CINCINNATI, OH – The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio-one of the nation’s oldest contemporary art institutions, celebrating its 75th anniversary year in 2014 -opens the exhibition Buildering: Misbehaving the City on February 28, 2014. Curated by CAC Curator Steven Matijcio, “Buildering,” he explains, “is a term coined for the unsanctioned use of architecture – fusing the words “building” and “bouldering” to describe a rapidly growing movement that reformulates how we live the city. Beyond acrobatics, vandalism and occupation, this practice becomes a metaphor for the creative misuse of built structure – denying the assigned/intended function of urban structures to re-open the possibility of alternatives. If we believe the premise that ideologies are implanted through the public’s navigation of the city plan, then actions associated with buildering break the hypnosis of ritual and cultivate new freedoms – both physical and psychological.
Buildering will explore this phenomenon from a global perspective, gathering both established and emerging artists from around the world. The artists include Ivan Argote (Colombia/France), Bestue-Vives (Spain), Etienne Boulanger (France), Egle Budvytyte (Lithuania), Michel de Broin (Canada), Didier Faustino (France/Portugal), Shaun Gladwell (Australia), Wiebke Grösch & Frank Metzger (Germany), Alex Hartley (UK), Iman Issa (Egypt), Antal Lakner (Hungary), , Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Alison Moffett (USA/UK), Adam Putnam (USA), Pia Rönicke (Denmark), Monika Sosnowska (Poland), Sebastian Stumpf (Germany), Kamila Szejnoch (Poland), Lee Walton (USA), Carey Young (UK) and Hector Zamora (Mexico/Brazil). Collectively they will generate a playful, mischievous and lively show with strong socio-cultural underpinning.
Buildering will also lay the foundation for the creative misuse of the CAC: positioning it as an active collaborator, and a stage to re-envision the building in a variety of ways. In combination with interventions inside and outside the galleries, and a summer of public programs throughout the city, this project will turn Cincinnati into an urban playground.
Performance provocateurs include knifeandfork (USA), Allard van Hoorn (Netherlands), Willi Dorner Company (Austria), and this city’s “Cincinnati Movement.”
Artists:
Ivan Argote, Colombia
Bestue-Vives, Spain
Etienne Boulanger, France
Egle Budvytyte, Lithuania
Michel de Broin, Canada
Didier Faustino, France
Shaun Gladwell, Australia
Wiebke Grösch & Frank Metzger, Germany
Alex Hartley, UK
Iman Issa, Egypt
Antal Lakner, Hungary
Los Carpinteros, Cuba
Alison Moffett, USA
Adam Putnam, USA
Pia Rönicke, Denmark
Monika Sosnowska, Poland
Lee Walton, USA
Carey Young, UK
Hector Zamora, Mexico
Performances:
Knifeandfork, USA
Opening Celebration, Symphony for Building
The CAC has commissioned Knifeandfork, an art collaborative led by Brian House and Sue Huang, to organize a performance/intervention for the opening of the Buildering exhibition on February 28th, 2014. Knifeandfork will collaborate with Cincinnati-based musicians and create a site-specific “found” symphony in the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art. Symphony for Building consists of a traditional musical piece performed within the museum by a small chamber orchestra. Rather than playing as a single unit, the musicians are distributed throughout the building: playing not only on the distinctive zig-zag staircases and in the gallery spaces that open from floor to floor, but also in the administrative offices, the maintenance rooms, and forgotten corners of the structure. The audience, while prevented from hearing the orchestra as a whole, is invited to roam the space. They experience both the architecture and the musical piece in new ways through the physicality of walking through the building.
Knifeandfork have been collaborating for 10 years and have produced work for the Museum Of Contemporary Art and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions in Los Angeles, Kulturhuset in Sweden, the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine, Rhizome at the New Museum in New York, and the streets of Berlin.
Allard Van Hoorn, Netherlands
May, Dates TBA
Van Hoorn will collaborate with Cincinnati-based dancers to create the next iteration (his 20th) of the Urban Songline project, which turns physical sites into uncanny instruments. In May (dates TBA), dancers will perform Zaha Hadid’s urban carpet in the CAC lobby while Van Hoorn collects the sounds the building makes in response to the movement. The second act features the same or slightly altered movement to the score that has just been created moments earlier.
Allard van Hoorn is a sound, installation and performance artist collaborating across the disciplines of architecture, design, music, dance and theatre. He creates visual, acoustic and spatial scripts and scenarios that investigate our relationship to public space.
Van Hoorn has been shown at institutions and events including Istanbul Biennale, ISCP Open Studios November 2014, Art Rotterdam 2014 as Focus Artist, Biennale for Urbanism and Architecture 2013 in Shenzhen, Centro Centro, Madrid, MaCRO, Rosario, Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center, de Appel arts centre, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Hear it! at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Gwangju Design Biennale, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Gasworks in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, The Moore Space in Miami, Museo de la Ciudad de México, the German Architectural Centre (DAZ) in Berlin, the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai and CCCB in Barcelona.
Willi Dorner Company, Austria
June, Dates TBA
Austrian choreographer Willi Dorner will work with Cincinnati area dancers to present Bodies in Urban Spaces in downtown Cincinnati for two performances. Bodies in Urban Spaces is a moving trail of site-specific interventions, choreographed for a group of dancers. The performers lead the audience through selected parts of public and semi-public spaces. A chain of physical interventions set up very quickly and only existing temporarily, allowing the viewer to perceive the same space or place in a new and different way. As soon as it is assembled and perceived, the dancers and audience are on the run to a new space.
Vienna/Austria based Cie. Willi Dorner was founded by Willi Dorner in 1999. Besides his international touring dance performances Willi Dorner is keen on creating events that give the audience the opportunity for new experiences, insights and a different perception of everyday life. His interdisciplinary works are developed in cooperation with artists and scientists of different fields. His work was co-produced by festivals and venues like Tanzquartier Wien, ImpulsTanz, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern, Musica Strasbourg, NottDance UK and presented at international venues such as springdance NL, Kampnagel Hamburg, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Festival Paris Quartier d’été, Dansenshus Stockholm, Madrid En Danza, Dance Umbrella London, Tanz in Berlin and others.
The Contemporary Arts Center is located in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art 44 East 6th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio / 513.345.8400 / www.contemporaryartscenter.org