#14 ANGELORENSANZFOUNDATI ON
Repor t December23r d, 2011
_ cont ent s Angel Or ens anz “ Be t we e nTheSk i e sa nd TheMount a i nsSk i n”
Mul t i medi aTheat r e TheNe wTe c hnol ogi e s a ppl yt oAr t s
AtOr ens anz TheEc onomi s t
RecentEv ent s LESOnTheSc r e e n: Fi l mSe r i e s#3
OnTV “ Rus s i a nAr t sa ndLi t e r a t ur e ”
Between the Skies and the Mountains Skin
ANGEL ORENSANZ
Living sculpture projects for museum spanses for streaming in the internet
F
or the last several months, sculptor Angel Orensanz has been travelling from Paris and New York to Madrid. First to open his exhibition at the Museo del Traje or Costume Museum; and then simultaneously to work on two projects titled Mountain Skins and Floating Skies. His exhibition at El Museo del Traje (Fashion Museum) is still on since it has been extended. It is an all encompassing exhibition in the open gardens surrounding this new museum in Madrid. This last project is a series of forty pieces of photography and video for the printed media, for the internet, and to streaming it worldwide. All this material captures the contents of two exhibitions that will follow parallel but along two different itineraries. The first one is the world of the circus; the second is the surface of the land, by cutting lumps of earth covered with grass, herbs and sometimes buds. Those chunks of earth retain vitality and vegetal life that, even if uprooted for a long time they still retain the energy and vibration of the growing herbs and flowers. The exhibition of Angel Orensanz consists of collecting a topiary of earth squares from the Pyrenees of Navarra, Aragon, Catalonia and Eastern France, and filming and photographing them. They are captured both in photo and film before being uprooted and displayed after as material of observation and meditation. The earthen pieces and
the flying volumes appear and reappear in the work of Angel Orensanz with the regularity of the main themes of his imagery. They are exhibited side by side just as pictures or as installations, constructions and performances. This last formulation moves one step forward the verism of Orensanz work Into tridimensional structures and constructions. The flying concepts were developed entirely in Madrid with the support of the personnel of the Circo Mundial (World Circus). Rings fly into the sky while acrobats move and crisscross the aerial space between them. Experiments of this nature were developed by him years ago in Zaragoza (Spain), Venice (Italy) and at the Museum of the Space (Moscow), where he molded the snow into basic forms of language, something that he had already erected in the Pyrenees of Aragon decades before. This was then a perishable sculpture set of constructions and deconstructions that start and end in themselves with the act of exhibiting and appearing. They are photographed and videotaped for days in a row; long swipes and multiple close ups. Through the editing at the film studio Angel Orensanz will submit these diversified materials througho meditative editing processes. The music that accompanies the final version plays always a significantly strong role. Those films will
Angel Orensanz | Faces of Nature
Circo Mundial during its performance
play integrated to videos and autonomous short films. The circus pieces. They consist of a series of spheres displayed and integrated to shows of CIRCO MUNDIAL. In them Angel Orensanz reproduces the standards of the concepts and movements of the circus. The objects mutate in front of us, acquiring personalities and roles that mutate in front of us. Angel Orensanz has a strong program of diffusion of those images and corresponding texts. He is already building a body of concepts for a blog that will be circulated through this program of streaming. The streaming system allows an artist or an author to formulate situations simultaneously from angles and parameters that fit all corners of the world and of the world of the receiver; any receiver, and all receivers. The streaming delivery is permanent, constant world reaching. The Renaissance took three hundred years
to move the hearts and minds of Central Europe; the streaming construction reaches every corner of the globe simultaneously and symmetrically. To the museum and gallery walls and floors these sculptures of compressed earth and circles fire a vibration of the freed and uncontrollable inner tendencies. Thus how the human senses perceive them. The enveloping walls and limiting ceilings of the “art space� instigate the cry for the outdoors, the broken rocks and the roaring waterways.
Derek Bentley
The new technologies apply to art
MULTIMEDIA THEATRE A new concept of theatre for a different world
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t seems like these days it is more than common to find technology in everything we do or see. The interaction with this science is becoming more popular and step-by-step, even more necessary, to express and develop ourselves in a daily basis. But what happens in the art sphere? “This is the time of communication, connection, and creative collaboration; Charlie Chaplin innovated motion pictures and told stories from music, silence, humor and poetry. He was social, he gave entertainment, pleasure and relieve to so many human beings when they needed at the most. We are not here to question the possible; we are here to challenge the impossible. In the science of today we become artists, in the art of today we become scientist. We design our world, we invent possibilities, we teach, touch and move. It is now that we can use the diversity of our talents to create intelligence, meaningful and extraordinary work. It is now” Natasha Tsakos finished with these words her great speech in the conference for TED in the year 2009. It has been now a while since the theatre, among other arts, started to express itself through technology. But what’s behind the scene? How many gadgets are required to create an illusion on the stage? A whole new life of experimentation is opening right in front of us. HCI (Human Computer Interaction) is the key for these changes in the theatre sphere among other arts--creating nowadays, the new concept of
“multimedia theatre”. Therefore, multimedia theatre not only opens a new horizon within the 4th fine art as we had known it , but also creates a dynamic relationship between the spectator and the performer. This leads to an interactive communication between them creating a whole new world of entertainment. Some of these new technologies you can find in the annual kinetic art fair. Or even closer, right next to your TV. Videogames are also serving themselves with this new technology. Consoles like Nintendo or Xbox have already incorporated to their designs these delicate toys. Holograms, projections, virtual hands, projection mapping… are just some of the gadgets use to create the illusion of reality within the unreal. “There is a revolution. It’s a human and technological revolution, its motion and emotion, its information, is visual, is musical, is sensorial, is conceptual, is universal, its behind members and numbers, is happening the natural progression of science and arts, finding each other to better touch and define the human experience” Now better than ever, we can understand the meaning of these words mentioned by Natasha Tsakos and also experiment the meaning of it. In the near future, these techniques not only will become an essential part of us, but also will transform somehow our lives and the way we perceive reality. Being-in-the-world, as Martin Heidegger expressed, is the authentic reality of the self-being.
We are unique and each of us has a different perception of things, that’s the essence of art: the possibility of a multi-world, the possibility of creation and interpretation. Lyn Gardner mentioned these words in the year 2003. “Non-linearity better reflects the human mind, thoughts, history. We are constantly affected by the actions of others, and each thought (indeed, each life) is affected not by one, but several narratives that have gone before. A scene has two meanings, one for each character. A scene may have two meanings, depending on what has preceded it. There is circularity to our lives and our history that is ideally represented by a non-linear medium…” Multimedia theatre is a non-lineal theatre due to its integration of texts, movements, animations, audio, architectural software and digital rendering tools to control lighting effects . This is the future of narrative, this is the interactive narrative form, which will lead us in the result of a method of non-linear storytelling, similar to tribal forms of storytelling where the story could be expanded, altered, rearranged and visualized through dance and song. Since the 70s many groups of theatre have started to notice how important a change was in need for the theatre not to die. Some of these groups are found in companies like “La Fura dels Baus”, “Maquina Teatro” , “Kagemu” , or artists like “Talya Chalef” , “Natasha Tsakos”, “Eusebio Galeano y Angelica Silva Salcedo”, “Nina Reglero y Carlos Nuevo” or “Catherine Sullivan” who performed here at the
Angel Orensanz Foundation a piece of theatre named “Ice Flows of Franz Joseph Land”, coorganized by Catherine Sullivan, Trapdoor Theatre, The Withney Museum of the American Art and the Angel Orensanz Foundation in 2004 and based on the video installation with the same title created by Catherine Sullivan in the year 2003. Since the beginning of times, theatre has being a tool not only to portrait society, but also to portrait the spirit of the human being. We carry on the stage the ideas, soul and passion of hundreds of generations who were able to express and tell stories which were understood and felt by thousands of people. But the theatre as our society must evolve at the same rhythm. Art forms an intrinsic part of our world. And the theatre sphere was in need of the change that these techniques had legated to it. Theatre, understood nowadays without these new technologies is condemned to disappear. The new generations were in need of these changes for the theatre to survive. And this art must survive. Not only for its history but also for its unique way of understanding, feeling and expressing life. “There is a revolution in the way that we think, in the way that we share and in the way that we express our stories… our evolution”
Sandra Martin Garcia
Kagemu | Black Sun
“The Ghosts of the Library’ | Lincoln Presidential Library
At Angel Orensanz Foundation
THE ECONOMIST The World in 2012
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his past December 1st, The Economist arrived in power to Manhattan. It opened its presence in New York with a full evening event at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. And then with a studies day at the Cooper Union (December 2nd). The respected London based barometer of our economy brought a truly powerful, interactive show to New York. It was both a projection and an image of what the British magazine is and is going to be in the near future. The night at the Angel Orensanz Foundation was a dazzling kaleidoscope of acts, trends, interpretations and forecasts. This content was not delivered by the established professionals of the field and fields of reference. It was delivered by Daniel Franklin, editor of The World in 2012, a 162-page publication that constitutes in itself an anthology of visions and evaluations that the people of The Economist shared with all the participants in this New York symposium. The election of New York built basically on the energy of this world mega polis; it reinforced the constant challenge to Manhattan as capital of the world and mirror and advance of the world metropolis to come. Ron Koolhas could had come handy in this regard. The design of the evening of December 1st maintained a well-balanced apportionment of high talent, savvy and unparallel mind sharpness. All six speakers Daniel Franklin, executive editor of The Economist and editor of The World in 2012; it was followed by four masters of the mono-dialogue. Namely, Alec Baldwin; Moby, musician and producer; Mary Matalin, Republican strategist and CNN commentator; Mark Pen, chief executive of Burston-Marsteller; and George Stephanopoulos, the political correspondent of ABC News.
The two New York venues, both in downtown Manhattan, were The Angel Orensanz Foundation on Norfolk St. and the Cooper Union. The two entities are among oldest in New York and replete with all encompassing and open vision of American society and the world at large. The Cooper Union Institute features the Great Hall where all major American voices have resonated from Lincoln to Emma Goldman. The Angel Orensanz Foundation gives daily name to the oldest Reformed Synagogue in the World (1849) where the German Jewish Reformed Movement was formulated, and an incubator for Temple Emmanuel, Central Synagogue and B’Nai Jeshurun. Then we promoted through articles in the press and on letter campaigns to Congress the abolition of slavery, racial equality and other fraternal organizations. The Economist is not trying to change the world but to offer the tools for a wide, deep and wellgrounded understanding of its forces, prospects and strengths. We welcome the British back to these streets Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, the names of counties around London and of the last defenders of British New York. Never like now we needed well-grounded, objective information to see where are we and where we are going. We welcome The Economist, this week and every week.
Derek Bentley
Collective Actions, “The Third Variant,” Gorky village, 28 May 1978 © e-flux Collective Actions, “The Third Variant,” Gorky village, 28 May 1978 © e-flux
Recent Events
“LES On The Screen” Film Series #3 Rachel Amodeo, “What About Me”
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ast November 7th, a varied group of people flock to the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the third and last screening evening of LES On The Screen – Evolving Urban Identity Film Series. The filmmaker to be shown was Rachel Amodeo, with her 1993 feature length film What About Me, that was screened in beautiful 16mm, a one of a kind opportunity to enjoy the film as it was originally shot. The Angel Orensanz Foundation has fruitfully collaborated with the Film-Makers’ Cooperative for this cinematographic joint project. Renowned filmmaker MM Serra --director of the FilmMakers’ Coop—alongside Marta Arenal and Javier Moreno, have devised, curated and developed the film series with an astounding public response and excellent feedback. They have put together an audacious, noteworthy film program with titles culled from the extensive FilmMakers’ Coop archive collection. Created in 1961, the Coop is the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world. LES On The Screen takes its cue from the prolific underground and independent cinema scene that had the Lower East Side neighborhood as its epicenter, spanning the decades of the 1970’s to the 90’s. The Film Series, made up of three evening screenings, showed short films and feature lengths that touch upon the subject of the urban fabric of the Lower East Side, where the Downtown counterculture scene thrived, sometimes with better luck than others. A vast-reaching neighborhood –its area expanding from the so-called East Village to Chinatown and Bowery— the LES urban configuration and specific identity has experienced a continual evolution and re-shaping up to the current days. The Series program offered the audience the
opportunity to rediscover filmmakers and artists that hail from different generations, usually associated with the past cultural golden age of Downtown Manhattan. Together, and through audiovisual storytelling, unconventional ways of looking at the city, its buildings and people’s lives were explored and reconsidered. The selected film program aimed at reflecting the neighborhood’s history and development, so that it wouldn’t become only a faint echo in the collective unconscious. Cinematographic material is thus empowered the ability to shed light on the past and inform the present with a sense of memory, further highlighting the link between urban configuration, the city’s residents and the related cultural manifestations and expressions that have emerged during the decades. September 13th saw the kick off for the series to wide acclaim, with the screening of Phil Hartman’s No Picnic (1985) and his kind appearance for Q&A, winning the audience’s over with his warm, friendly personality and countless anecdotes about the movie’s shooting process. For October 3rd, we proudly presented a multiple program of short films by talented filmmakers Coleen Fitzgibbon (L.E.S; Ludlow; LM Ludlow) and Stephanie Gray (Storefronts Before Other Storefronts; Gertel’s galore lore ore; Next to last day of Five Roses Pizza; and others). The latter was present during the screening of her magical Super 8 shorts, performing a live reading of her poems. Lastly, on November 7, Rachel Amodeo’s What About Me (1993) was introduced by the cinematographers M. Henry Jonas and Mark Brady, with the pleasing presence of the director for a session of Q&A after the screening. Her admired, iconic film was screened in 16mm. Started in 1989 with the help of the above-mentioned cinematographers, Amodeo wrote, produced,
Rachel Amodeo and on the shooting of “What about me”
directed and starred in the film. Its unusual ensemble of cast and characters, in addition to the cinema verité portrait of the East Village in the late 80’s, made it a cult classic. It traveled the festival circuit and was featured at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. What About Me tells the story of Lisa (Rachel Amodeo), a woman drifting around the streets of New York City’s Lower East Side, where she encounters a diverse group of lost souls among the transient population, including Vietnam veteran Nick (Richard Edson), outspoken Tom (Nick Zedd) and kindhearted Paul (Richard Hell); Gregory Corso, Judy Carne, Dee Dee Ramone, and actual homeless residents of Tompkins Square Park co-starred in this unique film, which features an amazing soundtrack by Johnny Thunders. Rachel Amodeo was born in Terravecchia, Italy, but came to the United States as a child. She moved to Santa Barbara, California, where she majored in Photography. During this period she became a rock drummer and performed in various clubs. In 1982 Rachel moved to New York to pursue her career as a rock drummer. She started her own band and later
joined Das Furlines, the flamboyant all girl band. During this period, she also studied acting with Bull Hickey and Herbert Berghof in the West Village. In 1989, Rachel started the production of the film, What About Me. She wrote, produced, directed and starred in it. In 1998 she wrote, produced and directed her second film, Rest in Peace, set in the 1800’s, a tribute to the silent film era with double exposure special effects. She also made a film called Pierre Paolo, set in her hometown of Terravecchia. Afterwards, she wrote a new screenplay, titled Rock N Roll Gangster based on her experiences in New York. Rachel Amodeo has co-produced eleven animated television commercials. As a musician, she was the drummer for Vacuum Bag and Das Furlines, who appeared on MTV’s Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes, and were featured in People Magazine.
Marta Arenal
Javier Moreno, Marta Arenal, MM Serra, M. Henry Jonas and Mark Brady
Rachel Amodeo
ON TV
Arts from the Orensanz Russian Arts and Literature
PROGRAM December 13 & 20, 2011 | 7:30 PM Russian Arts and Literature
With its upcoming two episodes, contemporary with the Second Russian Art Festival at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, “Arts from the Orensanz” pays tribute to the cultural exchange between the foundation and the russian art and literature scene with contribution of Angel Orensanz to the current Russian scene.
Scholar and author Dr. Patricia Thompson, the American daughter of poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and art critic Alexander Borovski, from the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg talk about the work Angel Orensanz, with its sediments of meaning and varied linguistic layers placed physically in the context of the Russian landscape.
The Angel Orensanz Foundation palpitates permanently with up to date cultural creativity in all fields. No political, financial or ethnic interest mediates this flow of art and culture, continuing a cultural tradition of a hundred years between Lower Manhattan and Russia; from the days of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Eisenstein to Andrei Voznesensky.
You can watch a short preview of the program by clicking here.
The program includes personal remembrance of Vosnyesensky and readings from his poems. Ella Esipovich guides the viewers through her photo exhibit and talks about the subtle socio-political layers of her portraits of aging movie starts, outcasts and millionaires of the tech-age in contemporary Moscow. In another recent exhibit, the extraordinary images give a glimpse at the 1900s cultural milieu at Russian painter Repin’s estate with an intriguing cast of characters.
Klara Palotai
Patricia Thompson
Angel Orensanz works
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