GELITIN The Dig Cunt

GUEST BLOGGER: Cian, Production Assistant at PERFORMA

May 7-13

The 4 man collective from Austria dig and refill a giant hole on Coney Island’s beach each day for 7 days.

I’m glad to see that Gelitin are spending some time outdoors after their piece (which was part of the PERFORMA 05 program) The Tantamounter 24/7. For a week the Leo Koenig Gallery stayed open and invited visitors to bring personal objects for Gelitin to use the Tantamounter to represent them in some way. They lived in the installation for 7 days and nights under the close supervision of their bankrupt psychiatrist.
It was one of my favourite pieces / performances I have seen to date, it got quite weird as excitement among the general public peaked - one woman put her 4 year old child in to the 3D photocopier, (the kid seemed to enjoy all the fuss)

I like Gelitin’s description…
The ‘Tantamounter 24/7′ is a gigantic, complex and very clever machine. It’s like a huge huge Xerox copy machine, only bigger and more clever. The friendly customer places their personal objects, ideas, smells on one of the entry ports and after a short analysis will be informed of the time it will take to produce the copy….
http://www.leokoenig.com/exhibition/view/678

I look forward to witnessing their absurd endurance work on Coney Island’s beach.

Category PERFORMA PICKS, Performance

Posted by Guest Blogger | Friday, May 4th, 2007 | 1 comments

CREATIVETIME 6 actions for New York City

GUEST BLOGGER: Cian, Production Assistant at PERFORMA

This international group of legendary performers and young artists take over NYC streets, Coney Island’s beach, and even the foreheads of hundreds of volunteers for 33 days, May 1-June 2
http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/performance/

Adrian Piper Everything will be taken away #10
May 1 & 2, until it fades…
This philosophical piece invites volunteers to apply a henna tattoo to their foreheads bearing the title text and to keep a diary of their experiences. The text is also written in reverse, therefore the text is readable when seen through the reflection of a window.

I must admit I was a little skeptical about this idea at first, but the more I thought about how the (brave) volunteer’s lives will be affected by the addition of backward text to their foreheads over a period of two weeks, I think it’s a very powerful piece. I do hope to encounter one of Pipers volunteers at an opening soon…keep your eyes peeled!

Category PERFORMA PICKS, Performance

Posted by Guest Blogger | Friday, May 4th, 2007 | 1 comments

“Is a Peace Constitution Outdated? Japan Considers

Asia Society and Atomic Sunshine Exhibition Committee Presents:

Panel Discussion “Is a Peace Constitution Outdated? Japan Considers Rearmament”
Date: April 25th, 2007
Time: 6:00 - 6:30 registration; 6:30 - 8:30 discussion; 8:30 - 9:00 reception
Location: New York Asia Society and Museum Rose Hall, 725 Park Ave, New York

Panelists:
Beate Sirota Gordon (Member of the Draft Committe of the Japanese Constitution, Former
Director of Performing Art, Film, Lectures of The Asia Society)
Kunio Suzuki (Political Critic, Founder of a Nationalist Group “Issuikai (First Wednesday Group)”
John Junkerman (Documentary Filmmaker, Director of “Japan’s Peace Constitution”)
Frances Rosenbluth (Professor of Political Science at Yale University, Specialist of Japanese Economics)
Moderator: Carol Gluck (George Sansom Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University)

For more information

Category PERFORMA PICKS, Visual Art

Posted by Esa | Friday, May 4th, 2007 | 1 comments

Theater for the 21st century?

As presented today by architect Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, plans for the redevelopment of Lincoln Center are a breathtaking vision of the architectural possibilities for performing arts venues in the future.

One highlight will be a curved lawn on top of a glass-sided restaurant–described by Lincoln Center Chairman Frank A. Bennack, Jr. as a “champagne below, brown bag on top” concept (probably not realizing that brown bags in parks are no longer associated with sack lunches) and to be covered with grass of an otherworldly green color (Diller described the color as “Antonioni green,” probably referring to the Day-Glo grass in BLOW-UP). Technology is everywhere–the main stairway leading up to the plaza will feature embedded LED screens rolling across each step with Lincoln Center program information, there will be interactive information kiosks at locations across the campus, and even the iconic fountain will be specially programmed to perform magic tricks, like creating a puffy cloud of water hovering in mid-air above the fountain’s base.

The sleekest element of the redevelopment is the new interior design for Alice Tully Hall. The space will be lined with a “high performance” wood surface that covers a lighting system, so that the wood appears to glow from within; when a performance is about to begin, instead of the lights flashing or the curtain parting, the walls will “blush” a warm red color. Beautiful.

Category NEWS

Posted by Lana | Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 | 0 comments