Noontime Chat – TBA in a Nutshell
posted by laura becker
Last year, on the eve of his departure, Mark Russell gave a passionate, sincere, charmingly rambling postlude to his three years as director of the festival. The PICA staff were almost all in tears, preparing to let him go. In that farewell soliloquy, he provided a literal context to describe his touchy-feely performance preferences. Working with Kristan and Erin to bring artists like Superamas, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, Charlotte Vanden Eynde & Kurt Vandendriessche, as well as many other daringly physical presences, Mark’s compassionate choices spoke to our heart, but definitely seemed, more than anything else, of the flesh. It’s no coincidence that it was under Mark’s watch that PICA coined the phrase “TBA is a festival that takes its shirt off”.
Before Mark, of course, the festival CEO was Kristy Edmunds. Her curatorial tastes still gave us sexy, passionate pieces, powerful and perfect, but they seemed to go right for the gut. She wanted to floor us. Not to say that the power of those years lacked at all under Mark, but he wanted us to get a laugh and at least a little aroused in the process.
So at today’s noon time chat, all ears were perked to hear the first words from Cathy now that she’s at the helm. She had had a brief chat with Mark at his parting lecture, but this was the first chance to hear her side of her own story. And right away, the three curators were like old family. It felt like Cathy had always been here, knowing every inch of Portland and PICA. She has definitely studied up. Comparing one piece to a purgatory or “ante-chamber” and describing Crumb Trail as a performance “derived from digital source material,” I was reminded of my college days, when I tried to capture all the actual wording of my art history professors as I took notes. She really knows and has really really thought deeply about what she’s talking about, and it shows, in her eloquence and in her subdued excitement to see how everything has now come together in all its intellectual interconnections.
DK Row’s article came up again at the chat, and Kristan mentioned that more than anything else she was sad about his disappointing underestimation of a typical, mainstream, Blazer-lovin Portlander. I believe what will stand out about the team this year, with Cathy in charge, will be all the opportunities in which they specifically WON’T underestimate the audience (or Portlanders at large for that matter) and our own art smarts. This year, TBA is a festival that has put on its thinking cap.
