Peter Sellars, Sarah Michelson & More Set for FIAF's CROSSING THE LINE Festival Lectures, 9/17-10/6

As part of the 2012 Crossing the Line festival, its annual interdisciplinary festival of contemporary arts, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) presents the Lecture/Performance Series information as performance, and vice-versa.

Defying the conventions of the lecture as simply a source of knowledge and the performance as a presentation of a way of seeing the world, the Lecture/Performance Series offers adventurous artists a unique platform to convey new ideas in an engaging and inspiring way. Often with a minimum of means, this format has proven to be highly stimulating for both the artist and audience alike. Participants in these one-night-only events include Peter Sellars & Faustin Linyekula along with Sarah Michelson and Jack Ferver.

Additional information including venue details and ticket prices can be found below. Visit fiaf.org/ctl or call 212.355.6160 for more information.

Faustin Linyekula & Peter Sellars, Dialogue
Co-presented with the Museum for African Art, Monday, September 17 at 8pm
FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10

Artistic collaborators and friends, director and choreographer Faustin Linyekula and director Peter Sellars come together on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street to speak about each others’ work and the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change.

Through his innovative interpretations of classic works from Mozart to Sophocles, Peter Sellars has reshaped the way artists and audiences view performance. Faustin Linyekula has gained critical acclaim worldwide for his provocative work addressing the legacy of war and atrocities in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo where he remains a singular voice in contemporary performance.

Sarah Michelson, Not a Lecture/Performance
Thursday, October 4, at 8pm
FIAF, Tinker Auditorium, (55 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10

Following her acclaimed residency at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, choreographer and director Sarah Michelson neither lectures, nor performs about the myriad layers that comprise her work. Please note this event is not open for review.

Jack Ferver, Mon Ma Mes
Saturday, October 6 at 8pm
FIAF, Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15

The New York Times has described choreographer, writer, and performer Jack Ferver’s work as “restless, visceral, and often painful… as sympathetic as it is bitingly corrosive.” The flimsy membrane between what part is real and what part is fiction is one of the disarming traits of Ferver’s work. In this unique performance, Ferver scrutinizes his life through a stylized question-and-answer format. He will also perform one of his works while simultaneously deconstructing it. All while a documentary is being shot of him. The layered combination of self-analysis and performance creates an intimacy with the audience that reveals as much as it presents.

Jack Ferver has been creating full-length works since 2007. He has been presented at The Kitchen (NYC), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, MA), PS 122 (NYC), The New Museum (NYC), The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Diverse Works (Houston, TX), Danspace Project (NYC), Abrons Art Center (NYC), Dixon Place (NYC), and Théâtre de Vanves in France. Shorter and solo works have been presented at MoMA/PS1, Andrew Edlin Gallery, and NP Gallery (all NYC). His work has been written about in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Modern Painters, The Boston Globe, and Dance Magazine. As an actor, credits include the film Gayby, Strangers With Candy (Comedy Central), and numerous other film and Theatre Projects. His writing has been published in the magazine Novembre. He has curated for Danspace Project, Center for Performance Research, and Dance New Amsterdam. He teaches privately as well as at New York University and has set choreography at The Juilliard School.