ITINERANT 2018

[En anglais] 

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, 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–May 25, 2018). With an opening exhibition, performances, video screenings, and a symposium, this year’s event featured almost fifty emerging and established local national, and international artists in ten different locations. True to performance art’s original ethos, ITINERANT 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.

This year’s 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 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.