IT likes acronyms. So, when we caught word of the TBA Festival, we jumped on it ASAP. Here, Anne Marie Johnson, a native of Portland, Oregon, writes about an art exhibit so cool we actually checked airfares from DCA to PDX (FYI, no good deals):
The Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's Time-Based Art Festival is a ten-day event running September 7-17. The schedule includes all genres and often defies them; mixed media, performance art, dance, film, and visual art are all represented. An artist-led series of workshops, salons, and lectures invites the audience into the creative mind. The city acts as the canvas for the festival, with performances taking place in old printing presses and dry cleaners, and on the streets and bridges of Portland.
According to Brian
Costello of PR and development at PICA, TBA is unique for two reasons:
'Portland's pioneer spirit, its openness and willingness to explore
both artistically and environmentally,' and 'the thin line separating
the artist from the audience; unlike most festivals, a curator's pass
isn't required to attend panels or discourse with the artists.'
This year, for the first time, TBA will be held on both sides of the Willamette.
The festival will kick off with a nod to the metaphorical and literal
bridges intrinsic to TBA. On September 7, a free outdoor concert will
be held in Pioneer Court House Square led by John King's Extreme Guitar Orchestra
and involve dozens of local electric guitar players. Following the
performance, artists and audience will embark by foot or bicycle on a
pilgrimage across the Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette to the Works. Located in an old warehouse,
the Works is both bar and stage, and acts as the nightly rendezvous
point for the festival. It is the place to chat with your favorite
artist while sipping microbrews, or to catch a live performance by the
likes of Jollyship the Whiz-bang, an 'electro-accordion pyrate puppet sea odyssey', or the Wau Wau Sisters who can 'mix martinis in a handstand while smoking Pall Malls and thinking impure thoughts.'
The schedule offers a bounty of options, ranging from relatively unknown local artists to world-renowned talent from all over. Laurie Anderson is perhaps the best known artist at TBA, and she promises to infatuate audiences with her new multimedia performance piece The End of The Moon, inspired in part by her time as NASA's first ever artist-in-residence.
Stan's Café's performance-slash-installation-piece Of All the People in All the World
exemplifies TBA's belief in audience involvement and the blurring of
genres. In the piece, 300 million grains of rice—each representing one
person in the U.S.—are displayed and sorted according to different
statistics. One day the rice may represent Democrats vs. Republicans,
the next day, the number of people infected with AIDS. The audience is
encouraged to suggest different divisions, and to engage in
conversation with the performers.
TBA offers two festival pass options:
For $225, the Immersion Pass includes access to all performances, all
institute programs, and a nightly pass to The Works. For $150, the Flex
Pass includes tickets to eight performances, a pass for all institute
programs, and a nightly pass to The Works.
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