The success and legacy of a performance festival is often determined by the dedication and persistence of its organizers. Regularly running with limited financial resources, in borrowed or rented spaces, and through the generosity of volunteers, these events have a certain spark to them as DIY planning and aesthetics merge with the effervescence of performance art. Now in its eighth year, ITINERANT,<\/em> an annual Performance Art Festival in New York City is no exception to the rule. Curated by Hector Canonge, an interdisciplinary artist who initiated the project in 2010, the roving festival moves across all five boroughs with the intention of bringing engaging and provocative work to a wide audience over a two-week period (May 17\u2013May 25, 2018). With an opening exhibition, performances, video screenings, and a symposium, this year\u2019s event featured almost fifty emerging and established local national, and international artists in ten different locations. True to performance art\u2019s original ethos, ITINERANT<\/em> has throughout its history provided audiences with the opportunity to witness a wide variety of experimental works by individuals and collectives committed to the expansion of artistic boundaries and aesthetics.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s iteration of the festival, much in line with the current political economy and social climate in the U.S. and abroad, looked to explore and propose new alternatives to binary constructions surrounding gender, nationality, identity, religion, and\/or ideological structures. These themes, broad yet critical, were all present during the closing event<\/ins> hosted at the Knockdown Center, in Queens. The program, composed of five performances, each approximately twenty minutes in length, highlighted the successful presentation model that Canonge has reproduced over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening with Four Quarterts for the End of Time<\/em>, a meditative sound collaboration between Steven Pestana (Colombia) and Sophia Sobers (U.S.), the small yet involved audience fell into the looping and distorted rhythms of Sobers\u2019 violin. As Sobers repetitively played into four distinct microphones before Pestana shifted the sound\u2019s origin using pedals and a mixer, the sonic intimacy of the work drew the audience into the dedicated performance space\u2014a difficult task considering the expansive and cavernous nature of Knockdown\u2019s main hall. The work was then followed by a collaborative movement-based piece by Angeli (U.S.) and Sindy Butz (Germany), two artists whose somatic practices focus on embodied research as it relates to psychic currents, memory, and human or nonhuman forms. Joined through their braided hair and guiding each other\u2019s movement in what appeared to be both semi-choreographed and improvisational gestures, A Body of Source<\/em> extended the duality of the first performance by exploring the relationship between disparate bodies via kinesthetic properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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