Artists in Action 1995 Mext wave Festival SponIOfld by Philp MorrIs Companies Inc. The Brooklyn in Partnership with Dia Center Queens Museum Academy of Music for the Arts of Art Bruce C. Ratner Ashton Hawkins Murray R. Tarnapoll Chairman of the Board Chairman, President, Board of Trustees Board of Trustees Harvey Lichtenstein President Michael Govan Carma C. Fauntleroy & Executive Producer Director Executive Director rtists in BAM Visual Arts Initiative Theater Project Interim: after the The Flies: A Musical for a Rock Band end and before Phantasmagoria Vito Acconci the beginning lIya Kabakov in collaboration with Kristin Jones & in collaboration with the Mekons Andrew Ginzel Vladimir Tarasov in collaboration with and David Dorfman Chandralekha Dia Center for the Arts Queens Museum of Art BAM Majestic Theater October 11-14, 1995 October 19-21, 1995 October 26-28, 1995 at 8pm at8pm at8pm October 13 at llpm October 21 at 3pm Special support for Artists in Action has been provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., The Bohen Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Greenwall Foundation, Time Out New York, and The Cowles Charitable Trust. Costume illustration by lIya Kabakov During their years working with visual artists as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, BAM President and Executive Producer Harvey Lichtenstein and Producing Director Joseph V. Melillo learned that visual artists and performing artists have different ideas about space. This difference is the inspiration behind Artists in Action, BAM's Visual Arts Initiative. The project reverses the roles generally held by visual and performing artists who work in collaboration, giving visual artists the lead role in conceiving and directing performance-related projects. Each year, three visual artists will be selected to develop their ideas for performance projects. The artists will work with BAM to select performers and develop their projects over a nine-month workshop period. At the end of the workshop period the three "works-in-progress" will be presented to the public as a mini-series under the auspices of BAM's Next Wave Festival. The projects will each be developed and presented at separate sites, one project at BAM and the other two at the locations of BAM's "Art Partners." While BAM's involvement in the program will remain constant, the Art Partners, selected from New York City's museums and non-profit exhibition spaces, will change from year to year. This rotating partnership will increase the opportunities available to artists, facilitate a variety of organi­ zational collaborations, and identify and attract new audiences for each participating institution. Program artists are chosen through a nomination and review process involving representatives from visual arts institutions across the cou ntry. Artists in Action was developed, in large part, with the help of a 1992 planning grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and an Advisory Committee of curators and art professionals, including Nancy Spector from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lynne Cooke from Dia Center for the Arts, Jane Farver from the Queens Museum of Art, CharloUa Kotik from The Brooklyn Museum, Thelma Golden from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Robert Storr from the Museum of Modern Art, and indepen­ dent curator Jeffrey Deitch. "This is an innovative program to encourage visual artists to initiate per­ formance projects which may involve performing artists as collaborators as well as performers," says Harvey Lichtenstein, "It was conceived and devel­ oped by BAM together with visual arts institutions and will, we hope, reveal new, exciting directions and innovative works in the area of performance." Since its inception, the Brooklyn Academy of Dia Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary Music has been committed to presenting the contemporary arts organization with large-scale, finest in traditional and contemporary performing long-term exhibition projects and programs for arts, presenting many national and international poetry, dance, education, lectures and symposia. artists, often in their New York and national Dia's program at 548 West 22nd Street in debuts, in the fields of dance, music, theater, Manhattan offers visual artists the opportunity music-theater, and opera. Today, under the to develop new work or a focused presentation direction of President and Executive Producer of work on a full floor of the building for extended Harvey Lichtenstein, BAM's commitment is exhibition periods, usually one year. In addition, two-fold: to the presentation and support of artists works from Dia's permanent collection are pre­ with an artistic vision that encompasses the newest sented from time to time. forms in the performing arts and to the Brooklyn community, with programming for the borough's The Queens Museum of Art, located in Flushing diverse population. Meadows Corona Park, Queens, recently com­ pleted a three-year $15 million reconstruction project that ma rks the tra nsformation of the Museum from a former World's Fair Pavilion into a museum of art. Founded in 1972, the Queens Museum of Art presents changing exhibitions that focus on Twentieth Century and Contemporary Art and reflect the international diversity of the iili••IIIII'I~llf Museum offers a wide array of pub­ IC programs including lectures, documentary and feature films, gallery talks, and familyworkshops. Theater Project Vito Acconci, born in the Bronx in 1940, began his career as a poet. for a Rock Band In his first work in a visual art context in the late 60's and early 70's, the artist used his own body as a subject for photography, film, video and Vito Acconci performance. These early works, which explore the self in its relation to and the Mekons others, have exerted a profound influence on the current generation of young artists. During the next two decades, the artist's relationship to his The Mekons: audience changed as viewers ceased to be merely spectators and became Sally Timms more and more an integral part of his work. In the mid-70's, Acconci Jon Langford created audio/visual installations that turned exhibition spaces into com­ Tom Greenhalgh munity meeting places. In the early 80's, he invited his viewers to create Steve Goulding the artwork by activating machinery that erected shelters and signs. In the Sarah Corina late 80's, he turned to the creation of furniture and to prototypes of houses Rico Bell and gardens. More recently, the artist has focused his creative energies on Acconci Studio: architectural and landscape design that integrates public and private space. Luis Vera, As a group, the Acconci Studio designs and builds public projects in Design & Engineering parks, city streets, and city buildings. Jennifer Schrider Solo exhibitions of the artist's work have been organized by the Charles Doherty Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla; Centre d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble; and the Museum of Lighting Designer: Applied Art, Vienna. In the past few years, Acconci Studio has designed Christien Methot and built a plaza at Queens College, New York; a courtyard for an elemen­ tary school in the Bronx; a public garden at MetroTech Center, Brooklyn; Associate Lighting a wall used as seating at the Arvada Community Center, Colorado; and Designer: street furniture for Tachikawa City, Japan. The artist has collaborated with Raphael Latorre Steven Holl (in the renovation of the Storefront for Art & Architecture, New York) and with Stanley Saitowitz and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (at the Lighting Services: Embarcadero Promenade, San Francisco). Additional public projects are designOne now underway in Liverpool, Chenove and The Hague. Lighting Board Pioneers and survivors of the punk rock movement in England, for over 15 Operator: years the Mekons have charted a course for themselves that includes forays D.M. Wood into Nashville honky-tonk, politics, and love and romance. The Mekons' past albums include "Rock 'N' Roll," an album that explored the power of Sound Equipment music and the mrusic industry from a variety of angles, and "I Love Mekons," and Design: Promix Inc. an exhiliarating pop record that examines the marketing of love. Sound Engineer: Christien Methot's work has been seen in and around New York City for Casey Rice the past four years. He is the resident Lighting Designer for Workhouse Theatre Co., and is presently designing the new musical by Mac Wellman Construction and Len Jenkins "Tallahassee." Up coming projects include "Don Giovanni" Coordinator: for Opera North East. Peter Homestead Special thanks to Arto Lindsay, Diego Cortes and Tim Carr. Set Fabrication: Marc Rubin Scenic motion control systems by United Theatrical Services, Inc. New York Interim: after the Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel have worked collaboratively for the past end and before twelve years. The artists have invented a diverse range of works for muse­ the beginning ums, galleries, public spaces, and for performance. Exploring the nature of time, equilibrium and memory, using a broad range of materials, they have Conceived and created both ephemeral and permanent works in many venues including Directed by the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, The New Museum, and the P.S.1 Museum Kristin Jones/ in New York; nationally for the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, the Chicago Andrew Ginzel/ Cultural Center, and the Wadsworth Atheneum; and internationally at the Chandralekha Kunsthalle Basel, and the Museo 0' Arte Contemporanea in Prato, Italy among others. In performance, the artists have worked with Matthew Choreography: Maguire, David Dorfman and Merce Cunningham. Recently the artists have Chandralekha invested themselves in a variety of public arts projects, building large scale site specific works. Jones and Ginzel have received a variety of awards Original Music: including the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Sculpture in TH. Subash Chandran 1986 and 1994, a Bessie Award, the U.S.