Written and edited by legendary performance art historian RoseLee Goldberg, Performa 09: Back to Futurism is the definitive document of the unforgettable Performa 2009 biennial. It is the third volume to draw content and inspiration from the world-renowned Performa biennials, and features creative documentation by the 150 artists who made Performa 09 so extraordinary--among them Guy Ben-Ner, Candice Breitz, Omer Fast, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mike Kelley, Arto Lindsay, Wangechi Mutu, Christian Tomaszewski and Yeondoo Jung (all of whom presented special Performa Commissions) and Keren Cytter, Tacita Dean, Alicia Framis, Loris Greaud, William Kentridge and Joan Jonas (who brought US premieres to the biennial). Photographs of each artist's performance and texts contributed by curators and critics provide accounts of every show, as well as an understanding of the importance of each work within the artist's individual career and in relation to larger artistic trends. Taking place at over 80 of New York's most exciting art and cultural venues, Performa 09 was created as a collaboration between all of these moving parts, so a portrait of the city's remarkable history of cultural innovation also emerges from these pages. Performa 09: Back to Futurism is not only a gorgeous document of a remarkable biennial, but also an invaluable reference guide to the most significant artists of our time, for art historians and fans alike.

Performa 09: Back to Futurism

Arts & Photography

Performing Arts

Performa Publications

Performa 11 is the fourth volume in an acclaimed series that draws content and inspiration from the world-renowned Performa biennials. Written by legendary performance art historian RoseLee Goldberg, Performa 11 is the definitive document of the Performa 11 biennial, and features documentation by the 150 artists who took part, including Robert Ashley, Tarek Atoui, Gerard Byrne, Simon Fujiwara, Guy Maddin, Ming Wong, Shirin Neshat and Frances Stark. The book features photographs of each artist’s performance by acclaimed photographer Paula Court, storyboards, sketches and scripts documenting the artists’ creative processes, and ten newly commissioned essays on different themes from the biennial, including language, Russian Constructivism, Fluxus, comedy and the relationship between visual art and theater. Performa 11 is a beautiful document of a remarkable festival, as well as an invaluable reference guide to some of the most significant performance artists of our time.

Performa 11: Staging Ideas

RoseLee Goldberg

RoseLee Goldberg amazed with PERFORMA 05, billed as the city's first biennial of 'visual art performance.' Working with a tiny staff, a shoestring budget and no institutional affiliation, Ms. Goldberg put together a program that covered a lot of aesthetic bases--old school, just out of school, high-tech, no-tech--and encompassed more than 60 scheduled events… all of which makes the prospect of PERFORMA 07 shine with promise. --Roberta Smith, the New York Times This volume is the first in a series of important publications drawing content and inspiration from the PERFORMA biennial. Featuring inventive documentation by the 100 artists who made the first PERFORMA so extraordinary, it offers an exhilarating view into contemporary visual art performance and "performs" as a collective artists' journal might. Vibrant photographs of each artist's performance are accompanied by their scripts, sketches and storyboards, providing unique insight into process and upending conventions around archiving performance. Lively interviews with some of the most significant artists of our time--including Francis Alÿs, Tamy Ben-Tor, Jesper Just, Marina Abramovic, Gelitin, Laurie Simmons and Mike Smith--appear alongside context-setting essays by some of our most inspired young curators. PERFORMA founder RoseLee Goldberg, who pioneered the study of performance art with her seminal book Performance Art from Futurism to the Present (1979), presents an authoritative introduction addressing the genre's many forms--radio broadcast, dance, live installation, new technologies, film and video, music, historic reconstructions and lecture-as-performance among them. PERFORMA is not only an invaluable reference, it is a new kind of guide to cultural life, a time capsule of this very moment in New York's eminent performance history, complete with profiles of the city's nonprofit biennial venues that, like this book, give ephemeral art a physical place in which to persist.

Performa: New Visual Art Performance

History & Criticism

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Books by Performa Publications

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Performa Publications publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Performa 09: Back to Futurism

Performa 11: Staging Ideas

Performa: New Visual Art Performance