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In The Goldberg Variations, Canadian performance artist Clayton Lee freely references and entangles queer diasporic sexuality and aesthetics with classical music (Johann Sebastian Bach) and professional wrestling (Bill Goldberg).
Using deadpan humor, generosity, and a low-vibrating mischievousness to facilitate and indulge the “what-ifs” of the live encounter, Clayton guides the audience through his sexual history while conjuring and perhaps manifesting new fantasies at the exact same time. The Goldberg Variations is an unhinged and reckless deep dive into power dynamics, sexual desire, Domination/submission, heartbreak, vulnerability, tenderness, and the tensions that exist within.
Photo by Kenneth Koo
Content Advisory: This performance contains haze effect and scents. Visitors with sensory-processing sensitivities should exercise caution. This event features mature themes and sexual content.
Clayton Lee (he/him) is a UK-based, Canadian performance artist and curator. Performances include (◕‿◕✿) at The Performance Arcade in Wellington, New Zealand; Chapter’s Experimentica in Cardiff, Wales; Ways of Being, co-created with Michael Rubenfeld; Duets for Beginners; and Informal Beginnings. He was the 2023 Art Gallery of Ontario x RBC Artist-in-Resdence. He is currently the Director (Artistic) of Fierce Festival in Birmingham, UK and formerly the Rhubarb Festival Director at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Zvonimir Dobrović (curator)
Founder and Artistic Director of Queer Zagreb and Perforations festivals as well as Executive Producer of Sounded Bodies Festival in Croatia. He has been an invited curator of festivals and performing arts programs around the world and regularly presents and produces up to 80 public events a year in Croatia and internationally. He has extensive experience and expertise in arts management and fundraising. He edited over 40 books, taught arts management and curating classes as guest speaker at numerous Universities, Academies and other formal and informal education programs including Yale, Columbia and NYU.
SUPPORT
The Queer New York International Festival is partially funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb – Office for Culture and Goethe-Institut New York.
NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and by Howard Gilman Foundation; FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program of FACE Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Collins Building Services; Korean Cultural Center New York, Marta Heflin Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Stage Pass Fund support.
