Like all spring arts events, Fusebox Festival had to cancel the live version planned for this month. But this annual celebration of innovative and boundary-busting creative work wasn’t going to let a little COVID-19 lockdown shut it down completely. Thus, the Fusebox Virtual Edition was born, and the lineup and schedule for April 24-26 is now available.
More than 50 artists will be providing live-streamed performances, installations, studio visits, and cooking classes, as well as leading dance parties and taking part in conversations. True to Fusebox’s mission of hosting a lineup that, as founder and Artistic Director Ron Berry says, is “one part local, one part national, and one part international,” the Virtual Edition will showcase artists from Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Berlin, London, Manila, Sydney, Tokyo, and, this being Fusebox, across the universe. (Remember the year Captain Kirk gave a speech? Well, this year, the Illustrious Blacks are hosting A Galactic Love Odyssey, an intergalactic virtual dance party from Planet Brooklyn!) Berry and Associate Artistic Director Anna Gallagher-Ross have called on Jeff Khan, artistic director of Performance Space in Sydney, to bring a roster of innovators from Australia and the Asia Pacific region to contribute.
Among the highlights:
• Choir!Choir!Choir! leads “Choir-antine, Y’all!,” the Don’t Mess With Texas Social Distan-Sing-Along. Fri., April 24, 6:15pm
• p1nkstar & Y2K present The LIVEstream Experience!, a concert from their home studio. Fri., April 24, midnight
• Jessica Green and her collaborators weave the sunrise in i have faith in nights, a dance piece in which they offer their bodies to the early morning light. Sat., April 25 & Sun, April 26, 7am
• Daniel Alexander Jones reads from Phantasmatron, a never-before-seen performance. Sat., April 25, 2:20pm
• Fiore Tedesco, chef of Austin’s own L’Oca D’Oro, teaches viewers how to make his signature meatloaf. Sat., April 25, 3pm
• Rianto, a dance artist based in Tokyo, offers a master class in Indonesian cooking (a co-presentation with Performance Space). Sat., April 25, 6:30pm
• Ingri Fiksdal of Norway has created a virtual variation of her outdoor dance performance Diorama, in which individual dancers have been filmed in seven separate outdoor locations in quarantined Oslo. Sat., April 25, 7:30pm
• Erica Nix falls asleep to a playlist from DJ No Pasa Nada (aka Erin Gentry). Sat., April 25, 10pm
And that’s just a fraction of what’s on offer. You can subscribe to all the Fusebox Virtual Edition action on YouTube, and a catalogue for this edition is also available for purchase.
Here’s the full lineup:
ANG
Adrian Aguilera
AKIRASH
Dickie Beau
Jermone Donte Beacham +jumatatu m. poe + LaKendrick Davis + Zen Jefferson
Brown State of Mind
Florinda Bryant
Alexa Capareda
Choir! Choir! Choir!
Christeene
Erin Curtis
Essentials Creative
Ingri Fiksdal
Orión García + Cokie Treviño + Graham Reynolds
Chris Grace
Jessica Green
Maddie Hicks
Hillerbrand + Magsaman (+ Stopschinski) [+ Lynn]
The Illustrious Blacks
Eisa Jocson
Daniel Alexander Jones + Sharon Bridgforth
Autumn Knight
Jeff Kurihara
Yuliya Lanina
Laura Latimer
Carra Martinez +Justin Favela
Gesel Mason
Todd Mein
Erica Nix
p1inkstar + Y2K
Rianto
Andrew Roberts
Rude Mechs
Tina Satter
kt shorb + Katherine Wilkinson
Justin Shoulder + Matthew Stegh + Corin
Students of UT Architecture
Sara Sudhoff
Fiore Tedesco
TryNotToMakeSounds
UTim ATX
Lindsey Verrill
Angela Washko
This article appears in April 24 • 2020 and April 17 • 2020.
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