Even though it has sustained the loss of its founder and artistic director, Kristy Edmunds, the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art Time-Based Art (PICA TBA) festival is striding confidently into its third year. The 2005 PICA TBA festival kicks off on September 9 and will feature performance, video and installation work by international and local artists.
Expected highlights include a free public street art performance by touring dance troupe STREB; screening of the latest Jerry Cotton episode by genre-twisting German filmmaker Hans Weigand; plus a star-turn by Seattle-based singer-storyteller Sarah Rudinoff, as well as ‘new digital wonders by some of Portland’s best image-makers.’
The inaugural 2002 festival was lauded by critics for its experimental programming. It also boosted the morale of hundreds of local artists and reserved a place for provincial Portland on the global arts map. Even though the festival struggled to meet financial predictions Edmunds continued to put her faith in the event. Her commitment was rewarded the following year when attendances practically doubled.
There seems to be a real buzz about this year’s event following Edmunds’ departure and a newbie taking over the reins. NYC’s Mark Russell, PS 122’s former head shepherd, will be guest artistic director for the next two years. So what can festival-goers expect from time-based art?
In their write up of last year’s PICA TBA festival, Portland Tribune reporters Joseph Gallivan and Tina Satter offer the following definition: “Time-based art is a fancy word for performance art. It could cover anything where the clock is running — music, dance, video, balloon twisters.”
Attempting to make the definition more precise can lead down some fairly esoteric corridors, (in truth, everything in life takes place in time, so therefore all art must be time-based?) but for Edmunds the term refers to art that contains a time-element in order for it to be experienced. So film, performances, image sequences that ‘run’ for a certain time in order for the experience to be ‘had’ by the audience: such works would constitute time-based art.
The new festival artistic director, Mark Russell, agrees that any definition applied to time-based art, must be broad in scope: ‘They have so many different meanings now: Performance art, live art, time-based art, fringe art. But in my world, I think it all comes into a gray area called “performance.”’
In a 2003 Creative Capital Channel webcast (hosted by Frank J. Oteri), Edmunds says: ‘In part the reason why we named the festival [time-based art] is because the term performing arts is getting harder and harder to locate.’ The past decade has seen acceleration in collaborative, experimental projects and the development of hybrid art forms because, says Edmund’s, artists have ‘a profound need for a connection of ideas between different disciplines.’
The name time-based art was also chosen as it was already popular in Europe, and resonates with artists and audiences. It’s the kind of term we think we understand even if we don’t know what it means. That the name is marketable and understood internationally is significant given Edmunds’ socio-political aims for the event.
Having had the privilege of access to many of the world’s premiere arts festivals, Edmunds says she has been able to ‘see work in its original cultural and community based contexts, and see where that work has very strong resonance to another community’s sense of inquiry.’ She sees her role as a facilitator, enabling a bridge to be made that connects far-flung communities. ‘Especially in this moment when the US borders have clearly started to snap down very, very hard, I think that one of our most positive messages that we can extend is how the arts maintain very open, very authentic, very compassionate borders,’ she says.
To better achieve this aim, Edmunds set an important trend of inviting visiting international artists to remain in Portland for the duration of the festival. This has allowed genuine connections to be forged between artists and the city, as well as with other artists, and the wider community.
It is hard to quantify the benefits of forging these relationships, particularly in the case of young artists from countries such as Lebanon and Romania, that are unfamiliar to US citizens, and for whom the arts infrastructure here must seem completely alien. Even so, odds are it won’t be too long before we shall begin to see evidence of some very positive outcomes from the PICA TBA festivals.
