Fri, Nov 7, 7 pm (180 min.)The Come Forever Garage
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The Biennial Consortium is a selective network of New York City’s leading art and cultural institutions that join Performa every two years to present and support performances and exhibitions across the city. First established with the inaugural Performa Biennial in 2005, the Consortium has remained at the heart of the biennial, setting the stage for citywide partnerships that highlight New York’s status as the performance capital of the world every other November.
As Performa marks its 20th anniversary in 2025, the Consortium reflects both the creative history of the city and its living legacy of radical performance. Since the 1950s and 60s, New York has been the meeting point for artists across disciplines who have shaped the international avant-garde, and the Consortium continues to carry that spirit forward.
This year, the network expands with new partners—including Americas Society and Come Forever Garage—while also welcoming back long-standing collaborators such as Asia Society and Metrograph. Together, these institutions affirm performance’s vital role in shaping cultural dialogue and collective imagination.
Performa presents a screening of video works by two artists who, though based in different Western cities, were contemporaries in the same era—one in New York, the other in Paris. Together, these films trace a ten-year span from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, offering a snapshot of LGBTQ performance, nightlife, and urban geographies during the height of the global HIV/AIDS crisis, when the first treatment options were beginning to emerge.
The evening opens with the U.S. premiere of Enjoy (Back to Ibiza) (2001), one of nineteen films by French writer and filmmaker Guillaume Dustan (1965–2005). Dustan’s cinematic work, still little known today, forms an integral yet overlooked part of his oeuvre. This presentation serves as a preview of The Films of Guillaume Dustan (2000–2004)—an exhibition curated by Julien Laugier, Pascaline Morincôme, and Olga Rozenblum—set to tour the U.S. in 2026.
The second half of the program features never-before-seen documentation of New York–based artist and performer Rafael Sánchez (b. 1960) from Hattie Hathaway’s performance nights at Jackie 60, an influential underground club in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District that operated from 1990 to 1999.
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Conversations and introductions to the works will be offered by Kyle Croft (Visual AIDS), Hedi El Kholti (Semiotext(e)), Olga Rozenblum, Julien Laugier, and Exx Nottage (Performa/Come Forever).
A special-edition preview zine featuring an excerpt from Guillaume Dustan’s Divine Genius (forthcoming in English translation from Semiotext(e) in 2026) will be available at this event for one night only.
Special thanks to Olga Rozenblum, Julien Laugier, and Pascaline Morincôme. Copyright © G.D. and its estate.
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This is a hybrid event which will be presented both on-site at The Come Forever Garage and online via a link to come. Come Forever is a ground floor establishment with a wide door and a bathroom that is accessible to those using mobility devices. Indoor space at Come Forever is mask-required and both KN95 and N95 masks are provided. All snacks are served outdoors in open air. For access questions please contact exxforever@comeforever.net
Curated by Olga Rozenblum, Julien Laugier, and Exx Nottage, in collaboration with Visual AIDS and Semiotext(e).
