Performa, New York’s performing art biennial, is collaborating with 1:54 contemporary African art fair in Brooklyn next month. Organised by Adrienne Edwards, the curator at Performa and curator-at-large at the Walker Art Center, a new section of the fair dedicated to performance will feature two live works, one by the Jamaican-born artist Dave McKenzie. The other performance is due to be announced at the end of April.
McKenzie’s performance, This ship would set sail, even anchored as it was (2016), takes its cue from the centennial anniversary of Pan-African leader Marcus Garvey’s arrival in New York City in 1916. The work, created especially for 1:54, will be performed at intervals on 6 and 7 May.
Touria El Glaoui, the founding director of 1:54, says it “felt appropriate” to launch a section dedicated to performance in New York. “After all, we are indebted to New York for pioneering live performance,” she says.
“Performa has an integral presence in New York and never fails to engage on an expanded register beyond the visual arts,” El Glaoui says. “For some time now we’ve been keen to accommodate a performance section within the fair, working with Performa and with Adrienne Edwards directly affords us this opportunity.”
1:54 Performs, as the new section is called, is part of the fair’s Forum section, which is organised by Koyo Kouoh, the founder and artistic director of RAW Material Company, Dakar and the curator of this year’s EVA International, Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art.
