Fifty-two artists and collaborators will take over six Portland venues starting Wednesday, Sept. 9, when the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) opens the 24th Time-Based Art Festival.

TBA:26 runs through Sunday, Sept. 13, with performances, exhibitions, screenings and workshops at PICA's Northeast Portland campus, Reed College, the Winningstad Theatre, New Expressive Works, The Lantern and the Dekum Street Theater.

Festival Opens Amid Leadership Transition at PICA

The festival arrives during a leadership shift at PICA. The organization announced on Facebook on July 28 that Executive Director Reuben Roquení had stepped down after more than three years. No interim leader has been named publicly.

Artistic director and curator of performance Erin Boberg Doughton told Oregon ArtsWatch she noticed a throughline while building this year's program: artists reaching for analog, tactile tools instead of digital platforms.

"I see audiences and artists returning to tactile, relatively simple technologies as a way of reaching each other outside of social media or other corporate platforms," Doughton said.

Phone Booths and Guided Walks Headline the Lineup

That thread runs through several marquee works. Southeast Portland nonprofit Elbow Room built "Dialtones," a phone-booth installation audiences can enter in person or access remotely by dialing a phone number. Its menu includes a radio drama, a "chill zone" and lo-fi covers of telephone songs. Berlin-based collective Rimini Protokoll offers "The Walks," a set of 20-minute audio experiences tied to specific Portland locations, each walked with a companion.

Hankins Closes Multiyear Series With New Choreography

Portland-based artist Allie Hankins closes out her multiyear series "By My Own Hand" with "Part 5: Invisible Touch," her first large-scale work as a choreographer. The piece uses looping cassette tapes, microphones and layered vocal scores. It runs at the PICA Annex on Thursday, Sept. 10, through Saturday, Sept. 12, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $50 on a sliding scale.

A world premiere at the festival is "How Does It Feel to Look at Nothing," a new opera by Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon. The married duo's work combines composition, improvisation, dance and ritual, drawing on their experiences as queer trans people of color. The Portland Mercury, a festival sponsor, described it as a "pre-origin story of a Deity of Nothingness" in its Sept. 2 preview. Performances are at the Winningstad Theatre on Friday, Sept. 11, and Saturday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 13, at 2 p.m.

Wrestling-Inspired Show Carries Age Restriction

Other highlights include Clayton Lee's "The Goldberg Variations," a West Coast premiere investigating desire and identity through Lee's personal history and his fascination with professional wrestler Bill Goldberg. Artistic director and curator of visual art Kristan Kennedy told the Mercury to "please come prepared to be surprised." The show runs at PICA on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. and is restricted to ages 18 and older.

Brooklyn Choreographer Brings Work-in-Progress Home

Portland-raised, Brooklyn-based choreographer Symara Sarai brings a work-in-progress exploring love, memory and cultural inheritance. Dance Magazine named her one of its 2025 "25 to Watch," and she received a 2023 Bessie Award for breakout choreographer, according to Oregon ArtsWatch's dance preview.

Bingo Night Opens Festival, Pancakes Close It

Opening night on Wednesday, Sept. 9, features "Good Dang Weeknight," a bingo night and live-music fundraiser for Elbow Room hosted by Kye Alive, with a set by Magic Luscious Spirit Sounds. Tickets are $20 to $50 sliding scale, with free entry at 8 p.m. The festival closes Sunday, Sept. 13, with a free pancake breakfast, Willamette Week reported.

I-5 Closure to Complicate Festival Traffic

A heads-up for drivers: southbound I-5 through the Rose Quarter is scheduled to close starting Friday, Sept. 11, for five weeks.

Individual show tickets range from $20 to $50 on a sliding scale. A Full Pass costs $250, and a Patron Pass runs $500. Tickets and the full schedule are at pica.org/tba.