Marcel Dzama and Franz Erhard Walther Join Performa Lineup

Marcel Dzama b. 1974, Canada Follow +

Performa has announced two new artists commissioned to create works for its 10th edition, which will celebrate what they describe as the ‘big bang’ of conceptual art from 1 to 19 November.

Marcel Dzama and Franz Erhard Walther will join previously announced artists Nora Turato, Haegue Yang, Julien Creuzet, and Nikita Gale.

Canadian-born Dzama is best known for mystical ink and watercolour works populated with masked figures, fairies, and personified moons.

For Performa, he will create a performance inspired by Federico García Lorca’s 1929 poem ‘Trip to the Moon’, which he wrote during a 10-month stay in New York.

The poem reads like a list of shots for a film. It includes lines such as ‘a frog falls on the table’, ‘A guitar appears. And a hand quickly cuts its strings with a pair of scissors,’ and ends with ‘the moon and trees swaying in the wind’.

Dzama’s performance will include live musicians, animated film, and dance.

Franz Erhald Walther is a German installation artist. At the Venice Biennale in 2017, he won a Golden Lion for works from his ‘Wallformation’ series, fabric sculptures that viewers are encouraged to wear and otherwise interact with.

For Performa, Walther will present a survey of his works at the Judd Foundation in SoHo. Users are invited to manipulate and wear his sculptures.

Further information on works being developed by Turato, Yang, Creuzet, and Gale can be found here. —[O]

Main image: Marcel Dzama, Mother's Nature another's future (2023). Gouache, watercolour, ink and graphite on paper. 38.83 x 38.83 cm. Courtesy Sies + Höke.