ARIA DEAN
Performa 2025

New York City
Nov 1 – 23, 2025

For her premier for the Performa Biennial, Aria Dean presents a new theatrical work inspired by a fleeting 1923 encounter between Alain Locke and Claude McKay in Berlin's Tiergarten. Set against the backdrop of early Weimar-era Berlin, still reeling from the Great War, the performance follows two figures—The Philosopher and The Poet—as they debate the intersections of emerging Black modernist aesthetics and political thought. Through a blend of live film production, real-time projections, and a virtual reconstruction of the Tiergarten circa 1923, Dean explores the contradictions and limits of realism in relation to Black artistic expression and lived experience.

Commissioned by Performa and Hartwig Art Foundation.

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