NEW YORK—Taking New York by storm from November 1 through 22, Performa 09 — the world’s only performance-art biennial — is certain to enhance even the most ardent art aficionado’s perception of a genre often misunderstood. More than 80 artists, collaborating with 60 arts institutions and 25 curators, are staging a whirlwind of events around town that will be hard not to notice. The brainchild of RoseLee Goldberg — performance-art scholar and author of Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (first published in 1979 and still probably the most influential book on the subject) — the biennial was launched in 2004 and gets richer with each edition. Goldberg chats with Robert Ayers about it.

You’re an art historian by training, and Performa always seems to be looking over its shoulder at the history of performance art. Why is that?

Yes, there’s been a historical component to each biennial. In fact, one of the reasons for starting Performa was to explain the history once and for all. Performance changed the 20th century, and we’ve got to go back and reveal it, and think about it, and bring it to life in the most lively, intoxicating way. History is inspiration — inspiration to be more radical, rather than sentimental.

The main historical strand this time around relates to the work of the Italian Futurists, whose first manifesto was written by F. T. Marinetti in 1909.

I just couldn’t wait for the 100th anniversary of Futurism! There’s an incredible richness that comes with the Futurists. Look at what they had to say about sound, about theater, about fashion, food, set design, poetry, the city. The list goes on and on.

They thought art could influence every aspect of life.

Yes, and that gave us the template to completely open up Performa. All media, all the time — that’s always been my interest, because that’s how artists think. It’s the critics and the historians and the museums that create the categories. Artists are always looking around in a much broader way. That’s why I don’t often use the term "performance art."

Are the Performa commissions part of that process?

That’s part of the quest: to produce new works that have impact, that will really stay with you, that will change you. We’ll have Candice Breitz working with a cast of identical twins in what is her first performance piece. Mike Kelley is making three new performance pieces in the Judson Memorial Church by Washington Square Park. Yeondoo Jung is performing at the Asia Society. And on the day of the New York City marathon, Arto Lindsay will lead an arts parade of more than 100 performers through the streets.

You seem to be constantly seeking out new places to stage these pieces. Is that because you’re looking for new audiences?

I care first of all about the experience of the viewer. There have to be performances on the level of all the other extraordinary art that we see. Where’s that level of performance? Why do so many people still think of performance as painful to watch? So it’s a kind of urban activism that we’re engaged in, and the opposite of site-specific art. We don’t find a place and then put an artist in there; we see the work and then try to find the perfect frame to bring out the colors, the sound and the flavor of that particular piece.

"Conversation with RoseLee Goldberg" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2009 Table of Contents.