FESTIVAL ‘ 90 : Festival Notes

Artist Forums Continue

The festival today continues its daily artists’ forums, which director Peter Sellars said were planned “to give artists a chance to meet each other and talk in the most interesting way.”

Each weekday morning throughout the festival, two or three different groups will gather at UCLA’s Artists Village to discuss their cultures and the arts and its influence on their societies.

Sellars presided over the first session Friday, which featured 17 members of the Woomera Mornington Island Culture Team, who shared their aboriginal names, demonstrated their namesake woomera weapon and talked of efforts to preserve their art in modern Australia. Also present were six members of New York’s Wooster Group--including its most famous member, Willem Dafoe--who discussed their work and their interest in “appropriating” traditional dances for their own performances.

‘The Un-Festival’ at MOCA

In what organizers are calling a “reprieve” from L.A. Festival events, the Museum of Contemporary Art has planned The Un-Festival Friday through Sunday, featuring John Fleck, Weba Garretson and Harry Shearer and his Ad Hoc Orchestra.

“This will be much less serious theater than that presented in the festival,” said MOCA spokeswoman Anna L. Graham, noting that emcee Fleck would give “biting social commentary” related to his National Endowment for the Arts grant rejection.

In addition, singer Garretson will perform her “From Across the Room” piece, and satirist Shearer will perform a selection of original songs based on news events ranging from the U.S. invasion of Panama to the death of Elvis Presley. Also included will be Shearer’s new anti-censorship rap, “(If U Want Free Speech) Go to Russia.”

The Un-Festival is an independent MOCA production unrelated to the festival, but it is being held at the museum’s Temporary Contemporary between two festival events--presentations by New York’s Wooster Group and Tijuana performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena.

Performances will begin at 8 p.m., with a second performance on Saturday at 10:30. Tickets are $15; $12 for MOCA members, senior citizens and students. Information: (213) 626-6828.