Currency 2002 + Currency Exchange
Currency 2002
an international festival of contemporary performance
organized by Festival Director Dan McKereghan
held in conjunction with
Currency Exchange
an exhibit of works from performance artists from around the globe in the Lobby Gallery,
curated by Dan McKereghan and chashama artist-in-residence Janusz Jaworski
October 3 - 5, 2002
chashama 135 Theater & Windows
135 West 42nd Street
New York, NY
Theater performances begin at 8p
$12 / $25 Festival Pass
Festival Director: Dan McKereghan
Assistant to the Director/Artist Liaison: Amy Shapiro
Technical Director: Janusz Jaworski
Box Office: Neale Harper
Video Documentation: Matt Kalman
Photo Documentation/Slide Projection: Pogo
Performance and the art of human presence
The term "performance art" has been bandied about so much in the last fifteen years that it has almost lost any sense of true meaning. Just this summer, a blockbuster movie featured as a main character a performance artist whose work consists of dumping stolen cars off bridges and riding serving trays down stairway handrails; not too long ago another film featured Mike Myers as a Jack Kerouac type who delivered spoken-word monologs on top of pseudo-jazz music. Political controversy has labeled it subversive and degenerate; Blue Man Group and John Leguizamo have found commercial success with a theatrical style. Lost amidst the hyperbole and distortion is the initial impulse behind the movement which became known as "performance art" - the desire of artists, trained in the field of plastic arts, to transcend the object as a means of communication and to connect with the viewer in the most immediate way possible. Not with academic forms which must be adhered to out of historical inertia, or critical analyses which subvert and subjugate the artist to overly intellectualized theories, but by direct contact. Artist to viewer, present in the same time and space, without intermediaries. This is the model to which Currency 2002 seeks to return. Here at chashama, 135 West 42nd Street in New York City, on October 3, 4, and 5, 2002, artists from around the world have gathered to present their work to the viewers who have assembled before them. It is unlikely that there will be any reviews, notices in professional publications, or commercial productions which will occur as a result of this festival. The general public will barely notice that this event has taken place. Only the artists and the viewers who are physically present in this space on these three nights will have any idea of what has occurred. The artists will present to you their ideas of what constitutes "performance art". Feel free to form your own opinion.
---Dan McKereghan, Festival Director
Currency 2002 Schedule:
Thursday, October 3rd
>>Fumiko Takahashi - Lemon Smash & Ash
"Lemon is sour. Lemon give a pain on your tongue. Lemon make you wake up. Your body & your soul."
>>John G. Boehme - P.E.R (Performance Evaluation Review)
>>Pekka Luhta - Untitled
>>Jessica Buege - Between Us
>>Julie Bacon - Moments before, passing away
"In Moments before, passing away, Julie Bacon presents a Glimpse Work. In one sense, this is an event of partial meaning; in another it is the remembering of of the partiality of histories. This performance forms part of the Fact-archiving body of research Bacon has been developing since 1999, in which she questions the regulating authority of archives and their relationship to law-making, by making and exploring threads of historicisation in the physical and social spheres of everyday life."
Friday, October 4th
>>Ema Villanueva - Untitled
>>Wladislaw Kazmierczak / Ewa Rybska - NYC: I Like America and America Likes Me
"We come to America in 2002, one year after September 11 and one year before the Polish people could join the United Europe and return to normality for the first time since the nazi troops attacked Poland (1939), starting World War II. After Hitler destroyed our world, the Yalta Agreement divided Europe for 47 years, displacing nations from our homelands and giving permission for the extending of another totalitarian system onto East and Central Europe. We use in our performance a very simple story about the nazi pilot, well known in history of art, some pictures, American flag, some small things and two dogs (toys) as metaphor of warm feelings and as a hope for the future without military aggression and the actions of redemption from the people (maybe)."
>>Jamie MacMurry - Paralyze
in the basement:
>>Sylvie Cotton - Untitled
Saturday, October 5th
>>Irma Optimist - RATIONAL MAN?
"Rational Man? is a non symmetrical game, in which exact mathematical symbols refer to the subjective meanings that control the game situation. The game is played between the ideal rational expectations and the empirical results of the performance."
>>Chumpon Apisuk - freedom from existence / a declaration -
>>Julien Blaine - Untitled
>>Alexander Del Re - I'm Afraid of (some) Americans
"This performance deals with the coincidence between the dates when two horror events tooko place: the destruction of WTC in 9/11/01 and the coup d'etat in Chile in 9/11/73; the fact that I lived the consequences of one of those events (the second but not the first), that I witnessed how it affected the concept of 'freedom' and personal 'security', and my fear of how 9/11/01 is affecting as well the sense of 'security' and 'freedom' to the citizens of the U.S."
>>Uto Gusztav - Untitled
in the window:
>>Her/She Senses [Angela Ellsworth/Tina Takemoto] - Erotoelectro
Featured artists for Currency Exchange:
Skip Arnold (US), Adina Bar-On (Israel), Peter Baren (Holland), Nenad Bogdanovic (Yugoslavia), Jeffery Byrd (US), Peter Grzybowski (US), Roddy Hunter (UK), Alistair MacLennan (No. Ireland), Boris Nieslony (Germany), Amy Shapiro (US), Andre Stitt (UK), Roi Vaara (Finland), Iwan Wijono (Indonesia).
Special Thanks to:
Amsterdam Residence, Hugh Appet, Balé & Sean, Bay River Liquor, Spenser Brownstone Gallery, David Chamberlain, Dark Shelter Productions, Jeff Gompertz, Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Sanitation, NY Department of Education, George Nobl, John Regis, 7th Avenue Copy & Office Supplies, Martha Wilson / Franklin Furnace, Roger Taylor, Asian Art News - and the entire staff of chashama.
an international festival of contemporary performance
organized by Festival Director Dan McKereghan
held in conjunction with
Currency Exchange
an exhibit of works from performance artists from around the globe in the Lobby Gallery,
curated by Dan McKereghan and chashama artist-in-residence Janusz Jaworski
October 3 - 5, 2002
chashama 135 Theater & Windows
135 West 42nd Street
New York, NY
Theater performances begin at 8p
$12 / $25 Festival Pass
Festival Director: Dan McKereghan
Assistant to the Director/Artist Liaison: Amy Shapiro
Technical Director: Janusz Jaworski
Box Office: Neale Harper
Video Documentation: Matt Kalman
Photo Documentation/Slide Projection: Pogo
Performance and the art of human presence
The term "performance art" has been bandied about so much in the last fifteen years that it has almost lost any sense of true meaning. Just this summer, a blockbuster movie featured as a main character a performance artist whose work consists of dumping stolen cars off bridges and riding serving trays down stairway handrails; not too long ago another film featured Mike Myers as a Jack Kerouac type who delivered spoken-word monologs on top of pseudo-jazz music. Political controversy has labeled it subversive and degenerate; Blue Man Group and John Leguizamo have found commercial success with a theatrical style. Lost amidst the hyperbole and distortion is the initial impulse behind the movement which became known as "performance art" - the desire of artists, trained in the field of plastic arts, to transcend the object as a means of communication and to connect with the viewer in the most immediate way possible. Not with academic forms which must be adhered to out of historical inertia, or critical analyses which subvert and subjugate the artist to overly intellectualized theories, but by direct contact. Artist to viewer, present in the same time and space, without intermediaries. This is the model to which Currency 2002 seeks to return. Here at chashama, 135 West 42nd Street in New York City, on October 3, 4, and 5, 2002, artists from around the world have gathered to present their work to the viewers who have assembled before them. It is unlikely that there will be any reviews, notices in professional publications, or commercial productions which will occur as a result of this festival. The general public will barely notice that this event has taken place. Only the artists and the viewers who are physically present in this space on these three nights will have any idea of what has occurred. The artists will present to you their ideas of what constitutes "performance art". Feel free to form your own opinion.
---Dan McKereghan, Festival Director
Currency 2002 Schedule:
Thursday, October 3rd
>>Fumiko Takahashi - Lemon Smash & Ash
"Lemon is sour. Lemon give a pain on your tongue. Lemon make you wake up. Your body & your soul."
>>John G. Boehme - P.E.R (Performance Evaluation Review)
>>Pekka Luhta - Untitled
>>Jessica Buege - Between Us
>>Julie Bacon - Moments before, passing away
"In Moments before, passing away, Julie Bacon presents a Glimpse Work. In one sense, this is an event of partial meaning; in another it is the remembering of of the partiality of histories. This performance forms part of the Fact-archiving body of research Bacon has been developing since 1999, in which she questions the regulating authority of archives and their relationship to law-making, by making and exploring threads of historicisation in the physical and social spheres of everyday life."
Friday, October 4th
>>Ema Villanueva - Untitled
>>Wladislaw Kazmierczak / Ewa Rybska - NYC: I Like America and America Likes Me
"We come to America in 2002, one year after September 11 and one year before the Polish people could join the United Europe and return to normality for the first time since the nazi troops attacked Poland (1939), starting World War II. After Hitler destroyed our world, the Yalta Agreement divided Europe for 47 years, displacing nations from our homelands and giving permission for the extending of another totalitarian system onto East and Central Europe. We use in our performance a very simple story about the nazi pilot, well known in history of art, some pictures, American flag, some small things and two dogs (toys) as metaphor of warm feelings and as a hope for the future without military aggression and the actions of redemption from the people (maybe)."
>>Jamie MacMurry - Paralyze
in the basement:
>>Sylvie Cotton - Untitled
Saturday, October 5th
>>Irma Optimist - RATIONAL MAN?
"Rational Man? is a non symmetrical game, in which exact mathematical symbols refer to the subjective meanings that control the game situation. The game is played between the ideal rational expectations and the empirical results of the performance."
>>Chumpon Apisuk - freedom from existence / a declaration -
>>Julien Blaine - Untitled
>>Alexander Del Re - I'm Afraid of (some) Americans
"This performance deals with the coincidence between the dates when two horror events tooko place: the destruction of WTC in 9/11/01 and the coup d'etat in Chile in 9/11/73; the fact that I lived the consequences of one of those events (the second but not the first), that I witnessed how it affected the concept of 'freedom' and personal 'security', and my fear of how 9/11/01 is affecting as well the sense of 'security' and 'freedom' to the citizens of the U.S."
>>Uto Gusztav - Untitled
in the window:
>>Her/She Senses [Angela Ellsworth/Tina Takemoto] - Erotoelectro
Featured artists for Currency Exchange:
Skip Arnold (US), Adina Bar-On (Israel), Peter Baren (Holland), Nenad Bogdanovic (Yugoslavia), Jeffery Byrd (US), Peter Grzybowski (US), Roddy Hunter (UK), Alistair MacLennan (No. Ireland), Boris Nieslony (Germany), Amy Shapiro (US), Andre Stitt (UK), Roi Vaara (Finland), Iwan Wijono (Indonesia).
Special Thanks to:
Amsterdam Residence, Hugh Appet, Balé & Sean, Bay River Liquor, Spenser Brownstone Gallery, David Chamberlain, Dark Shelter Productions, Jeff Gompertz, Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Sanitation, NY Department of Education, George Nobl, John Regis, 7th Avenue Copy & Office Supplies, Martha Wilson / Franklin Furnace, Roger Taylor, Asian Art News - and the entire staff of chashama.
