Past
Closing night at THE WORKS lights up the sky with an explosion of a million stars. Enter the sensorial and phantasmagoric world of Evelyn.
Learn moreHYPNOSIS DISPLAY is an original live sound and 16mm film collaboration between experimental vocalist and musician Grouper (Liz Harris) and filmmaker Paul Clipson.
Learn moreOneohtrix Point Never, aka acclaimed experimental composer Daniel Lopatin, takes the audience on an odyssey through his latest work R Plus Seven. Hypnotic and unexpected in equal measure, R Plus Seven is full of satisfyingly complex sonic puzzles.
Learn moreIn GERMINAL, French artists Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort create one of the most talked-about recent works of contemporary international theater. Both whimsical and deeply philosophical in approach, GERMINAL asks: if we had the opportunity to start the world from scratch, how would we do it?
Learn moreOne of PICA's most popular year-round programs gets TBA treatment with five festival Field Guides facilitated by visiting and local artists and scholars. Each small-group session creates context around contemporary performance and a particular artist's social, political, cultural, and aesthetic influences through a pre-show workshop with lecture and discussion; group viewing of a performance; and post-show conversation over food and drink. Online artist interviews and other media supplement learning and engagement. Anyone curious about contemporary art is welcome.
Learn moreArca is a Venezuelan producer, artist, mixing engineer and DJ now based in Brooklyn, New York. Fresh off of his latest work &&&&&, audio-visual collaborations with Jesse Kanda at MoMA PS1 and producing projects with Kanye West, Arca will set THE WORKS ablaze with his off the grid structures and sound mutations of club music.
Learn more[Not About Face] is always engaging, sometimes awkward, sometimes an exercise in failure, finally ecstatic... it's as if it's a gift, as if somehow the touching and the following and the watching and the listening, has shaped this movement, making it an expression of our collective desire. —Alison Croggon, ABC Arts
Learn moreIn Mon, Ma, Mes, the NYC-based dancer, choreographer, and writer examines the permeability between the real and the fictive in a disarming and interactive retrospective of his life and work.
Learn moreSQUART! says "Get your ass on stage, be spontaneous, short-circuit the forces of habit and expectation in the face of the dominant order, celebrate this space of not knowing to make something strange together!” —Jeremy Wade, SQUART! Berlin Celebrity Judge, 2014
Learn moreMammalian Diving Reflex, of the revered social practice-based work Haircuts by Children (TBA:07), returns with All the Sex I’ve Ever Had. Mammalian uses storytelling to plunge fearlessly into provocative uncharted waters with a frank, vulnerable and unpredictable work that examines intimacy, old age, youth obsessed culture and sex.
Learn moreOne of PICA's most popular year-round programs gets TBA treatment with five festival Field Guides facilitated by visiting and local artists and scholars. Each small-group session creates context around contemporary performance and a particular artist's social, political, cultural, and aesthetic influences through a pre-show workshop with lecture and discussion; group viewing of a performance; and post-show conversation over food and drink. Online artist interviews and other media supplement learning and engagement. Anyone curious about contemporary art is welcome. Limited to 25 participants.
Learn moreIn 2013 Portland based artist, photographer, and comic Jason Traeger began documenting Portland Oregon’s internationally recognized stand-up comedy scene in his blog, Portland Stand-up Comedy Photo Album. Over 2,000 posts later, the blog and Traeger’s photos stand as the definitive document of the comedic explosion flowering in Portland. Taking inspiration from his blog, Traeger will host an evening of boundary pushing stand-up comedy featuring some of his favorite funny people from Portland and beyond.
Learn moreJennifer West launches the first of her new pre-post fragmented cinematic environments where viewers are invited into an environment of flashlights, projections, filmstrips, images, and shadows. The Los Angeles-based artist will premiere the first in this series of interactive cinematic installations at this year’s TBA Festival.
Learn moreA Living Documentary is a raw comedic reflection on the trials and tribulations of earning a living as a professional theater artist in the 21st century. Intertwining elements of musical comedy, documentary, and fiction, Hopkins’ newest work intersperses autobiographical storytelling with portrayals of semi-fictional comedic characters, all the while asking myriad questions about the realities of artistic life in New York City.
Learn moreDuet Love performs love, lust, and charged energy. Portland choreographer Tahni Holt returns to the TBA Festival with her latest work that presents coupled bodies performing gendered states around the romantic premise of the “duet.”
Learn moreWith virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness, Maya Beiser is the post-modern diva of the cello.” – The Boston Globe
Learn moreChristopher Sutton describes his whole life as revolving around his love of music. RE: Disc COVER is part performance, thoughtful dissertation, and dance party based on artist Sutton’s lifelong journey as a collector of 12” vinyl.
Learn moreCanadian-based musician and sound artist, explores the intersection of noise, dissonance, and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft that is both physical and emotive. Marking Hecker’s Portland debut, this rare concert will be an immersive sensory experience that includes both recent and debut material.
Learn moreOne of PICA's most popular year-round programs gets TBA treatment with five festival Field Guides facilitated by visiting and local artists and scholars. Each small-group session creates context around contemporary performance and a particular artist's social, political, cultural, and aesthetic influences through a pre-show workshop with lecture and discussion; group viewing of a performance; and post-show conversation over food and drink. Online artist interviews and other media supplement learning and engagement. Anyone curious about contemporary art is welcome.
Learn moreCRITICAL MASCARA "A Post-Realness Drag Ball" returns to the TBA stage with a much anticipated sequel evening of fabulousness and extravaganza. CRITICAL MASCARA features some of the Pacific Northwest's most courageous and raw talent all competing to win 666$ in a queer driven dance-off drag spectacular! The evening is hosted by, the one and only, Pepper Pepper with celebrity judges, features special guest performers, and wraps up with a raucous late-night dance party for all! Come dressed as your fiercest self!
Learn moreIn this concert for film, Inuit throat singer and famed tour de force vocalist, Tanya Tagaq reclaims the controversial 1922 silent film Nanook of the North. Tagaq’s innovative vocals and deep sense of Arctic life work to create a powerful soundscape of authentic emotion and pulsing breath against the backdrop of the film’s racially charged clichés. In Nanook, Tagaq’s haunting singing is joined by violinist Jesse Zubot, genius drummer Jean Martin, and Juno Award-winning composer Derek Charke’s original film score to frame the vintage semi-documentary of an Inuk family in a revealing contemporary light.
Learn moreFrom pole dancing to macho dancing, choreographer Eisa Jocson investigates labour and representations of the dancing body in the service industry and exposes gender formation, seduction politics, and Filipino social mobility.
Learn morePICA's education and public engagement series, Field Guide helps audiences discover and feel more informed about contemporary performance. Through facilitated workshops with visiting and local faculty, focused explorations of artist's work, and connection with other festival-goers, Field Guide sessions include various combinations of pre-show workshops, social outings to performances, post-show conversations, and online interviews and media to more deeply contextualize the art and artists of our time.
Learn moreUnique' has generally come to mean 'slightly out of the ordinary,' but Samita Sinha's voice warrants the true meaning of the hackneyed accolade... mesmerizing. This is fusion… in the best sense: she effortlessly, seamlessly weaves [sounds] yet keeps their distinct flavors intact. —Time Out
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