The Institute of Contemporary Art is rolling out a varied, crossbred lineup of performance and film in the 2012-13 season. There’s a fluid resistance to categorization in many of the works on the roster.
Sept. 21 and 22, multimedia director Jay Scheib will imbue theater with cinematic elements in “World of Wires,” inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s science fiction film “Welt am Draht.” As Scheib, onstage, captures the performance on video, the images will be projected live onto the set.
“It has great trompe-l’oeil effects,” ICA director of programs David Henry said of the show, which premiered in January at the Kitchen in New York, winning Scheib an Obie Award for his direction. “You think you’re looking at one thing, and all of sudden there’s layers behind it.”
The dance and theater slate continues Nov. 2 and 3 with choreographer Faye Driscoll’s “You’re Me,” a duet that explores how a relationship with another person defines one’s identity. Choreographer Trajal Harrell’s “(M)imosa,” part of his series “Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church,” follows Jan. 17-18, 2013. Dancer-choreographer Nora Chipau-mire will bring “Miriam,” a piece named in part for South African artist-activist Miriam Makeba, to the ICA March 15-16, 2013. And choreography by Amy Seiwert will be part of the Boston Children’s Chorus 10th Anniversary Concert May 31-June 1, 2013, which will also feature a world premiere by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain.
Musical offerings include a jazz double bill of guitarist-composer Marc Ribot and the quartet Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Sept. 27. Indie rock group Yo La Tengo will perform a live soundtrack to Sam Green’s documentary “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller” on Oct. 20, as Green narrates the film.
“Today everyone is watching on their computer and iPads,” said Branka Bogdanov, the ICA’s director of film and video. “What [Green is] trying to do is produce a group experience.” In its combination of live and prerecorded elements, she said, the presentation recalls silent film, which often featured live piano accompaniment.
On Oct. 6, Andrea Geyer and Josiah McElheny will bring the performance art piece “The Infinite Repetition of Revolt” to an ICA gallery, where it will blend with McElheny’s exhibition “Some Pictures of the Infinite.” Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson will present a durational performance — with the same Schubert piece repeated for four hours, on eight pianos — Dec. 13 in conjunction with his exhibition, “Ragnar Kjartansson: Song,” and Andrea Fraser will examine responses to the feminist movement in “Men on the Line, KPFK, 1972,” on Jan. 24, 2013.
In addition to Green’s documentary, the film schedule includes Mexican director Natalia Almada’s “El Velador” Sept. 30; a pair of films by animators Stephen and Timothy Quay, “Through the Weeping Glass” and “Mask,” Sept. 29; Sam Green’s “What We Need Is the Impossible,” Oct. 21; “The Art and Technique of the American Commercial,” Oct. 25; and “The British Arrows,” a collection of award-winning British commercials, Nov. 23-24 and Dec. 6, 20, and 27.