Performa
Opening Night Benefit for Performa 11
World Premiere Elmgreen & Dragset
Happy Days in the Art World
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 www.waltermcbean.com
7 pm Doors open 7:30 pm The World Premiere of Happy Days in the Art World by Elmgreen & Dragset Starring Joseph Fiennes and Charles Edwards, with Kim Criswell Directed by Toby Frow Skirball Center for the Performing Arts 566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South) 9 pm Retrospective, Six Live Works by Elmgreen & Dragset Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres Skylight Soho 275 Hudson Street (at Dominick Street) Opening Night of the Performa biennial is one of the most anticipated events on New York’s winter cultural calendar. Performa will celebrate the start of its fourth international biennial with the premiere performance of a new work by the artists Elmgreen & Dragset, which will be the first large-scale performance presented in New York City by the internationally acclaimed artists. The performance will be followed by an exceptional event featuring the first-ever live retrospective of six major performances by Elmgreen & Dragset. To purchase ticket(s) online, click here. For more information, contact Loren Mullins, 212 366 5700 or loren@performa-arts.org. Host Committee Julie Blakeslee and John Spong; Ambassador Sissel Breie, Consul General of Norway in New York; Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman, Christie’s International Post-War & Contemporary Art Development; Toby Devan Lewis; Wendy Fisher; Ambassador Jarl Frijs-Madsen, Consul General of Denmark in New York; Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman; RoseLee Goldberg and Dakota Jackson; Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Nicolas Rohatyn; Cindy Sherman. About Happy Days in the Art World The artists Elmgreen & Dragset (Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset) present the theatrical performance Happy Days in the Art World, a darkly comic self-portrait of the two artists, drawing references from Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days (1961). The play tells the story of two main characters, played by renowned actors Joseph Fiennes and Charles Edwards and featuring Kim Criswell, and is directed by Toby Frow. The characters use a droll sensibility to unveil their personal history together, their experience of being a “single work of art,” and their fears about what will happen to their substantial art careers when they break up. About Performa 11 Performa 11 (November 1–21, 2011) is the fourth edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance presented by Performa, the leading organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century.
