calendario eventi  :: 

X

4/4/2002

Variations V by John Cage

Mobius, Boston

a 2002 revisitation of Cage's pioneering multimedia performance

The Mobius Artists Group presents a newly envisioned version of John Cage's "Variations V," an intermedia work originally created in collaboration with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and an impressive gathering of the experimental art luminaries of 1965. Now, in 2002, Mobius is gathering a group of Boston's brightest experimental artists, not to recreate but to re-envision this pioneering piece of interdisciplinary multimedia. Mobius' "Variations V" will include not only dance and movement but interactive sound and video using an array of digital, analog and human technologies.

The Mobius production of "Variations V" features new choreography by Not Frida. The dances will be based on structures by Marjorie Morgan, who has been called "the most original dance-maker in Boston" by the Boston Globe. Landon Rose and Larry Johnson, both Boston-based sound and multimedia innovators, will create the electronic environment within which the performance will be experienced. Original electronic music and environmental sound by Forrest Larson and David Miller will be included, as well as new and existing music played on trombone, violin and other acoustic instruments by John Ferguson and the celebrated trombone explorer Tom Plsek. Real-time videography, devised by Bob Raymond, will complete the loop of interactive multimedia. In the spirit of Cage and Cunningham, this production of "Variations V" is the product of a close collaboration, which began in the autumn of 2001, and draws on the momentum of many years of interdisciplinary work among Mobius Artists Group members and guest artists.

(Bios.): Performer/composer John Ferguson's recent performances (on piano, violin, and electric guitar) include solo and ensemble recitals throughout the United States, including collaborations with trumpeter Stephen Burns, trombonist Scott Hartman, and the chamber ensemble XY Collective. Other projects include a performance with the Mozart Festival Orchestra at Harvard University, a collaboration with hornist Eric Ruske, and a recording for Centaur Records of music by John Cage.

Larry Johnson has presented multimedia performance work all over New England, New York, the Kitchen & Experimental Intermedia in NYC, the Grand Canyon, Chicago, and many other places. He has been a member of Mobius since 1992 and has performed at Mobius for over 15 years. He has collaborated with fellow Mobius members David Miller, Landon Rose, and Jed Speare in a series of Text-Sound events and has also been active in a series of John Cage concerts.

Forrest Larson is a composer who works in both electronic and traditional acoustic instrumental mediums, often combining each. His music has appeared on various local venues and has also received performances in Pittsburgh, Ithaca, NY and Ashland OR. In April 2002, a new piece for 8 violins will be played in Iceland. As a violist and violinist, he has performed with local groups such as the New England Philharmonic, the Boston Chamber Ensemble, the Commonwealth Vintage Dance Orchestra and Macadam Road.

Since 1996, David Miller has collaborated with other Mobius Artists Group members and guest artists on John Cage's "Variations" series of performance pieces, as well as creating original works of sound poetry. He has been a member of the Mobius Artists Group since 1980, combining a background in theatre with interests in new music, sound art and spoken word. In the Boston area, he has also worked with the Invisible Cities Group, TheaterWorks, and Theater S.

Marjorie Morgan, a member of the Mobius Artists Group, is a performance artist, writer, composer, choreographer and musician. In addition to her own productions and those with her performance troupe Not Frida, she has performed in projects with Bill T. Jones and Robert Davidson, and has danced in the companies of Pooh Kaye, Paula Josa-Jones, Snappy Productions, Caitlin Corbett and Brian Crabtree. Boston critics have cited her work as being one of the top ten dance events in 1996 (The Boston Globe), 1998 (The Boston Globe), 1999 (The Boston Phoenix) and 2001 (The Boston Herald and Bay Windows).

Trombone explorer, Tom Plsek has been stretching trombones and our concepts of them for years. He is Chairman of the Brass Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston and a member of the Mobius Artists Group and Not Frida. Tom has performed with such artists as Jerry Hunt, Malcolm Goldstein, Joseph Jarman, Phil Niblock, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Joe Morris, Marjorie Morgan, and the Outsider Quartet.

Bob Raymond is an intermedia artist and television industry professional who has been a member of the Mobius Artist Group since 1983. He has produced many types of video works and video documents and has photographed practically all of the work presented at Mobius since 1983, where he also created and maintains the photographic archives. His artwork has been seen at Mobius, Art in General (NY), the DeCordova Museum (MA), VideoSpace (MA) and the Fuller Museum of Art (MA).

Landon Rose is a member of the Mobius Artists Group and has been a professional musician for the past twenty years. The scope of his work includes: building instruments, i.e. amplified sounding bows constructed from piano wire and reinforcement bar; creating electroacoustic interactive computer music; building interactive

Friday-Saturday, April 5th-6th, 8pm

Tickets:
$10/$8 students, seniors and Friends of Mobius. Reservations strongly recommended; please call Mobius at (617) 542-7416. Mobius does not turn away audience members based on inability to pay. If you are unable to pay the full admission price, please call the Mobius office in advance to make other arrangements.

___________

Artist's Talk
April 2002

Mobius
presents
"Reports From Afield:
Translation (From Performance to Other Media)"
an artist's talk given by
Joan Jonas

When:
Monday, April 8, 7 pm

Joan Jonas, a pioneer of video/performance art and currently a faculty member in MIT's Visual Arts Program, will discuss the arc of her video/performance work and how it has been represented retrospectively in new contexts. Her own experiments and productions in the late 1960s and early 1970s were essential to the formulation of the genre. Her influence has been crucial to the development of contemporary art in many genres -- from performance and video to conceptual art and theater. From early on, her art work has been based on the "shamanistic idea - the performer goes through the actions so that the audience can experience them also... It takes you into a space that you wouldn't otherwise be in."

(Bio.) Joan Jonas' most recent work continues to explore the relationship of new digital media to performance. During the past decade, she has collaborated with composers such as Alvin Lucier to develop collaborative video-performance works, and has performed and toured with The Wooster Group. Jonas has been awarded fellowships and grants for choreography, video, and visual arts from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the CAT Fund, the Artist TV Lab at WNET/13 (NYC), the Television Workshop at WXX1 (Rochester), and the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) in Germany. She has received the Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Modern Art Prize at the Tokyo Inter-national Video Art Festival, the Polaroid Award for Video, and the American Film Institute Maya Deren Award for Video. In 1994, Jonas was honored with a major retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) in which she transformed six performance works into installations for the museum. She has recently had solo exhibitions at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery (Los Angeles), the Pat Hearn Gallery (NYC), Rooftop Urban Park Project (NYC), Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst (Berlin) and the Museum of Modern Art (Dublin).

"Reports from Afield" is an ongoing series of monthly Monday evening talks by members of the Mobius Artists Group and Boston/regional/national/international guest artists. These presentations focus on projects that have been created abroad, and/or in a public arena, and that explore important artistic, socio-cultural, or political issues. In addition, many of the reports reflect Mobius' increasingly international outlook. "Reports from Afield" has been made possible with support from the Boston Cultural Agenda Fund, City of Boston. Please call the Mobius office if you would like more information about this program.

In 2001, Mobius was granted a Boston's Best Performance Art award by The Improper Bostonian. "For more than 21 years, Mobius has been the city's premiere venue for experimental art, programming a 42-week roller-coaster ride of events that range from consciousness-raising to the downright bizarre. The annual ArtRages fundraiser is one of the funkiest and most fun happenings in town, and the group's commitment to the Fort Point artists' community is one of the few things standing between it and the developers' wrecking ball. Our hats are off to them." Mobius also recently received the "best place to get in touch with your inner Yoko" award from the Boston Phoenix.

Tickets:
free, with reception following; reservations recommended; please call Mobius at (617) 542-7416

__________________

Mobius
Boston's Artist-Run Center
for Experimental Work in All Media
354 Congress St.
Boston, MA 02210
phone: 617-542-7416
fax: 617-451-2910

stampa

permanent link