Performa, New York's performance art biennial, returns for its 20th anniversary edition with a main slate of eight commissions, seven by women artists and one by a male-female duo. Projects include Ayoung Kim's live motion capture choreography exploring body doubles and digital avatars at Canyon, Diane Severin Nguyen's remix of Vietnam War-era protest songs with an 11-person supergroup at Bric, and Tau Lewis's staging of the Sumerian epic 'The Descent of Inanna' using textile sculptures and experimental opera at Harlem Parish. The biennial also features a Lithuanian Pavilion with Augustas Serapinas's mobile wooden shack and Lina Lapelytė's piece 'The Speech,' in which 270 children perform animal vocalizations at Federal Hall.
This edition matters because it marks a milestone for Performa as it celebrates two decades of championing performance art in New York, a field that often challenges traditional exhibition formats. By commissioning artists who are primarily known for other media—such as sculpture, video, or new media—to create their first live performances, the biennial expands the boundaries of contemporary art practice and fosters cross-disciplinary innovation. The focus on women artists and international voices, including a dedicated Lithuanian program, underscores Performa's role in amplifying underrepresented perspectives and engaging with urgent themes like digital identity, historical memory, and interspecies communication.