Visceral Response

Can art help us viscerally understand climate change?

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Lars Jan’s HOLOSCENES is an epic public art and performance installation that is a visual, visceral response to climate change. Presented in public space, the centerpiece of HOLOSCENES is a large aquarium that floods, drains, and floods again by way of a hydraulic system that moves 12 tons of water in a minute. The aquarium is inhabited by a performer conducting one of many everyday behaviors sourced from collaborators across the planet.

We can’t wait to see how this project evolves. It is a bold, thoughtful response to an issue we will all undoubtably face- and perhaps currently fear. You can help support this incredible work by visiting the HOLOSCENES Kickstarter.

 

 

Walker Art Center to present Super Nature

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Full of artifice and animal appetites, Super Nature will engage the wild, the domestic, and the civilized aspects of human nature to create a radical ecological melodrama. It will premiere at the Walker Art Center October 25-27th 2012.

In Super Nature directors Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad will be joined by Bessie award winning composer Zeena Parkins and visual artist Emmett Ramstad. The core cast will include dancers Justin Jones, Timmy Wagner, Emily Johnson, Anna Shogren, Otto Ramstad and special guests. Additionally an ensemble of local performers will participate in the research installation and performance.

“In an empty gallery, one member of the public will meet one performer and have a non-verbal interaction,” Bieringa says. “Both performer and audience will have agency to transform the energy of the space through their behavior and social interaction, sometimes very subtle and sometimes extreme. In Super Nature we seek to engage an audience’s visceral response over their need to immediately make cognitive meaning from what they see. In other words, we will endeavor to choreograph empathy.” Says Assistant Curator Michèle Steinwald, title, “It will be very sweet. Your non-verbal actions and reactions will truly help the company formulate their show.”

Super Nature will be co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Performance Space 122, NYC; and PadlWest, San Diego. Super Nature is supported by the MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, National Performance Network Creation Fund, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Impulstanz Festival, Lily Springs, Studio 206 and the McKnight Foundation.

via Super Nature.