Feats of endurance, acts of absurdist wit, public actions confronting political repression, celebrations of the natural world, accidental moments of revelation. Short stories—from one sentence to several paragraphs—recount acts from the past fifty years of contemporary art at site-specific installations throughout the University of Houston.Read more
Ten choreographers create ten short dances in one very large space, but for one very small stage: a raised cube with a 4′ x 4′ playing space. This year, the perennial festival favorite features choreographers from around the state of Texas who are known for breaking boundaries with their imaginative movement styles.Read more
Follow the story of three Syrian refugees who fled the war in Syria and sought refuge in Munich, Germany. Each was given a discreet camera and asked to film a day in their lives in the refugee camp. The installation is outfitted so that the audience watches these films while lying in bunk beds, as if characters in the unfolding scenes.Read more
This Snow White whiles away her days reading Mao Tse-tung, drinking vodka with orange juice, and impatiently waiting for the prince promised to her by history. This world premiere production of Snow White is a theatrical adaptation of the groundbreaking, experimental novel by the postmodern novelist and poet Donald Barthelme.Read more
Visual artist Kevin Beasley creates a site-specific sculptural and sound installation at the iconic Eldorado Ballroom, which served the Third Ward with a who’s who of the great blues and jazz players from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beasley explores cultural, personal, and historical contexts—and related materials—in assembling his art.Read more
In this new lecture, Gamboa looks at myth in contemporary society with images and videos of his work. For more than forty years, his artistic lens has responded to the Los Angeles “urbanscape” with its subtle layering of codes, rules, and visual markers that contribute to making a sophisticated living space for millions of people.Read more
In 2016, Ghana ThinkTank asked What’s your Houston diversity problem? Houstonians had a lot to say—much of it related to cultural and ethnic identity. Now, international think tanks in India, Iran, Indonesia, Morocco, Gaza, Serbia, and Germany are concocting solutions to Houston’s problems. During CounterCurrent17, come see how these think tanks are solving the issues of the “first world.”Read more
See a vivid assortment of creative visions by festival artists featured in the CounterCurrent17 festival. Each artist was asked to select a short film that ignites their artistic practice. This screening of those films on the festival’s final day brings the artists together for an informed exchange about their work.Read more
Now it’s time to talk. Join us for daily conversations with festival artists at the MATCH Gallery. Artist Carrie Schneider pairs the artists of CounterCurrent17 with experts from wide ranging disciplines at the University of Houston to discuss how their respective practices are reflected in the themes of the 2017 festival.Read more
This interdisciplinary performance incorporates the formality of kabuki, the prideful energy of flamenco, and the instinctive physicality of contemporary dance through the meeting between two multi-award-winning artists: the Argentinian-born Daniel Proietto, trained in kabuki, and the 76-year-old Shōji Kojima, who moved to Spain from Japan to become a master of flamenco.Read more
