Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center Announces Lineup For Second Edition Of Annual Performance Festival

The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati today announced the second edition of its performance festival This Time Tomorrow (TTT), which commissions and presents new, cutting-edge work from international, domestic, and local artists. Spread across five days in April 2020, this year's festival will feature a diverse assembly of performance works, including four CAC commissions and two North American premieres. Activating the CAC and partner venues throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, TTT 2020 engages with crucial themes that speak to our contemporary time.

"This Time Tomorrow is a five-day fever dream of imagination, experimentation, urgency, and connectivity. The artists' works serve as proposals of hope, or perhaps alarm, for our collective future, while also mining the past to acknowledge the pathway to this moment. Importantly, This Time Tomorrow is rooted in the ecosystem of which it exists, engaging with audiences and makers to celebrate both what is unique to the region, and shared with other cultural communities.

"With programs like This Time Tomorrow, the CAC is able to extend its presentation of the art and issues of our time beyond our galleries and into the performative realm. Through performance works that address topics central to our current collective consciousness, artists and the community can imaginatively map the future together," said Raphaela Platow, the CAC's Alice & Harris Weston Director and Chief Curator. "As we enter the second year of this initiative, it's exciting to see how This Time Tomorrow has so quickly established itself as a cultural catalyst and convener, rallying artists, audiences, and partner organizations from around the city to partake in this week of creativity, dialogue, and cross-cultural exchange."

Launched in 2019, This Time Tomorrow grew out of the CAC's ongoing performance program, which presents full seasons of cross-disciplinary, boundary-pushing performances from artists across the world. Operating behind an ethos of exploration, experimentation, and collaboration, TTT brings a wide-ranging spread of vanguard projects and experiences to local audiences, igniting dialogue and provoking exploration within the city. The inaugural edition debuted with celebrated performances by artists including Rashaad Newsome, Tania El Khoury, and Daina Ashbee.

Building upon last year's broad spectrum of programming, the 2020 edition of the festival presents new and recent work from a prolific roster of International Artists working in a range of scales, disciplines, and themes. Major projects include:

• Regional premiere of the CAC-commissioned immersive performance This is a Formation, the latest in American choreographer duo jumatatu m. poe and Jermone "Donte" Beacham's Let 'im Move You series, which draws from J-Sette dance performance to confront conceived notions of black queered bodies in public assembly
• North American premiere of Collection of Artists, the CAC-commissioned third movement of Portuguese artist Raquel André's Collection of People series, in which she tells the stories she's collected from real interactions with artists around the world
• North American premiere of Brazilian choreographer Alice Ripoll's aCORdo, a movement-based, interactive rumination on social stratification and police violence performed by Cia REC, a group of four black dancers from Brazil's favelas
• South African artist Gabrielle Goliath's powerful performance project Elegy, an iterative commemoration of female and LGBTQI+ individuals subjected to fatal acts of violence in Goliath's home nation, led by a group of female vocal performers who collectively enact a ritual of mourning
• CAC commissions by Cincinnati-based artists Britni Bicknaver and Jay Bolotin

A vital part of This Time Tomorrow is its ability to serve as a conduit for regional artists and audiences to share in dialogue with makers from around the world. To further mine the thematic elements found within the performance program, the CAC hosts the Goetta-Institut, a free discussion series that invites the public to engage in dialogue with artists and performers while convening around local cuisine. These gatherings continue in the evenings with the CAC's late-night Hubs, also free to the public, with each night featuring a new live performance.

Tickets for This Time Tomorrow go on sale Monday, February 10 at 6pm at www.thistimetmrw.com.