Performa 19 Opening Night Gala: A Performa Bauhaus Inspired Festivity

Since its founding in 2005, Performa has had both art history and education at its core and so it is with great excitement that we invite you to a Performa gala on the Opening Night of the Performa 19 Biennial that will celebrate the legendary workshops, classrooms, parties and performance activities of the original Bauhaus school on its 100th anniversary and revel in its utopian belief in education as a way of creative thinking and living, with every gesture examined for its purest form.

In the spirit of Oskar Schlemmer’s legendary Bauhaus “festivities,” that animated and inspired the staff and student body alike, Performa will present a gala dinner as the makings of a new experimental performance in the setting of the art school of our dreams. 304 dinner guests will be divided up into the eight workshops of the 1922 version of the Bauhaus curricula; wood, metal, stone, clay, glass, color, textiles and building/performance. Each workshop will be helmed by an artist as the head of the department to which guests will be assigned at orientation cocktails. Through live performance, unrestrained creativity, great food, and incomparable company we will honor Artist, filmmaker and Performa Board Member Rashid Johnson, Performa patron and partner Dasha Zhukova and the legacy of Oskar Schlemmer, the multi-faceted performing arts pioneer of the Bauhaus school.