Roulette
6 – 22 November 2009
Artists: Michel Auder, Felicia Ballos, Salvador Dalí, Molly Gochman, Amy Granat, George Maciunas, Maripol, Jonas Mekas, Lola Schnabel, Mai Ueda, Ultra Violet
Curated by Liutauras Psibilskis
537 Broadway, New York
The project is part of Performa 09
Friday, 6 November, 9-–10.30pm
Jonas Mekas with friends and the band Now We Are Here, featuring Jonas Mekas as the lead singer. The performance includes surprise appearances by special guests.
Tuesday, 10 November, 7–-9pm
Presentation of performance documentation and performative film. Rarely seen work, addressing themes of game, transmutation and the changing of social and gender roles, by George Maciunas, Ultra Violet, and Maripol, as well as documentation of Salvador Dalí’s performances in New York.
Saturday, 14 November, 7-–9pm
A Family Dinner in Parallel Universe by Mai Ueda and her friends. Ueda invites a selection of her friends: musicians, fashion designers, and artists to perform, dine and play music. A neo-Fluxus event recalling the 1971 dumpling dinner staged by Maciunas in SoHo.
Sunday, 15 November, 7-–10pm
Innocence in Extremis by Amy Granat in collaboration with dancer Felicia Ballos. Collaboration between extreme cinema and dance: a variety of moving images and a simultaneous dance performance playing with light, darkness, shadows and sound.
Wednesday, 18 November, 7–-9pm
The Good Life, new video installation by Michel Auder involving the poets Kathy Acker, Julien Blainem, William Burroughs, John Cooper Clarke, Ira Cohen, Gregory Corso, Brian Gyson, Harry Hoogstraten, Jean Jacques Lebel, Gerard Malanga, Michael McClure, Giulia Niccolai, Ron Padgett, Adriano Spatola and others performing for an audience and for Auder”s camera in 1979.
The Emily Harvey Foundation is the city’s ultimate Fluxus space. It is where George Maciunas’s late wedding performance was staged and it is the same building where many of the Fluxus artists lived. The project Roulette moves between a variety of media and time frames, presenting a dense collection of work original to and reflective of the Fluxus spirit: performances, performative videos, films, sound pieces, and photographs.
Roulette features a performance by Jonas Mekas and the band Now We Are Here, with special guests. Mai Ueda will host a dinner performance that will include contributions from fashion designers, musicians and artists. A new video installation by Michel Auder will be presented. Amy Granat, in collaboration with dancer Felicia Ballos, will show an installation that incorporates performative film, movement and light. Documentation of performances by Salvador Dalí will be screened, as well as rediscovered videos by Ultra Violet and Maripol. The show will also include prints of the work by George Maciunas and the young artists Molly Gochman and Lola Schnabel.
By integrating the past and present, the viewer will be presented with a variety of concepts and beliefs, past and now, all related to the idea of a performance and game. Roulette reflects on the risk-taking and possibilities of contemporary reality, marked by its gambles and potential rewards. The project will change with each successive event; as one event closes, another will open.
Co-produced by Outpost NYC DCG
Supported by James Gallery, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Intern: Peter Staples
