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If you're interested in the arts and live in the Portland area, chances are you've heard of the Time-Based Art Festival. Started in 2003 by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), the festival incorporates performances and displays of theater, dance, music, performance art, and visual art from all over the world.
But five years into the festival, is the definition of "time-based art" any more clear? In an overview of TBA on the PICA website, guest artistic director Mark Russell explains that "This is a festival that takes its shirt off.... This is a festival about joy. This is an international festival. This is an international festival with a local flavor. This is a festival that could only happen in the city it happens in." "This festival," he declares, "makes a statement."
So, what statement does TBA make? And how does an artist's work reflect the concepts of time-based art? What makes TBA 2008 different from other years of the festival? Mark Russell will be joining us to answer these questions, along with two artists from different mediums whose work is featured in TBA 2008.
Do you create time-based art? Have you attended any of this year's performances or events? What do you make of PICA's festival?
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Scottmil, what excites you about this particular performance?
For other folks, here's a link to L'Effet de Serge. -
Vivarium Studio performed in a previous TBA festival (I think two years ago). I can't say anything about the current performance, as I haven't seen it yet, but the last performance I saw---did it for me.
It was everything that seems current or now, without being gimmicky. It was slick enough, with the substance to back it up. And, it was stylish---in its own right. Often what I dislike about many performances are the lack of balance, they are either only conceptual or only aesthetic, and of course some aren't either. Vivarium has the balance, to appeal on an stylistic level and an intellectual level. It was also funny! It is hard to be funny and sophisticated at the same time, without just seeming kitsch and cheap. So, I liked it! -
I love that folks explore the range and bounds of art, and I am also reminded of The Firesign Theatre presenting "The Magic Bull Movement".
I listen, read, and look at an immense amount of material and every once in awhile someone does something that just drops my jaw. Thing is, it takes every one of the efforts of the lesser artists to build the shoulders that the jaw-dropper stands upon. Hmm, maybe the foreground is astounding because of the background?
Years ago, I went to a New York Museum and I saw a Rembrandt painting for the first time live, I understood instantly why someone would steal that painting, to protect it from any possible harm. As if to possess it could protect it. Obviously wrong but what a feeling!
Art is something that befuddles me, I'm a science type, I like explanations for what happens inside me when I see art, and I just love it when my brain wakes me up in the middle of the night and tells me, Oh!
Even better when, "Oh!", happens at the instant I see a piece of art and my brain instantly changes the way I see something.
So art on, artists, because someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow, will see your art and "Oh!" will happen. -
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Is it any good? It's great, if you want an in-depth international survey of what is going on in the multiple-medias of contemporary art. It's great, a city of Portland's size has such a sophisticated, well-organized and dedicated festival. Even if you're not a fan of the individual works or artists---the breadth and style of the festival is in itself impressive.
P.S. Looking forward to L'Effet de Serge by Vivarium Studio.