Performance Meets the Moving Image in Four New Works During Walker Art Center's Monthlong Out There 18
The Walker Art Center’s annual boundary-defying festival of alternative performance—presented January 5–28—turns on the projectors with four illuminating new works that mix theater and dance with film/video by storied artistic collectives from Holland, France/Austria, Rhode Island, and New York. While artists have been combining live action and projected images for decades, the intersection is now being explored with ever more fluidity, sophistication, and humanity. The monthlong
Out There 18
festival opens January 5–7 with
Entertainment by Dan Graham and Tony Oursler featuring Japanther and the Huber Marionettes
’ Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty, a multimedia puppet rock-opera. The series continues January 12-14 with French-Austrian performance collective
Superamas
in a collision of high art and low culture with Big Episode #2; Providence-based
Everett Dance Theatre
with its newest work, Home Movies, which uses movement, storytelling, and images to explore memory and the modern American family (January 19-21); and the Dutch physical-theater collective
Kassys
who use film, including footage shot in the Twin Cities, and live performance in equal doses in an examination of loneliness in Kommer (January 26-28). Long held at the Southern Theater, this year’s Out There is presented in the Walker’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater, unless otherwise noted.
Inside Out There
Again this year, Out There includes a unique interactive series,
Inside Out There
, which offers an opportunity to get the inside story from visiting Out There artists and to participate in interactive workshops and discussions. The series opens with a Mack Lecture by Dan Graham and Collaborating Artists on Saturday, January 7, at 3 pm. All other Inside Out There events are presented at 2 pm on Saturdays. Events are at the McGuire Theater and are free with a paid ticket for the performance. Space is limited. To reserve a spot, call 612.375.7600. In addition, on each Thursday of the series, Walker members receive half-price tickets. The Friday performances by Superamas, Everett Dance Theatre, and Kassys conclude with a post-show talk with the artists.
A complete listing of Out There performances follows.
OUT THERE 18
January 5-28
William and Nadine McGuire Theater
Tickets and information: 612.375.7600 or walkerart.org/tickets
Entertainment by Dan Graham and Tony Oursler featuring Japanther and the Huber Marionettes
Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty
Thursday– Saturday, January 5–7, 7 and 9:30 pm
$20 ($16 Walker members; Thursday performance $10 Walker members)
Walker Cinema
“Punch and Judy meets The Who.” —New York Times
After instigating teen riots to change the voting age to 14 and spiking Congress with LSD, 24-year old rock singer Neil Sky is elected president. In this multimedia puppet rock-opera (based on the 1968 cult film Wild in the Streets, which sharply satirizes the hippie generation and the end of the psychedelic era), an idealistic movement left unchecked becomes the same fascistic tidal wave its young protagonists fight against. Experience the Cinema transformed into an intimate 100-seat puppet-theater installation conceived by artist Dan Graham with videos by artist Tony Oursler and songs by Rodney Graham. Features live music by post-punk duo Japanther and marionettes by Phillip Huber (Being John Malkovich).
Co-commissioned by Walker Art Center; TRANS>, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; Foundation 2021, New York, and Voom/LAB, New York. Supported in part by Ralph and Peggy Burnet and the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund. Additional support provided by the Bush Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art.
Inside Out There
Mack Lecture
Dan Graham and Collaborating Artists
Saturday, January 7, 3 pm
Collaboration is a common practice among contemporary artists, yet a rock opera featuring puppets, video, and punk rock is not the ordinary result. Join the creators of Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty for a discussion with Walker chief curator and deputy director Philippe Vergne about the process of creating this major theatrical work as well as their individual artistic interests and obsessions.
The Mack Lecture Series is made possible by Aaron and Carol Mack.
Superamas
Big Episode #2 (Show/Business)
Thursday– Saturday, January 12–14, 8 pm
$20 ($16 Walker members; Thursday performance $10 Walker members)
“A slick, cynical and entertaining critique of consumer culture that suggests resistance may not be futile so much as it will arrive with a sponsorship deal.” —New York Times
In this darkly comic funhouse of high art and low culture, two men meet a pretty stewardess and begin to flirt. Scenes repeat, slightly altered each time. Perceptions slip. The wages of desire emerge as glimpses of global economics, war, and workplace politics bubble up when least expected. Set in a dead-on re-creation of an airport terminal cosmetic counter/corporate office suite, this work by the French-Austrian performance collective Superamas splices and dices reality shows, soap operas, conceptual art, and Hollywood icons in a shrewd and wickedly malicious examination of seduction and ideology. A Q&A with the artists follows the Friday performance.
Presented with the support of Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, Association Française d’Action Artistique (AFAA), and Austrian Cultural Forum, New York.
Inside Out There
Superamas
Saturday, January 14, 2 pm
Learn the secrets behind the cult success of this hybrid artist collective. Superamas’ original and irreverent performances blur the boundaries between high and low culture, art and kitsch, television and theater. The artists share select video works and discuss ways that their artistic practice allows them to address body, gender, and current events in their own strange mixture of seriousness and amusement.
Everett Dance Theatre
Home Movies
Thursday– Saturday, January 19– 21, 8 pm
$20 ($16 Walker members; Thursday performance $10 Walker members)
“An astonishingly seamless blend of words, video, set elements, and dance . . . more tears, laughter, and poignant memory than high-tech effects.” —New York Times
The latest from Providence-based Everett Dance Theatre, the deeply resonant Home Movies explores memory and the modern American family, intertwining deft humor, compelling images, and eloquent movement. The work’s deliberately lo-fi aesthetic is a perfect complement to the beguiling humanism that guides not only the piece itself, but the company’s ethos. This multigenerational, multicultural, and multimedia piece features five dancers, four families, and a tightly woven web of stories about loss, triumph, and the poignant moments in life that define us all. A Q&A with the artists follows the Friday performance.
Inside Out There
Everett Dance Theatre
Saturday, January 21, 2 pm
Get quicker on your feet—join us for a fun and friendly performance improvisation workshop with Everett company members. After the 30-minute demonstration on the art of comedy and movement improv, it’ll be your turn to give it a try with the group. All ages and abilities are welcome. Limited to 25 participants.
Supported in part by the Bush Foundation.
The Walker Art Center’s Dance Season is sponsored by Accenture and Microsoft.
Kassys
Kommer
Thursday–Saturday, January 26–28, 8 pm
$20 ($16 Walker members; Thursday performance $10 Walker members)
“With a subtle style and an absurd touch [Kassys] makes the everyday extraordinary. It is all brilliantly brought into vision.” —DeVolkskrant, the Netherlands
How can something be deeply, profoundly sad yet hilarious at the same time? Somehow Dutch physical-theater collective Kassys has created a work that is just that. A tender, comic portrayal of human fragility, Kommer (grief) begins with six people at a party and ends with a cinematic exploration of the “private” loneliness of the actors we have gotten to know. “With all these highly personal images and ideas, Kassys succeeded in presenting a universal image of human sadness” (Utrechts Nieuwsblad, the Netherlands). Combining film, including footage shot in the Twin Cities, and live performance in equal doses, the work is both formally daring and emotionally resonant. A Q&A with the artists follows the Friday performance.
Inside Out There
Kassys
Saturday, January 28, 2 pm
Who likes an overactor? This lively lecture/workshop by the artists from Kassys engages participants in a series of “live assignments” on acting.
Topics include ways of seeing, being the object of observation, and the company’s unique method of combining live performance and film. Limited to 20 participants, ages 12 and above.