THE PERFORMA BIENNIAL 2023 presents three weeks of live performance, featuring Performa Commissions, projects, and events at venues across the city of New York and at The Performa Hub, from 1-19 November.
Event Calendar
Week 3: November 15-19
Nov 15

Rana Hamadeh
Can You Make a Pet of Him Like a Bird or Put Him on a Leash For Your Girls?
6pm
Rana Hamadeh’s cacophonous sonic work takes the Shiite ceremony of Ashoura –– encompassing its current political, military, and legal expressions within the Lebanese/Syrian context, as its field for commentary and research –– an annual ritual during which mourners take the streets to 're-witness' the slaying of al-imam al-Hussein (626–680 AD), the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and an allegorical reference to the ultimate figure of the oppressed.
Nov 16

Antto Melasniemi
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Bastard Cookbook
Nov 16

Franz Erhard Walther
Creation Needs Action
5pm
7pm
For more than sixty years, German conceptual artist Franz Erhard Walther has been radically reimagining the relationship between space, objects, and bodies. While maybe better known in Europe than in the United States, Walther’s formative artistic experience took place in New York. Co-produced with Judd Foundation, Walther’s Performa Commission “Creation Needs Action” builds on the relationship between Walther and Judd and offers a means to compare two masters of Minimal Art.
Nov 16

Cucina Povera
Lau Nau
Islaja
AGF
Lamin Fofana
HxH (Lester St. Louis and Chris Williams)
Tony Cokes
DeForrest Brown, Jr.
Bhavisha Panchia
KMRU
SONIC TONIC ASSEMBLY
6pm
Curated by PUBLICS, co-presented with Performa, and co-produced by PALO Art Productions, SONIC TONIC ASSEMBLY, a listening program of innovative sound artists using location-specific field recording as their starting point to create aural worlds at the intersection of sonic poetry, abstracted music, and experimental black and global feminist technologies. SONIC TONIC ASSEMBLY has two overlapping episodes of an extended unfolding event that sounds out and listens in.
Nov 16

Juni One Set
Boy mother / faceless bloom
7:30pm
Boy mother / faceless bloom is a stage work by Juni One Set, a collaboration of Senga Nengudi, eddy kwon, and Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl of Degenerate Art Ensemble. Threading mythology and autobiography, while drawing from the diverse lineages of queer, anti-colonial, and care-based artistic practices. Dance, music, poetry, ritual, and sculptural installation converge to tell a story of transformation, transgression, and the formation of new trancestral lines.
Nov 17

Franz Erhard Walther
Creation Needs Action
5pm
7pm
For more than sixty years, German conceptual artist Franz Erhard Walther has been radically reimagining the relationship between space, objects, and bodies. While maybe better known in Europe than in the United States, Walther’s formative artistic experience took place in New York. Co-produced with Judd Foundation, Walther’s Performa Commission “Creation Needs Action” builds on the relationship between Walther and Judd and offers a means to compare two masters of Minimal Art.
Nov 17

Juni One Set
Boy mother / faceless bloom
7:30pm
Boy mother / faceless bloom is a stage work by Juni One Set, a collaboration of Senga Nengudi, eddy kwon, and Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl of Degenerate Art Ensemble. Threading mythology and autobiography, while drawing from the diverse lineages of queer, anti-colonial, and care-based artistic practices. Dance, music, poetry, ritual, and sculptural installation converge to tell a story of transformation, transgression, and the formation of new trancestral lines.
Nov 17

AGF
Cucina Povera
Islaja
Lau Nau
KMRU
Tony Cokes
HxH (Lester St. Louis and Chris Williams)
Lamin Fofana
SONIC TONIC ASSEMBLY
1pm
Moderated by curator and writer Bhavisha Panchia, the episode Sounding a Black Grammar will advance different registers of listening through discussions and playback sessions with HxH (Lester St. Louis and Chris Williams) and Lamin Fofana, a film screening with Tony Cokes, the launch of the album Stupor by KMRU, and a pop-up shop with talks, listening sessions, and new releases from Sonic Wilderness, including with AGF, Cucina Povera, Lau Nau and Islaja.
Nov 17

Gregg Bordowitz
Pamela Sneed
Healthcare Not Warfare: A Tragi-comedy
Nov 18

Franz Erhard Walther
Creation Needs Action
5pm
7pm
For more than sixty years, German conceptual artist Franz Erhard Walther has been radically reimagining the relationship between space, objects, and bodies. While maybe better known in Europe than in the United States, Walther’s formative artistic experience took place in New York. Co-produced with Judd Foundation, Walther’s Performa Commission “Creation Needs Action” builds on the relationship between Walther and Judd and offers a means to compare two masters of Minimal Art.
Nov 18

Juni One Set
Boy mother / faceless bloom
7:30pm
Boy mother / faceless bloom is a stage work by Juni One Set, a collaboration of Senga Nengudi, eddy kwon, and Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl of Degenerate Art Ensemble. Threading mythology and autobiography, while drawing from the diverse lineages of queer, anti-colonial, and care-based artistic practices. Dance, music, poetry, ritual, and sculptural installation converge to tell a story of transformation, transgression, and the formation of new trancestral lines.
Nov 18

Franz Erhard Walther
In Conversation with Charles Aubin
Nov 18

Karon Davis
Beauty Must Suffer
Nov 18

Niko Hallikainen
Lavender Deal
6:30pm
9pm
Calling upon past generations of New York artists such as John Giorno and David Wojnarowicz, novelist and performance-poet Niko Hallikainen will premiere Lavender Deal, a reflection on a pandemic-era romance. Hallikainen weaves personal experiences with historical collective memories through a “séance” summoning the spirits of New York’s queer artistic legends to navigate longing, love, and loss in contemporary life. A co-production with Tibet House.
Nov 18

Lonnie Holley
Untitled
8pm
Holley will perform live, accompanied by instrumental duo Nelson Patton and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, followed by a discussion with his musical collaborator Lee Bains, improvising and exploring ideas of protest music, particularly in the context of the US South and the abolitionist movement.
Nov 19

Franz Erhard Walther
Creation Needs Action
2pm
4pm
6pm
For more than sixty years, German conceptual artist Franz Erhard Walther has been radically reimagining the relationship between space, objects, and bodies. While maybe better known in Europe than in the United States, Walther’s formative artistic experience took place in New York. Co-produced with Judd Foundation, Walther’s Performa Commission “Creation Needs Action” builds on the relationship between Walther and Judd and offers a means to compare two masters of Minimal Art.
Nov 19

Niko Hallikainen
Lavender Deal
6:30pm
4pm
Calling upon past generations of New York artists such as John Giorno and David Wojnarowicz, novelist and performance-poet Niko Hallikainen will premiere Lavender Deal, a reflection on a pandemic-era romance. Hallikainen weaves personal experiences with historical collective memories through a “séance” summoning the spirits of New York’s queer artistic legends to navigate longing, love, and loss in contemporary life. A co-production with Tibet House.
Nov 19
Thokozani Mhlambi
Defiant Desires: A Constellation of Love and Resistance