The Time-Based Art Festival (TBA) was held in Portland, on the west coast of the U.S. in September. TBA Festival is a contemporary arts festival that has been hosted by PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) every September since 2003. PICA was established in 1995 as an independent institute working for development of new contemporary arts and creative interaction between artists and the audience. With the opening of the TBA Festival this September, PICA announced the appointment of Angela Mattox as the new Artistic Director. Mattox, appointed on September 1, 2011, was spotted everywhere around the Festival scene which was being operated under the direction of her predecessor, Cathy Edwards, who has been working as the Artistic Director from 2009 through 2011. Angela Mattox told our reporters about her past, her future, and the life ahead of her as part of the PICA and TBA Festivals.

Cultural Exchange is the Key

Q: First, It would be nice to talk about who you are. What led you here to this point as PICA’s Artistic Director? Could you share with our viewers your educational experience, and any events that may have formed your artistic vision?

A: I used to be a dancer. As far as I can remember, I’ve been dancing since I was six years old and kept dancing until my mid-twenties. Being trained as an artist or a dancer gave me a solid foundation. I saw art through dancing and I was able to grow my passion for creative projects. I have experienced and learned about many different kinds of art forms and fields ranging from classical projects to experimental ones. This personal journey I had in the past certainly had an influence on who I am now and what I will do in the future.

The most fundamental experience would probably be the two years I spent in UCLA when I took a program called “Arts and Cultures of the World.” The course took a holistic approach on performing arts. The seminars we had in the program broke down the order of western performances and dealt with performances from all around the world, modern arts, and art in modern society. And the seminars always stressed the distinctive traditions each culture has. It completely destroyed the idea of art centered on western culture. And, of course, it was very important for me that I was able to keep doing what I did as a dancer at that time.

Q: After you left school, you started working at Art International. Tell us about what you did there.

A: At Art International, I Introduced overseas endorsement programs to presenters in California. Working with Art International, which has its headquarters in New York, I got involved in the area of cultural exchange and international art exchange. The fund I was involved in supported U.S. artists who had performances at festivals held overseas and did not have the financial support to cover the expenses. We supported the artists with the operational costs, flight fares, accommodations and so on. The U.S. government doesn’t have any policy that specifically focuses on supporting the cultural exchange between artists, so the main goal was to help artists so that they wouldn’t lose important opportunities to perform overseas or have exhibitions in other countries.

Contemporary art is a combination of various traditions and different fields, so my experience with Art International was a unique opportunity where I got to actually see in action what I have known in theory about the intercultural and international exchanges in arts and philosophy. While working with artists trying to figure out the right way to express their work for the audience overseas, it let me to understand the artists, and I learned much about the landscape of international art festivals. The job gave me a birds-eye view on what happens in the international art festival scenes.
In particular, those years were when I established my philosophy that cultural exchange is the key in the big picture of the world conversing with the U.S. and learning how the process and methodology worked. If I hadn’t worked there, it would have been hard to understand the complex mechanism of constant persuasion between the government committees, supporting organizations, the donors who provide funding, and the artists and organizations all over the world.

Q: After working at Art International, you worked at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) for quite a long time. One of their objectives focuses on interaction between “different” cultures. Did that influence your decision to work with YBCA?

A: Yerba Center deals with contemporary arts. The reason why I wanted to work with them was because they were doing pioneer work across many fields of art, were actively involved in supporting artists, and they had a great respect for cultural diversity. The head of Yerba Center put a lot of thought into where the center was and what it needed to do there. “What does it mean to be placed in San Francisco and not New York City?”, “Where do the immigrants living here come from?”, “What relations do the people have with their home country?”, and “How are we going to interact with people who come from backgrounds with different histories and cultures?” These were some of the important questions asked there. We started from the local background and local issues, and broadened our horizon of interests and operations to international interaction and conversations.

Q: The U.S. embraces a number of cultural traditions through immigration already. From American’s prospective, the U.S is already international. It consists of various cultures in itself while other countries bring other cultures from overseas and adapt them to their culture. It seems that people in the U.S. are more interested in exchange between their west coast and east coast. The former Artistic Director of PICA, Cathy Edwards, who I met yesterday, told me about the difference between the audience in the west and the east. She explained, in the case of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which she hosted in Connecticut, the audience was quite intellectual and that it was different from the younger and more creative audience at the TBA Festival. She would fill the program with performances with well-known formats and contents over more experimental ones. Do you think this reflects the differences between the two regions on a general level?

A: Not necessarily. That has more to do with the characteristics of the festival she was working on. There are festivals and organizations that focus on experimental pieces on the east coast as well. Of course there are distinct differences between the west and the east when it comes to art. For example, dances in San Francisco are different from that of New York. There are differences in the nuance, aesthetics, and subject they choose to talk about. Take the west for example. Especially in California, artists are more inquisitive about cultural history, and their work asks questions about one’s identity. The U.S. is a big country and there certainly are differences between the regions.

Not Afraid of Taking Risks

Q: : The festival hosted by PICA is titled Time Base Art (TBA) Festival. What does “time based art” mean?

A: “Time Based Art” includes the many expressions that contemporary art takes on and stresses the animated and unique side of it at the same time. It allows all expressions possible in any kind of contemporary art, and it also focuses on the present. So, in a way, it supports new art forms as well. For me, a ‘new art form’ has shared meaning with words like ‘moment’ or ‘animated.’ All forms of contemporary arts can be experienced here. I think it is a good title to work as a platform that supports various kinds of contemporary arts without sorting them into too many branches. The acronym of Time Based Art, TBA, also stands for ‘To Be Announced.’ This also carries the thoughts we have about the future of contemporary arts.

Q: Choreographer and writer, Ralph Lemon once talked about you in an interview and said “Angela is not afraid of taking risks. She has visions that go beyond the stereotypes.” This is an interesting comment. What do you think about it?

A: I am most grateful. As an artistic director and curator of contemporary art, I have to take risks and support artists. As a result, sometimes the work doesn’t turn out as I had wished, and sometimes it ends with no audience.

Ralph Lemon encompasses many different fields of art. He designs stages for dance companies, writes and does visual artworks such as drawings and videos. It is fairly gutty for an artistic organization to support an artist who doesn’t belong to a single field of art. Through cooperative works with him, I found out how to be closely connected with an artist and process the work, and how to respond to artist’s needs and bring out the best in them. Of course, there surely is the risk of failure and everything going to waste. But, I think what Ralph meant was that I am taking the risk of accepting his idea.

Q: When you met Mr. Lemon, he was already recognized nationwide and you and Mr. Lemon developed your careers to a much higher level. However, it seems different in case of Marc Barmuthi Joseph. When you met him, he was a lesser-known local artist. I assume that you played a major role in Mr. Joseph becoming an artist with a national reputation. Could you tell me about your work with Marc?

A: I personally believe that artistic directors and curators have a duty to closely cooperate with local community of artists. When I was working in San Francisco, I thought that I should help the local artists to begin new artworks. There were many artists of different statuses in San Francisco: starters, artists who are pushing forward to be acknowledged nationwide, and famous artists whose works are very well-known and have already established their own worlds of artwork. Mark was beginning to start his own career when I meet him. I cooperated with him on his first artwork, and the institute I was working for provided funding for the work. Though he is now a famous artist, I tried to raise his status when he was still unknown.

As with TBA festival, I will plan this festival with interest in the artworks and artists in various levels of age and artisan spirit as well. I am interested not only in young artists, but also established artists and their artisan spirit, quality of aesthetics, and technical point of view. Especially in the case of established artists, they bear much bigger risks, so much more consideration and support are needed.

Kyle Abraham _ The Radio Show		tEEth _ Home Made
Michel Groisman _ Transference		Offsite Dance Project _ Ho Ho-Do
Artwork from 2011 TBA Festival Source: http://picaresourceroom.org

Strong Solidarity between Local Community and Artists

Q: I think there are two important roles of an artistic director. One is choosing and showing good artwork to the audience, and the other is creating a new artwork with the artists. Which role are you focusing on?

A: Picking out outstanding artwork and exhibiting it to a local audience is important. I have been introducing foreign artwork or artists, which or who haven’t been shown to the locals according to my perspective and interpretation. It is about linking the artists and the audience. When introducing an artist initially, there must be prior understanding of the artist and the work, and a comprehensive understanding of a particular work process as well. In other words, to create a new artwork with the artist, a deep understanding is needed. Most of the audiences do not know about the artist and the context of the artwork, so my strategy was to thoroughly introduce their existing artworks, and then based on the works, offer the audience a new experience as the artist and I create a new artwork in cooperation.

In the case of my local community, the community already knew about the local artists’ existing work, so I asked them to artistically express their creativeness and novelty. Whether they are festivals or permanent exhibitions, I have juggled making new artworks and introducing other communities’ artworks, and I believe this is the way to go.

Q: PICA has maintained guest artistic director system, but after you took the office this September, it turned into a full-time artistic director system. Under this switch, what will change?

A: PICA successfully had held festivals for last six years with guest artistic directors. However, now this institute needs someone who can be part of the community while staying in Portland and carefully listening to the local people. I will live here and try to understand the history, value, and the people of this area as I carry on with my work. I am not just introducing artworks, but linking the institution with the locals, and the audience with the artists by closely communicating with the community.

Q: Now you are in charge of permanent programs besides the festival. What kinds of permanent programs will be started after your inauguration?

A: It has been only two weeks since I started my work, so it is a little bit early to talk about it. But, for now, residency program for artists is in my plan. For local audience’s better understanding of the artwork, we plan to invite the artists to the town six months before the festival and provide them with workspace for them to create their new artwork, so the whole process can be shared among the audience. This will be an opportunity not only for the audience, but also for artists to get a better understanding of this area and its people. Basically, I think programs such as seminars and workshops would be great to deepen the understanding of the artist and the locals as they participate in creating a new artwork. However, I am still planning the details.

Q: How can Korean artists participate in this festival and show their achievements?

A: PICA is very interested in international cooperation, starting with myself. Including Korean artists, we are looking for opportunities of cooperation with various artists from the world. Anything is possible. Any creative cooperation is possible if the artist is in the scope of my thought and my artistic vision. I’d appreciate it if someone can give me information such as what kinds of artists are active in Korea, what is their work and vision, who brought changes, who created new forms of art, and who were able to surprise people.

Q: Lastly, what is your plan with PICA?

A: The festival with PICA was very successful and innovative in the current situation of the United States. I want to keep up this tradition and at the same time, I want to provide more resources to the artists with daring spirits. I will meet as many artists as possible, questioning “Why this artist”, “Why this artwork”, “Why now” and so forth. Beyond passively introducing great artworks, I want to reveal hidden connections between artists, themes and works in order to clarify what the artwork is about and what it is trying to communicate to the audience. In doing this, I also wish to re-arrange the process of artworks in the perspective of culture, politics and aesthetics.