Performa Biennial

Performa Biennial
Name	Performa Biennial
Caption	Performance art event
Location	New York City
Established	2005
Founder	Elizabeth Sussman; RoseLee Goldberg
Frequency	Biennial
Discipline	Performance art

Performa Biennial is a New York–based performance arts festival established in 2005 with the mission of commissioning, presenting, and promoting live art across museums, theaters, galleries, and public spaces. The project has staged large-scale commissions and site-specific actions that have engaged institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, and New Museum. Over successive editions it has involved curators, critics, and practitioners from organizations including the Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Hayward Gallery, LACMA, and Haus der Kunst.

History

Founded in 2005 by curator RoseLee Goldberg and art historian Elizabeth Sussman, the biennial originated amid debates around performance practice at institutions like the Jerome Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Early editions featured collaborations with presenters such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Public Library, Cooper Hewitt, and Carnegie Hall, and engaged artists previously associated with Fluxus, Situationist International, Judson Church, and the Guggenheim's YouTube Play initiative. The festival expanded through partnerships with international venues including the Serpentine Galleries, Serralves Museum, Mori Art Museum, and the Shanghai Biennale, reflecting curatorial linkages to figures from the Documenta network and the Venice Biennale circuit.

Organization and Funding

Administration has been based in New York City with governance involving an executive director, a board of advisers drawn from institutions such as Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and philanthropic funders including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, Graham Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Financial models have combined commission budgets, institutional venue fees, ticketing revenue, and sponsorships from corporate patrons and arts councils like the National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and international cultural agencies tied to the British Council, Institut Français, and Goethe-Institut. Programming logistics have involved project managers coordinating with staff from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and commercial galleries such as Gagosian Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner.

Curatorial Approach and Programming

Curators have emphasized new commissions, historical reconstructions, and cross-disciplinary collaborations drawing on practices associated with Marina Abramović, Yves Klein, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, and Merce Cunningham. The program weaves site-specific works staged in venues like the St. Ann's Warehouse, Apollo Theater, Terminal 5 (venue), and the High Line with gallery-based performances across spaces represented by PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Stephen Petronio Company, and Danspace Project. Curatorial teams have included figures from MoMA PS1, Walker Art Center, Hammer Museum, ICA London, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, often collaborating with dramaturges, composers from the Bang on a Can collective, scenographers who worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and choreographers linked to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Notable Commissions and Exhibitions

Significant commissions have commissioned reworkings and premieres involving artists and collectives such as Tino Sehgal, Kembra Pfahler, Pipilotti Rist, Ursula K. Le Guin (in adaptation contexts), Cindy Sherman (performance projects), Laurie Anderson, Chris Burden, Terry Adkins, Wu Tsang, Hito Steyerl, Sophie Calle, Christian Marclay, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Theaster Gates, Marina Abramović Institute affiliates, Rufus Wainwright (music collaborations), and multidisciplinary productions with directors from Robert Wilson's circle. Notable site-specific events have taken place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Cadman Plaza, and within institutional architecture of the Frick Collection and Cooper Union.

Critical Reception and Impact

Critical response has ranged from enthusiastic endorsement in outlets aligned with the New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, The Guardian, and The Brooklyn Rail to skeptical appraisals in columns from The New Yorker and cultural critics affiliated with London Review of Books and Harper's Magazine. Analysts from university departments at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and Yale University have used the biennial as a case study in performance historiography, public programming, and institutional critique. The project influenced curricular offerings at conservatories and schools including Juilliard School, Bard College, School of Visual Arts, and Rhode Island School of Design, and contributed to market and archival practices debated at conferences organized by College Art Association and the International Association of Art Critics.

Participating Artists and Collaborators

Across editions, participants have included established and emergent figures such as Marina Abramović, Tino Sehgal, Pina Bausch ensemble representatives, Laurie Anderson, William Kentridge, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Cecilia Vicuña, Sophie Calle, Julius Eastman estates, Gordon Matta-Clark scholarship projects, Nan Goldin affiliates, Pipilotti Rist, Hito Steyerl, Wu Tsang, Theaster Gates, Terry Adkins, Chris Burden estates, and interdisciplinary collaborators from institutions like Bang on a Can, Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Royal Ballet, and experimental music scenes tied to Nonesuch Records and ECM Records. Curatorial and production collaborations have involved staff from MoMA, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, Serpentine Galleries, Centre Pompidou, Hammer Museum, and independent producers linked to Performa's global presenting partners.

Category:Performance art festivals