Author: Raul Zbengheci (Brooklyn, USA)
First Person: Ernesto Pujol’s Time After Us (New York)
above: Ernesto Pujol surrounded by his performers, dawn | photo by the author An Exercise in Reverence, Patience, and Force How is one meant to wrap words around an experience that exists beyond our humanly agreed-upon notions of time? Durational work has become a contested milieu for both performers and critics, becoming at times as formulaic as the structure it is attempting to do away wi...
First Person: Massive Attack V Adam Curtis
above: The Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall, Photo by Susane Berger The multi-media spectacle of the fall thundered through the Park Avenue Armory’s military airs with all of the pomp and circumstance of the pope arriving, or rather some great dictator, rolling through taking his victory lap, the press outlets blindly congratulating, the masses gathering, huddled together to hear the booming vo...
In Performance: Collectif Experiencia’s MACHINE (NYC)
A performance, an installation, a trip through the ethers of the digital heavens. July 5th – July 7th MACHINE is a 4-channel video and audio installation envisioned as a staging ground for upload to the digital heavens. By using motion sensing technologies, video, audio, and water elements, MACHINE enables a pre-upload body/mind “work-out”. Evaporation Study #1 exhibits the body in transit...
In Performance: SOAK festival — a deluge of acts and training in butoh, dance, and performance art
SOAK is a festival presenting a deluge of acts and workshops in theater, butoh, dance, and performance art every spring over four weeks in May and June. SOAK is molded by LEIMAY at their Brooklyn home CAVE, as well as at some off-site venues. SOAK broadens the perceptions of our artists and audiences with work that is experimental, rigorous, and thought-provoking. The festival showcases finished ...
Opportunity: Movement and Voice Workshops at CAVE (Brooklyn)
The fall season has begun at CAVE. Focusing on the LUDUS Technique, CAVE’s educational program, weekly training classes and a variety of butoh, body, and voice training are offered to dancers, actors, and performers. Every year, parallel to the development of the Ludus Technique, influential butoh artists living abroad as well as locally are invited to lead workshops at CAVE. This ...
First Person: Findlay//Sansmark’s fractured bones/let’s get lost (NYC)
Probably the first thing one would notice walking into findlay//sansmark’s new piece would be the row of programmers lined up in front of the stage, wearing costumes and foil hats. Or perhaps it was the small tower of aged computer monitors playing loops of the set’s design. Either way, the technician stepped into the literal front row of this performance, guiding the dances and crea...
First Person: Esther Kläs at MoMA PS1 (NYC)
Esther Kläs Better Energy MoMA PS1 June 3rd to September 17th On Audience Activation One’s typical reading and research on Esther Kläs would lead to a discussion over self-generated sculptural work, the fluidity of her creative process, and an overarching sense that Kläs was born to be a sculptor. This visit inside of the artist’s work will not aim to discuss the merits of her ...