Elastic City Announces Fall Wall Workshops & Walks

Elastic City will continue its 2012 season with a rich series of participatory walks and experiential workshops (aka ways) by emerging and renowned artists this fall.

Avant-turntablist Maria Chavez shares her techniques in chance operations; celebrated video artist Lynn Marie Kirby couples with visual artist Alexis Petty to present a color mediation walk in San Francisco; budding choreographer Adam Weinert plays off of “the institution” to create a pop-up company for his walk through Lincoln Center; and Spanish-based researcher Xavier Acarin prepares participants for the apocalypse through mythical investigation and performative rituals.

 

REMAINING SUMMER WALKS

“Des Integration,” by The Office of Recuperative Strategies

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/des-integration

This walk will reanimate "gesture" as a field of investigation so that participants might embody a more congruous and attentive way of moving through urban space. The movement of a hand. The position of an arm, a head, a body. A manner of being. A mode of action. Berlin as multipliCITY, as a city of multiplicity—of overlapping bodies, communities, laborers, cultures, languages, and gestures—is our common ground of research.

The group will catalogue postures that make up everyday life, paying special attention to how Berlin's history-dense present creates both dissonance as well as potential sites of commonality and shared humanity. The group will exchange and explore each other's bodily intelligence: locals will incorporate foreigners; foreigners will embrace tourists; tourists will move in step with locals. We will disappear into our surroundings and we will stand out. We will strike a pose, mirror a pose. Then we will resist the still image and move into a series of dissolving positions that gently disrupt binaries and open the potential for a lush continuum of belonging.

This walk holds 15 people and will be held in English and German. It is inspired by the work of Charlotte Wolff, a radical activist, scholar of lesbian sexuality and bisexuality, and groundbreaking psychologist who wrote A Psychology of Gesture after fleeing National Socialism in 1933. The image is a detail from Malcolm Mclaren's 1989 video "Deep in Vogue."

The walk will take place on Saturday, Jul 28, 2012 at 12:00pm and Sunday, Jul 29, 2012 at 12:00pm. This walk will meet in front of Brunnen Der Völkerfreundshaft/Fountain of International Friendship, located in Alexanderplatz directly in front of Galeria Kaufhof. Admission is free and the walk will last for 90 minutes.

 

“Walk On,” by Matthew Radune

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/walk-0

This is a walk, and you a human being. Your being human was defined by your bipedalism before it was defined in any other way. Participants on this walk will examine the act of walking using an array of techniques that connect it to its role in the formation of our species. These are derived from exhibit-based museum information and from Buddhist walking meditation practices that translate each portion of every step into an act of mindfulness and perpetual awakening.

This walk holds 12 people, and will take place on Saturday, Aug 4, 2012 at 4:00pm and Thursday, Aug 9, 2012 at 5:00pm. The walk will meet outside the main entrance to the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West and 79th Street in Manhattan. Admission is $20 and the walk will last for 2 hours. Special thanks to the American Museum of Natural History.

 

“Fabstractions,” by Todd Shalom

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/fabstractions

“Fabstractions” is an evening walk nearby and inside Prospect Park. Participants will use poetic techniques to create abstract responses to found imagery on the walk, crafting solos, duets and collective performances as we go. A dance that glows, a light-play from car reflections, fresh dirt theatre and a waterfall sonata.

This walk holds 10 people. “Fabstractions” will be held in English but Todd also speaks Spanish. It will take place on Tuesday, Aug 21, 2012 at 8:30pm, Thursday, Aug 23, 2012 at 8:30pm, and Tuesday, Aug 28, 2012 at 8:30pm. The starting point will be at 43 Lincoln Road in Brooklyn. NY. This walk will meet outside of Blue Roost Cafe. Admission is $20 and the walk will last for 90 minutes.

 

“Island Night,” by Jon Cotner

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/island-night

Part nature walk, part poetic reverie, part philosophic dialogue, Island Night is an extended meditation on the present – that fleeting moment occurring once-and-one-time-only in time’s vast history. Perceptions will grow sharper. Time will be slowed down. Together the group will form a nomadic society that values improvisation, storytelling, and silence. Island Night is a moveable feast that doesn’t exclude darkness. Rather, darkness is its starry medium.

This walk holds 8 people and accommodates all ages. Please bring a light bag with essential comforts. Breaks will be taken. More info to follow by email after you purchase a spot. It will take place on Saturday, Aug 25, 2012 at 6:00pm, and Saturday, Sep 15, 2012 at 6:00pm. This walk will meet in front of the Fire Island Pines Marina (1 Harbor Park) in Fire Island, NY. Admission is $20 and the walk will last for 12 hours.

 

FALL WALKS

"Chance Procedures in Motion," by Maria Chavez

http://www.elastic-city.org/ways/chance-procedures-motion

In celebration of her new book “Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable," Maria Chavez invites participants to join her in navigating the city by chasing subways in available directions. In this way, Chavez will discuss the integral role of chance and improvisation in her practice while engaging the group in how these elements affect their daily decisions. After two hours the group will emerge from the ground, presumably in a new neighborhood.

A copy of “Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable" and a single-ride Metrocard are included in the price of this way.

This way holds 5 people and is presented in partnership with Printed Matter, Inc. It will take place on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 6:30pm, and Friday, September 7, 2012, 6:30pm. It will start at 195 10th Avenue; Manhattan. Participants will meet inside Printed Matter bookstore. Admission is $20, and the way will last for 2 hours. Participants must be 18+.

 

"Laguna Yellow," by Lynn Marie Kirby & Alexis Petty

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/laguna-yellow

The 24th Street Listening Project began in 2009 as a way of being present to forms of exchange at five sites along 24th Street in the lower Mission District in San Francisco: 7th Day Adventist Church, Center Nail Salon, Brava Theater, St Francis Fountain restaurant, the AA meeting-house and the soccer field at Garfield Park.

In the past year Lynn Marie Kirby and Alexis Petty shifted their listening practice from these single sites to the larger structure of the block, a circle that is formed by neighboring buildings, and noted specific echoes, both present and virtual, in the landscape.

The project culminates with a launch event at the Brava Theater on September 19th. The launch event will begin with "Laguna Yellow," a walk of these five-blocks, presented by Elastic City in partnership with the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Lynn and Alexis will lead participants in a meditation on the place of color in the neighborhood, as pigment, as light, and as history. Participants will be asked to be present to color, to see and hear its frequency and to explore the languages used to describe these refractions and reverberations—how does Sunbeam play off Fiesta Orange, White Blush meet Desert Tan. The walk culminates in the creation of a collective pigment poem.

This walk holds 12 people and will be held in English, though the artists also speak French. It will take place on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 5:00pm, Saturday, September 22, 2012, 2:00pm, and Saturday, September 22, 2012, 5:00pm. It will start at 2781 24th Street, San Francisco, CA. This walk will meet at the entrance of the Brava Theater. Admission is $20 and it will last 60 minutes.

 

"Off Center," by Adam Weinert

http://www.elastic-city.org/walks/center

Through the formation of a pop-up company, participants will investigate the institutional offerings and privatization of space around Lincoln Center, the world's largest performing arts institution, as led by choreographer Adam Weinert. The company will physicalize its findings throughout this walk in a series of dance performances. No previous dance experience necessary.

This walk holds 8 people and will be held in English, though Adam also speaks French and Spanish. It will take place on Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 6:30pm, and Thurday, September 27, 2012, 6:30pm. It will start at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan. This walk will meet at the fountain at Lincoln Center. Please dress comfortably and try to limit the amount of items that you have on you. Admission is $20 and it will last 90 minutes. Participants must be 16+.

 

"Catastrophe!" by Xavier Acarin

http://www.elastic-city.org/ways/catastrophe

In the midst of 2012, “Catastrophe!” proposes an experience of regeneration, a process to mourn the world we leave behind as we situate ourselves in the awaking of a new era. By entering an underground shelter we will initiate the transit to another time, like human seeds waiting to germinate.

By moving their bodies rhythmically in the mode of ritual and by activating the fetish power of food, totems, sound and image, participants will engage the senses and re-shape our imaginations of how humans might interact and inhabit the world. Through a series of activities, they will explore the many myths that have narrated the end of the world. Together, they will generate a new story.

This way holds 10 people and will be held in English, though Xavier also speaks Spanish. It will take place on Tuesday, Oct 2, 2012, 7:00pm. The starting point will be announced in September. Admission is $20 and it will last 75 minutes. Participants must be 18+.

 

Elastic City is now in its third season of presenting conceptual and poetic walks by artists throughout and outside of New York. With this season, over 50 artists will have led walks.

Todd Shalom, a New York native, devised Elastic City while traveling in Peru and founded the organization in 2010. Having worked in a variety of artistic genres (poetry, sound and performance), he decided to expand upon his existing repertoire of sensory-based walks and commission other artists to lead walks in their own disciplines. Elastic City walks explore various planes of human sensory and aesthetic experience, such as dance, architecture, poetry, sound art, the paranormal and ritualistic performance.

Elastic City just launched its educational program, beginning with a series of “ways.” Whereas a walk offers the opportunity to participate in a narrative series of poetic moments, "ways" are experiential workshops that explicitly engage participants in *how* to generate these moments through exercises, tools and techniques offered by Elastic City artists. In a "way," participants gather in an intimate group to prompt exchange, tone the gut and sharpen poetic decision-making. Elastic City ways typically do not involve walking and are offered outdoors unless otherwise noted.

Elastic City has partnered with numerous organizations to co-present its walks/ways, including Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Flea, Friends of the High Line, Le Petit Versailles, Museum of the City of New York, NY Art Book Fair, Open House NY, Pratt Institute, Residency Unlimited, SculptureCenter, Wave Hill, and Urban Design Week.

Each walk & way lasts approximately 75-120 minutes and costs $20 on average.

Payment for walks & ways can be made on-site or via the Elastic City website at: http://www.elastic-city.org.

Elastic City is a non-profit organization awaiting 501c3 status and is currently fiscally sponsored by Flux Factory.

For more information, please contact Blake Zidell at
Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052 or blake@blakezidell.com.