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febrero 2014
¡hola, difus@s!
january’s flurry of festivals is now behind us and, in all candor, has left more exhaustion than excitement in its wake. perhaps the problem was with the programming itself—or my sampling of it—as nothing was on par with, say, rahib mouré’s “the pixelated revolution” from COIL 2012. the performances i saw all got me thinking, but none of them were really moving or inspired. at the american realness festival (my focus this year), juliana f. may’s commentary=not thing was a frustrating object lesson in the disjuncture between ideas, thinking, and thought. she desperately wanted to show the audience she was thinking REALLY hard, but the piece—with its limited choreographic vocabulary and stultifying (rather than stimulating) repetition—offered little in the way of actual ideas or thought. miguel gutierrez is an amazingly charismatic and often smart artist, but hismyendlesslove quickly devolved into abject solipsism (and, worse, self-indulgent twink worship), as though his “endless love” were only with himself (i guess he, like whitney, really “found the greatest love of all inside of [him]”). ishmael houston-jones and emily wexler’s “13 love songs: dot dot dot” initially threatened more of the same (the first segment was like an open mic nightmare at smith college) but ultimately offered a generous combination of wit, warmth, humor, and poignance, perhaps because they understood “realness” as something other than “pretense.”
based on what i’ve heard and read, the festivals all drew robust crowds, which is generally a good thing for the arts…except when it isn’t. in the visual arts, the popularity and concomitant proliferation of art fairs is often cited, uncritically, as a sign of health for the art world. such an assessment not only buys into a logic of “growth for growth’s sake” (the root of so much economic evil) but also overlooks the ways in which the form of the “fair” or “festival” shapes the experience and ends of art itself. the performing arts festival, like the art fair, induces a logic of “feasting” (true to its etymology), consuming as much as one can during a brief period and offering little time for digestion (deep reflection or sustained engagement). that logic isn’t such a problem when, as in the liturgical calendar, such feasts are separated by long stretches of “ordinary time.” however, the disappearance of such “ordinary time” and the predominance of “feasting” on the arts calendar troubles me, not least because it deprives me of the chance to spend real time with the art i love, to see a work evolve over multiple performances and to feel my own experience and understanding evolve in turn. more generally, though, the predominance of the festival reifies the logic of contemporary capitalism—precarity over security, mobility over stability, entrepreneurs over institutions (cf., “the dangerous rise of entrepreneurship porn”), hook-ups over relationships. shouldn’t the arts offer some point of meaningful critique rather than mindless reification? (and haven’t these artists read lazzarato or de certeau?). if, going back to the liturgical calendar, festivals (and carnival particularly, as bakhtin reminds us) originally provided a space for reflecting on and contesting the dominant order, perhaps ordinary time should now take on that role. i, for one, want more seasons and series and fewer festivals and fairs.
not surprisingly, then, the art i enjoyed most this past month fell outside the festival circuit. nico muhly and pekka kuusisto were delightful at le poisson rouge, and kremerata baltica delivered an excellent evening of music at the 92y (the shostakovich was egregiously misplaced on the program, but hearing the pärt and britten together was sublime). mark rylance’s portrayal of richard iii was wildly unsettling, as he made the role much more comedic than usual (cf., kevin spacey’s lugubrious scenery-chewing at BAM)…shades of george w. bush, perhaps? the wooster group’s rendition of troilus and cressida, with its post apocalyptic native american reservation aesthetic, was even more thought-provoking…and i’m still wrestling with what to make of it (as commentary on historical representation?). memories of underdevelopment and one day pina asked were both terrific films (the latter, honestly, bests wim wender’s pina), as were her and nebraska (forget the rest of the oscar slate).
february’s got a lot of good things on offer, most all of it mercifully free of any festival framing. what i’m most looking forward to are the following (and the full list of what’s on my radar is attached at the end):
dance: "black male revisited" at danspace project should be an excellent inquiry into race, representation, and art (and it’s a benefit!). i saw leesaar the company at montclair state university a few years back and quite enjoyed their show, so i’ll probably try and see them this month at the joyce. roulette has an entire week of new choreographers lined up under the title [danceroulette]. if you’re looking for something more participatory, saša asentić and ana vujanović bring “on trial together” to new york live arts; that the artists are serbian is, frankly, my main interest in this performance.
film: THE event this month, for better or worse, is matthew barney’s river of fundament at BAM; they added an additional screening, but my guess is tickets are already gone. BAM also has a terrific series of films with rebel female protagonists, entitled “vengeance is hers,” and i’m looking forward to seeing dolly on the big screen in 9 to 5. ms. 45 also looks fantastic. the other film i _really_ want to see this month is the stranger by the lake at IFC.
music: the JACK quartet plays the morgan library, which is where i first saw them. for another evening of new music in a fabulous space, check out lincoln center’s “new music in the kaplan penthouse.” on the other end of the historical spectrum, jordi savall and julliard415 will be at the barysnikov arts center. if you’re not so much into new or early music, cibo matto plays le poisson rouge, and beth orton performs at lincoln center.
theater: the wooster group has extended their run of cry, trojans! (troilus and cressida) through the middle of the month (and i might need to see it again). also on my radar are the mystery of pearl street, something cloudy, something clear, and not your mama’s fairy tales or: in real life, everything sucks (the title alone has me hooked). granted, i haven’t paid much attention to theater this month, but i’ll have more on the calendar for the rest of the spring.
art: after seeing memories of underdevelopment as part of its film program, i really want to see julie ault’s macho man, tell it to my heart at artists’ space. if i can fit another 6-hour art film into my schedule (ha!), i’ll also try and check out stan douglas’ luanda-kinshasa at david zwirner. as we head into art fair season (armory show, frieze, the spring auctions), we’ll have much more to see and discuss.
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abrazos,
p
febrero / february
6-8: black male revisited (dance)
6-8: david roussève | reality: stardust (dance)
6: saariaho + bach (music)
6-7: eighth blackbird: heart and breath (music)
6-8: not your mama's fairy tales or: in real life, everything sucks (theater)
7: uncommon women (music)
7-13: billy budd opera
7-22: the mystery of pearl street (theater)
7-18: vengance is hers (film)
8-9: leesaar the company (dance)
8: brentano string quartet & christine brandes, soprano (music)
9: something cloudy, something clear (performance)
10-14: [danceroulette] (dance)
12-16: river of fundament (film)
13-15: elena demyanenko & dai jian: blue room (dance)
13-15: souleymane badolo: be non (dance)
13: new music in the kaplan penthouse (music)
14: cibo matto (music)
14: beth orton (music)
15: alam khan with nitin mitta: music of north india (music)
19: lucy raven: on location (film)
19: JACK quartet: lachenmann (music)
20-22: saša asentić and ana vujanović: on trail together (dance)
20-22: vanessa anspaugh: we were an island (dance)
22: nora chipaumire (dance)
23: yo yo ma & emmanuel ax (music)
24: jordi savall and juilliard415 (music)
26-3/1: kimberly bartosik: you are my heat and glare (dance)
27: axiom ensemble (music)
27: the night will be calm (theater)
28-3/15: hobo grunt cycle (theater)