art, performance and improvisation. Prepare your ears in advance!
Laurie Anderson – Sept. 16
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (1037 S.W. Broadway)
Since 1980 (and the hit song “O Superman”), Anderson has explored music, film, spoken word and various other art forms. Here, she performs “Dirtday!,” her response to Occupy Wall Street and a variety of other topics, from evolution to animals, in a wide range of stories, songs and sonic effects.
Tags: festival, Performance, performing arts, TBA, TBA festival, visual arts
