Tonight, Fusebox founder and artistic director Ron Berry gathered the crowds at Okay Mountain gallery to announce the line-up for the 11-day mind-blowing indulgence of performance and time-based art.
Once again, Berry is bringing a breathtaking roster of international artists to Austin for the April festival. And now with mores support and sponsorships — in particular ABPorter.org, and, new this year, UT’s Texas Performing Arts — Berry’s been able to expand and deepen the festival.
This year, Fusebox runs April 21 through May 1 at sites all around Austin.
To start things off on April 21, choreographer Allison Orr and composer Graham Reynolds — two inimitable Austin talents — will collaborate to stage a Texas-sized country swing band playing for hundreds of two-steppers who will kick off Fusebox on the steps of the Texas State Capitol.
Here’s the rest of the Fusebox line-up so far (but expect updates and additions!):
Big Dance Theater, ‘Comme Toujours: Here I Stand,’ a dance theatre re-invention of Agnes Varda’s classic New Wave film about a critical moment in the life of a marginally talented pop singer.
Theater Replacement, ‘WeeTube,’ part performance, part parlor game by a Vancouver-based performance troupe, ‘WeeTube’ uses the publicly posted comments of popular YouTube Videos as performance text.
Daniel Barrow, ‘Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry,’ a video-based performance by the Winnipeg-based artist that combines overhead projection with video, music, and live narration to tell the story of a garbage man with a vision to create an independent phone book chronicling the lives of each person in his city.
Greg Brooker, ‘Texan,’ a site specific poem constructed of text, paper, one million newspapers, a crop duster, a taxi cab, the geographical expanse of the state of Texas and twin brothers.
John Kelly, ‘Paved Paradise Redux: The Art of Joni Mitchell.’ The brilliant two-time Obie Award winning artist John Kelly once again inhabits the persona of Joni Mitchell in an entirely new evening of songs and stories.
Luke Savisky, ‘Stepchild,’ a new video installation by the Austin artist.
Kristen Kosmas with Physical Plant Theare, ‘This From Cloudland,’ a new love story.
Action Hero, ‘A Western,’ is a performance for a bar, a celebration of a failure to capture the true size and majesty of the Wild West.
Phil Soltanoff, ‘LA Party,’ a performance video about a fanatical vegan who slides off the wagon one night, falling head first into a wild L.A. bender.
Kaiji Moriyama, ‘The Velvet Suite,’ The U.S. premiere by one of Japan’s most acclaimed contemporary dancers.
ArtGravelGroup, ‘Gravel Works,’ Montreal-based troupe performs a live music and dance showcase of moods, humour, bodies, pop songs, personalities and friendly impertinence.
Mike Smith, a new video installation by the renowned video/performance artist
Wura Ogunji, ‘one hundred black women, one hundred actions,’ a performance of critical actions, gestures and movements from 100 black women around the world —performed in East Austin, projected live in West Austin.
Heloise Gold, dancer
Okay Mountain, Austin art collective
Rubber Rep, Austin theater collective
Rude Mechs, Austin theater collective
Image (top): Big Dance Theater’s ‘Comme Toujours: Here I Stand.’ Photo by Mike Van Sleen.
Image (bottom): John Kelly as Joni Mitchell in ‘Paved Paradise REDUX.’ Photo by Frank H. Jump.