Performance art has been a theme throughout the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA but it goes into high gear this month. Though none has been previewed, there are more than a few that antalyze. In fact, this very evening, Thursday, January 11, at the Mayan Theater downtown, you can see Mexico City-based Astrid Hadad, described as a “performance art diva.” I Am Made In Mexico is said to be a meld of “feminism and fabulosity” incorporating a style of music dubbed “Heavy Nopal.” Tickets are $12 to $15.
Astrid Hadad. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Astrid Hadad. Photo: Rodrigo Vasquez
Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Mexican vocalist Carmina Escobar will be floating on a raft around Echo Park Lake accompanied by the 40-piece Oaxacan youth band Maqueos Music. Conducted by Yulissa Maqueos with movement artist Oguri, Fiesta Perpetual was originally commissioned by the late lamented Machine Project led by Mark Allen. 
Carmina Escobar, FIESTA PERPETUA! Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber for Machine Project
Earlier that same day, 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, January 13, performances are being staged in conjunction with an unforgettable exhibition of photographs by the San Gabriel Valley native Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, an artist best known for nude self-portraits that confront viewer expectations and prejudices. Aguilar’s show at the Vincent Price Art Museum is the site of Cuerpos Unidos, a performance event organized by Edgar Fabián Frías with new commissions by him as well as Irina Contreras, Cesia Dominquez, Cindy Vallejo and Freddy Villalobos.
Irina Conteros, The Mountains Are Not Ours, 2016 (collaboration with Monica Robles, with E. Stephanie Gonzalez). Photo: Shannon Cochrane
If you have visited the exhibition A Universal History of Infamy at LACMA, you may have seen a selection of theater props and costumes. They are being used by performers in a performance organized by Guatemalan artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa. El Corazón del Espantapájaros, originally staged in the 1960s, was repressed for political reasons in the 1970s, an aspect of research and ideology that is part of the artist’s work. It is staged January 19 at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the LACMA sculpture garden.
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Corazón del espantapáros (Heart of the Scarecrow), 2016. Credit: Leo Eloy/Estúdio Garagem/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa: Corazón del espantapáros (Heart of the Scarecrow), 2016. Credit: Leo Eloy/Estúdio Garagem/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo
Looking ahead, you have cumbre:look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. This performance by respected L.A-based artist Rafa Esparza references actual bridges and bodies of water as points of connection and division. It is a three-part performance with the last segment involving Sebastian Hernandez. It takes place on Sunday, January 21, at 3 p.m., at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
Rafa Esparza, RePartida, con Alejandro, 2017, performance. Photo: Courtesy of RedBull Music Academy
Most of these performances are free. For more info, go to redcat.org/festival.