Past
Dana Michel discusses complex performance work Yellow Towel and its explorations of race, gender, body politics, and their intersections. With Lisa Jarrett, Artist and DePriest Visiting Professor of Art and Ethnic Studies, Portland State University.
Learn morePhilippe Quesne shares the unique artistic vision of innovative theatre lab Vivarium Studios and their TBA project, La Mélancolie des Dragons . With Kate Bredeson, Assoc. Professor of Theatre, Reed College.
Learn moreSeattle-based dance and theatre critic Omar Willey joins Amy O’Neal and collaborators to discuss Opposing Forces through the lenses of gender, race, hip hop, and aesthetic experiments with Breaking.
Learn moreIn this provocative performative lecture, renowned artist, curator, and educator Marc Bamuthi Joseph uses poem and image to catalog his arc from working on issues of environment in West Oakland to premiering a 6-week installation for Creative Time in New York City's Central Park. The 7-year journey in between describes an individual and collective prototype for uncovering narratives of black joy in these American hours of chaos. Along the way, Bamuthi will touch on the ethics of hip-hop generation organizing; as the true frontline organizers of the current Black Lives Matter movement are women, gender neutral, or queer, we are faced with the question of how the politics of the dance floor become inert when exposed to the politics of social liberation.
Learn moreInterdisciplinary artist and choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni sheds light on FOLK-S, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, including its process, cultural context and tradition, and unique commitments to durational artist/audience experience. With choreographer Linda K. Johnson.
Learn moreInterdisciplinary artists Dawn Kasper (NY), Jibade-Khalil Huffman (LA), and Lucy Yim (Portland) discuss formal and conceptual influences across their complex practices in performance, dance, writing, visual art, and poetry. With Erin Boberg Doughton, Performing Arts Program Director, PICA.
Learn moreHolcombe Waller sheds light on the development of Requiem Mass: LGBT / Working Title, including aesthetic constructs, conceptual underpinnings, public engagement, and partnership experiences across faith-based and queer communities. With community choir participants. With Roya Amirsoleymani, Community Engagement Manager, PICA.
Learn moreInterdisciplinary performance artist Lars Jan shares insight into his TBA performance, The Institute of Memory (TIMe), including inventive uses of technology and the personal and political histories inspiring the piece. With Robert Quillen Camp, Visiting Professor of Theatre, Lewis & Clark College.
Learn moreConceived by Portland artists Sharita Towne and keyon gaskin, in collaboration with BCC: BrownHall (Black Creative Collective), GLOVES OFF will take the form of a panel discussion and community conversation on Black contemporary, experimental, and abstract arts and audiences. Featuring artists and scholars Sampada Aranke (San Francisco), Samiya Bashir (Portland), keyon gaskin (Portland), Jibade-Khalil Huffman (Los Angeles), Eileen Isagon-Skyers (Portland), and sidony o'neal (Portland).
Learn moreIn this politically and artistically timely presentation, Sampada Aranke (Asst. Professor of History and Theory of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Art Institute) examines critical and often forgotten works by black conceptual performance artists. Taking the body seriously, these artists engage violent histories against black flesh, while opening up possibilities to imagine a fugitive future.
Learn moreTBA artist Okwui Okpokwasili reflects on her TBA solo performance, Bronx Gothic, and its personal inflections. With Angela Mattox, PICA Artistic Director.
Learn moreLeading curators discuss the festival format as a uniquely relevant platform for global contemporary art, performance, and public engagement. With Angela Mattox, PICA's TBA Festival (Portland, OR); Jeff Khan, Performance Space (Sydney, Australia); Norman Armour (PuSh Festival, Vancouver, BC); and Vallejo Gantner (PS122 / COIL Festival, New York City). Moderated by Sara Krajewski, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Portland Art Museum. Note: We regret that Seunghyo Lee (Festival Bo:m, Seoul) and Helen Cole (In Between Time Festival, Bristol, UK), both listed in the TBA Festival print catalog, are unable to join us.
Learn moreKarl Larsson and Pascal Prosek (Sweden) with Morgan Ritter and Gary Robbins (Portland) discuss their TBA project, Commonplace, the genesis of their collaborations, and attempts to create a book that defies its own form. With Kristan Kennedy, Visual Art Curator, PICA.
Learn moreHalory Goerger and Antoine Defoort dissect GERMINAL’s philosophical investigations into a staging of the construction and deconstruction of society, civilization, and the world. Moderated by Kate Bredeson, Assistant Professor of Theater, Reed College.
Learn moreExperimentalists Liz Harris (Grouper) and Paul Clipson discuss HYPNOSIS DISPLAY, a their cross-disciplinary collaboration of live sound performance and 16 mm film. They are joined by Andrew Neerman of Beacon Sound, a record store/music label in Portland.
Learn moreLuke George and Hilary Clark reflect on their collaborative process and unpack notions of intimacy and transmission between artist and audience explored in their TBA:14 piece, Not About Face. In conversation with choreographer, dance artist, and professor Linda K. Johnson.
Learn moreOlive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad of BodyCartography Project discuss the intersection of movement, empathy, and tension in their project, Super Nature with Michael Sakamota, interdisciplinary artist and Program Co-Director of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College.
Learn moreJoin public intellectual Madison Moore, (King’s College, London) and Portland's premier art queen, Pepper Pepper, for an unconventional lecture and discussion about their academic and artistic work and collaboration for Critical Mascara.
Learn moreFilipina choreographer Eisa Jocson joins Clare Croft, Assistant Professor of Dance Studies at the University of Michigan, to share insight into her artistic process and technique and the intersection of gender, labour, seduction politics, and social mobility in her TBA performances, Death of the Pole Dancer and Macho Dancer.
Learn moreAt this year’s Festival, Karen Sherman (Minneapolis) performs with set pieces she designs and builds herself, drawing on her skills in construction, while Linda Austin (Portland) performs with sculptural objects by artist David Eckard. Here, they talk about designing and constructing set pieces and choreographing with and for sculptural objects and visual artists.
Learn moreTrue to PICA’s interdisciplinary, artist-driven focus, TBA visual artist Emily Roysdon—whose practice spans independent and collaborative work in performance, installation, printmaking, text, video, and curating—interviews visiting choreographers Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco) and Nacera Belaza (France/Algeria) on their newest works.
Learn moreDisjecta Curator-in-Residence Summer Guthery and artist Ieva Miseviciute will discuss comedy, problems, mimes, audience members as captives, undescribing performance, and fugues, all while sitting in very tall chairs.
Learn moreLaura Arrington and Jesse Hewit discuss their newest work, ADULT, and reflect on their collaborative process subverting the dance duet. Moderated by Ju-Pong Lin, Faculty, MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College.
Learn moreA collective conversation about exhibition making, “performance” community, and the artist as object, with artist Jamie Isenstein, Cooley Gallery curator Stephanie Snyder, and PICA’s Kristan Kennedy.
Learn more