A lot of Nerve

Performance artists get a showcase.

When David Bowie, Prince, George Michael and Leonard Cohen died in 2016, artist duo Jan Weingarten and Dave Kudzma wondered if these musicians would perform at rock clubs in heaven.

To answer that question, the couple wrote a comedy sketch titled “CBGB’s in the Sky Featuring Bela Lugosi’s Dead Cat,” part of their performance-art project this weekend in Fort Lauderdale’s FAT Village. Weingarten and Kudzma, who go by “Jan & Dave” professionally, spent a recent Wednesday afternoon pasting movie posters of two Lugosi films, “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and “The Black Cat,” against the brick walls of the Projects — North warehouse. The wall of posters — including Grandpa Munster and a cat wearing a vampire’s cape — is designed to be a shrine to punk rock, fallen music icons and to Lugosi, an underrated actor in his lifetime, Weingarten says.

“Bela Lugosi used to complain that Lon Chaney and other horror actors got better billing than he did. And complaining is a very punk-rock idea,” says Weingarten, of Miami Beach.

Weingarten, in her younger days a singer for the Miami punk outfit Kreamy ’Lectric Santa, says “CBGB’s in the Sky” also carries references to Bauhaus (“Bela Lugosi’s Dead”) and the Kinks (“Celluloid Heroes”). At 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan and Dave will perform the sketch as part of the Nerve 2017 Performance Art Festival.

The Nerve is a threeday showcase championing all things performance art, an underexposed art form in South Florida, says Fort Lauderdale artist Jen Clay, who organized the show with Projects curators Peter Symons and Leah Brown. “CBGB’s in the Sky” will join 46 other artists doing 24 simultaneous performances at five gallery storefronts and warehouses in FAT Village: The Projects — North, ArtsUp!, Far Gallery, 519 Front Window and Projects — South.

Ahead of her show in the Projects — North space, performance artist Belaxis Buil has been assembling “BloodThirsty,” a 15-foot-tall structure built from tree branches, Styrofoam and red house paint. The project, she says, evokes the Salem witch trials and its modern parallels to President Trump’s Muslim ban. The project will be an endurance test for Buil, who plans to dance and even “fight” with six other performers around the sculpture.

FAT VILLAGE PROJECTS/COURTESY Dave Kudzma, left, and Jan Weingarten will present “CBGB's in the Sky Feeding Bela Lugosi's Dead Cat.”