Fail Safe

Fail-Safe | 2023

This fourth edition of Fail-Safe will create a dialogue about performance between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Fail-Safe: Los Angeles x Pittsburgh comprises two evenings of new and in-progress performance works by interdisciplinary musicians, performance artists, and dancers from these two cities. On both evenings, visiting artists will be preceded by a lineup of Pittsburgh-based artists whose practices share affinities.This fourth edition of Fail-Safe will create a dialogue about performance between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Fail-Safe: Los Angeles x Pittsburgh comprises two evenings of new and in-progress performance works by interdisciplinary musicians, performance artists, and dancers from these two cities. On both evenings, visiting artists will be preceded by a lineup of Pittsburgh-based artists whose practices share affinities.

On November 11th, Los Angeles-based artists Young Joon Kwak and Kim Ye present a new experimental performance work from their series Rites of Matrilineal Dissent. The digitally mediated performance takes audiences through a journey of failure and discovery, of new selves and new bodies, and new forms of love and kinship. Pittsburgh artists include Caroline Yoo, Goofy Toof, London Williams, and MICHIYAYA Dance featuring Anya Clarke-Verdery.

On November 12th, visiting artist duo Xina Xurner (Marvin Astorga and Young Joon Kwak) will present their cathartic music performance combining DIY and power electronics, mutated vocals, and bad drag to expand ideas about queer and trans bodies. Pittsburgh artists include Swampwalk, Samira Mendoza + The Universe Online, and Davine Byon. The performances will be followed by a dance party hosted by Formosa (Jellyfish).

This event is co-organized between Fail-Safe and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, with financial support from the The National Endowment for the Arts, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and the Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts.