hello everyone,
I am very excited to have been invited to help organize this show.
Emilie and I are going to run the open call, and help to bring in new
artists.
I look forward to seeing your proposals. To give you an idea of
who I am and what I like, here is a list of references and ideas I
have about this show. I will be updating this list all summer.
-- Francis
Audio Work/Dance
Michael Snow, Last LP CD
A CD of last recordings of ethnic music. Because his river will be damed, an Indian Chieftain performs a traditional river-dance for the last time, etc. A whole CD of last recordings, gone for all time.
William Forsythe, Endless House
Went to see a dance performance, after the first act (in which there was no dance) were told that we had to take a bus across town for the second act. When we got to the huge hangar, we had to remove our shoes to walk about on the dance mats which covered the floor. People were already there, milling around. We did not know where to look, suddenly people next to us started dancing. The dancers were moving the crowd around with lights, rolling walls, sounds.
The crowd was whipped into a passion, " I can't see ..." , "What's going on ? ..." "Where am I supposed to look? ..." The energy of the crowd jostling for position, was used to move them around, it all built up to a "trance". Like trances we had seen in Bali, you never know exactly when, or who. The dancer became a rock-star "WHERE'S MY COAT?" white boa, glittering chains, our version of a prophet. It was wonderful. We bought tickets again to see it the next night.
Classics
Marville
Marville was one of the first photographers, from the 1850's through 1880's he was commissioned to take documentary pictures for the French government. Most famously he took pictures of the streets which were about to be destroyed to make way for the "Grand Boulevards" projects of Haussmann. There are no people in the shots because the aperture times where very long, he often took pictures on Sunday morning, when there were few people on the streets. Pictures of empty streets which have now disappeared.
Sugimoto
Sugimoto did these famous images of a whole movie playing in old theatres. The movie itself is irrelevant but the light reflecting off the screen has lit up the inside of these magical places, which have given way to gigantic plastic home theatres with a 2 year lifespan
Ferdinand Pessoa
Portuguese writer. Would change writing personalities. Ended up arguing among the different personalities.
John Cage
of course, but in the magical, heightened awareness sense. Not in the everybody is doing a John Cage anything goes festival, sense.
