ICA ANNOUNCES FALL 2010 PERFORMANCE, FILM, AND TALKS

 

(BOSTON – August 3, 2010) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents ambitious performing arts programming for Fall 2010, including dance and theater, as well as film and talks. Tickets for these programs will be available to ICA members at Associate Level and above on Aug.16 and to the general public on Aug. 30. Tickets can be purchased at www.icaboston.org or by calling (617) 478-3103. For information about membership, visit the web site or call (617) 478-3102.

 

Said David Henry, Director of Programs, “Since opening three and a half years ago, the ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater has been the place to see remarkable film, dance, music, and theater in Boston. Both accomplished artists—Mark Morris, Elizabeth Streb, John Zorn, Julian Schnabel—and rising stars like Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and Reggie Watts have found and shared inspiration in our one-of-a-kind theater. From the beginning, it has been my goal to bring work that would not otherwise be seen in Boston, and it is my hope that you will continue to value the diversity, quality, and originality of these outstanding programs.”

 

PERFORMANCE

 

Theater

Written and Directed by Young Jean Lee

Performed by Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company

Friday, Sept.24, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 26, 2 p.m.

One of the boldest voices in theater today, playwright/director Young Jean Lee tackles the black experience in The Shipment. Lee, a Korean-American, challenged herself to create a "black identity-politics show," addressing social norms that she herself finds uncomfortable. The resulting work is provocative and eclectic. It includes song, dance, stand-up comedy, sketches, and a short drama, performed by five talented actors who show off Lee's acid wit and subversive style. Tickets are $25 reserved, $22 for members and students, and are available now at www.icaboston.org or by phone at (617) 478-3103. Press night is Sept. 24.

“Cultural images of black America are tweaked, pulled and twisted like Silly Putty” –The New York Times

 

 

The Shipment was co-commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University (World Premiere, October 2008) and The Kitchen (NYC Premiere, January 2009). This work has also been developed with support from the Rockefeller MAP Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Tobin Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. With residency support from Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Collapsable Hole, IRT Theater, MacDowell Colony, New Dramatists, Orchard Project, and Yaddo. Production design support provided by The Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation.The Shipment is also made possible in part by a grant from the Ford Foundation and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program.

 

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Dance

Trajal Harrell

Featuring work by visual artist Franklin Evans

Co-presented with Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy

Friday, Nov. 5, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.

Post-performance conversation with Trajal Harrell and sculptor Sarah Sze New York-based choreographer Trajal Harrell has been at the center of a recent reemergence of voguing. In a compelling new solo work, he explores its surprising connections to the postmodern dance of 1960s New York. As Harrell puts it, this piece seeks to answer the question: “What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the voguing ball scene in Harlem had come downtown to perform at Judson Church with the early postmodern choreographers?"

 

For Harrell, they come together on the runway, where he embodies 20 different “looks” or personas, from “West Coast Preppy School Boy” to “Serving Superhero” (complete with cape). Like Yvonne Rainer or Trisha Brown, Harrell debates the very nature of performance—the role of seduction, glamour, and spectacle in dance and in the ways people present themselves in everyday life.

 

"They don't make many artists like Mr. Harrell; his sophisticated, nuanced works are not to be

missed." - The New York Times

 

Following the performances, stay for a talk with Harrell and visual artist Sarah Sze, who are collaborating on a new work during a week-long residency at the ICA. The residency and performance, to be presented in 2011, are part of Co Lab: Process + Performance, a partnership with Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy.

 

TICKETS are $20 general; $18 members and students

 

 

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FILM

Pepperminta - New England Premiere

by Pipilotti Rist (35 mm, 80 min, in German with English subtitles)

Sunday, Sept. 12, 3 and 5 p.m.

The work of Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist blurs the boundaries between visual art and popular culture, fantasy and reality. Her practice has evolved from single-channel videos to multichannel video installations to this latest project, her first feature film. Pepperminta is the story of a young woman who tries to free herself and the world from unnecessary fears. Living in a futuristic rainbow villa with colors as friends and strawberries as pets, Pepperminta is an “anarchist of the imagination.” Together with friends Werwen and Edna, she embarks on a

passionate mission to fight for a more humane world. Wherever the gang appears, people’s lives are transformed in wondrous ways.

 

TICKETS are $12 general admission, $10 members and students

 

Words and Images: 2010 Foster Prize finalists present their work on the big screen

Rebecca Meyers

Thursday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m.

Post-screening Q &A with the artist and ICA Associate Curator Randi Hopkins 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize finalist Rebecca Meyers presents a selection of short work including the New England premiere of her newest film, blue mantle, which explores the local history of the Massachusetts coast, shipwrecks, and the role of the sea as aesthetic inspiration. A filmmaker who shoots, edits, and finishes on 16mm film, Meyers investigates the natural

world that exists in our urban environments alongside our own daily lives.

 

Amie Siegel

(High Definition, 135 min, color/sound)

Thursday, Nov.11, 7 p.m.

Post-screening Q & A with the artist and ICA Associate Curator Randi Hopkins

The latest feature by 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize finalist Amie Siegel is a multilayered and disarmingly beautiful essay on the German Democratic Republic and its dissolution, which left many of its former citizens adrift in their newfound freedom. Featured at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the film weaves together mundane Stasi surveillance footage, interviews with psychoanalysts, and lolling shots of derelict state radio stations as it meditates on history, memory, and the shared technologies of state control and art.

 

TICKETS for each screening are $10 general admission, $8 members and students

 

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The Armenian Film Festival of Boston

Oct. 29 – 31, 2010

The ICA partners with the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance to present the third Armenian Film Festival in Boston, an array of powerful and visually dazzling narrative, documentary, short, and animated films. For more information, visit www.armeniandrama.org.

 

Opening Night

Friday, Oct.29, 7 p.m.

by Serge Avedikian (2009, animation, 15 min, in French with English subtitles)

This animated film illustrates an episode from Constantinople in 1910, when the streets were overrun with stray dogs. The newly-established government used European experts to choose a method of eradication before deciding, suddenly and alone, to massively deport the dogs to a deserted island away from the city. Barking Island won the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

 

The Army of Crime (L’Armée du Crime)

by Robert Guédiguian (35 mm, 139 min, in French with English subtitles)

In 1944, during the German occupation of Paris, Armenian poet Missak Manouchian led a band of youngsters and immigrants in a dramatic series of guerilla attacks in a clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. This artfully told story of a significant event in World War II history features fine performances led by highly-honored French-Armenian actor Simon Abkarian. The film will be also be screened at The Boston Jewish Film Festival, November 3-14. For more information visit www.bjff.org. There will be a dessert reception following the screening.

 

Tickets:

Three-day festival pass for 2 people (includes dessert reception): $125

Opening night screening and dessert reception: $40 per person

Opening night screening only: $25 nonmembers; $20 ICA members and students

 

Saturday, Oct. 30, 4 p.m.

by Edgar Baghdasaryan (documentary, 2009, 70 min.)

Following the paths taken by Armenian Pilgrims over the last 2000 years, this documentary is a tribute to those who have contributed to the preservation of spiritual traditions and a Christian legacy in the Holy Land. Striking scenes of the Church of Holy Sepulcher by night, the colorful spectacles of Easter in Jerusalem, the Ceremony of Holy Light, Mount Sinai in Egypt, the monasteries of the Judean Desert, and the summit of Mount Ararat create exquisite visual

tapestries.

 

by Vatche Boulghourjian (29 min, digibeta, in Armenian with English subtitles)

Weaving together allegorical narratives, this film chronicles the desperation and mourning in the economically and culturally marginalized Armenian quarter of Beirut. In a panic, Hrag has stolen his father’s gun and fled home. As father searches for son, both discover paths to personal freedom in a city that offers no escape. The Fifth Column won the third prize CINEFOUNDATION at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival.

 

TICKETS are $15 general admission, $12 members and students (one admission for both films)

 

By Nouritza Matossian (documentary, BetaSP, 50 min, Armenian with English subtitles)

Sunday, Oct. 31, 2 p.m.

This unique documentary film is based on private conversations between Matossian and late journalist Hrant Dink. Dink talks freely of his weekly paper Agos, the Armenian genocide, his attempts to reconcile Armenians and Turks, and even his own death. Charged three times with “insulting Turkishness,” Dink ignored death threats and warnings to leave Turkey and was assassinated in 2007. Heart of Two Nations was awarded Audience’s First Choice at the

Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto.

 

by Stéphanie Kazandjian (2008, 35mm, 100 min., in French with English subtitles)

Sunday, Oct. 31, 3:30 p.m.

The festival closes with this very French, musical romantic comedy. It’s the story of dreams, encounters, break-ups, and reconciliations—in short, the kind of wonderful love story that you only find in the movies.

 

TICKETS are $15 general admission, $12 members and students (one admission for both films)

 

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by Shirin Neshat in collaboration with Shoja Azari (2009, 35 mm, 99 min., Farsi with English

subtitles)

Saturday, Nov. 13, 5 p.m. Shirin Neshat introduces her film

Sunday, Nov. 14, 1 p.m.

Iranian-born visual artist Shirin Neshat is known for her hauntingly beautiful works, in both still and moving images, that explore Islam, gender relations, and the widening political and ideological rift between the West and the Middle East. Since 1998, she has collaborated with husband, video artist and filmmaker Shoja Azari, with whom she wrote the screenplay for Women Without Men.

 

Neshat’s feature-film debut offers an exquisitely crafted view of Iran in 1953, when a British and American-backed coup removed the democratically-elected government. Adapted from the magical-realist novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, the film weaves together the stories of five women whose experiences are shaped by their faith and the social structures in place.

 

“Stellar acting… gorgeously composed and shot images” – Village Voice

 

TICKETS are $12 general admission, $10 members and students

 

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Boston Premiere

The Art and Technique of the American Commercial

(Digibeta, 70 min)

Thursday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m.

Sunday, Dec.5, 1 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Sunday, Dec.12, 1 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m. (Introduction by Matt Miller, President and CEO of the Association of

Independent Commercial Producers)

Sunday, Dec.19, 1 p.m.

Thursday, Dec.30, 7 p.m.

Can a sales tool be considered a work of art? It can if it’s one of the exceptional, innovative, and entertaining commercials honored by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). Each year’s selected commercials become part of MoMA’s Film Archives. Join us for an evening that’s much more than an awards show—it’s a celebration of the craft of making these small films of persuasion.

 

TICKETS are $10 general admission, $8 members and students.

 

Boston Premiere

Award-Winning British Commercials 2010

(Digibeta, 54 min)

Thursday, Dec. 2, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 5, 3 p.m. (Introduction by Peter Bigg, Chief Executive, British Television Advertising Awards)

Thursday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 12, 3 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 16, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 19, 3 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 30 at 9 p.m.

Boston is one of just 10 U.S. cities to see this annual showcase, now in its 32nd year, featuring winners of the British Television Advertising Awards. Described as “bite-size films” or “minute masterpieces,” (New York Times) these outstanding commercials in a range of categories offer a glimpse into the originality, wit, and creativity of British advertising.

 

TICKETS are $10 general admission, $8 members and students

 

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TALKS

Think Global, Act Local

Saturday, Oct. 2, 2 p.m.

Co-hosted by Artadia and presented in conjunction with the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize, this panel discussion looks at how we can think globally, but act locally in today’s art climate. Art professionals with wide-ranging experience and knowledge of the national and international art scene will look at developing trends in contemporary practice and at the role of museums, non-profits, and other organizations in cultivating local art and artists. Artadia is a non-profit organization that grants cash awards and exhibition opportunities to select artists in five U.S. cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and the San Francisco Bay area.

 

Free with Museum Admission

 

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3x3@3: 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Finalists

Sundays, 3 p.m.

Go deeper inside the work of these outstanding Boston artists. Each talk will include presentations by three of the nominated artists and a conversation with Associate Curator Randi Hopkins.

Sunday, Oct. 24

Daniela Rivera , Fred Liang and Steve Tourlentes

Sunday, Nov. 7

Robert de Saint Phalle, Amie Siegel and Matt Rich

Sunday, Nov. 21

Rebecca Meyers, Evelyn Rydz and Eirik Johnson

 

Free with museum admission. Tickets available first-come, first-served one hour before the

program.

 

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Mark Bradford and Hilton Als

Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m.

Get to know artist Mark Bradford in a lively conversation about his work and career with New Yorker writer Hilton Als. MacArthur “Genius” grant-winner Mark Bradford is an archeologist of his own environment, a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Los Angeles. Bradford’s collaged paintings, sculptures, videos, and installations incorporate materials with a “built-in history:” endpapers used to perm black hair, salvaged plywood, “for sale” signs. The Los Angeles Times describes his works as “shimmering, lovely and playful, while also woven through with strands of information that lead to tangles of race, gender, sexuality and class.”

 

A contributor of theater, visual art, and literary reviews, Hilton Als began writing for The New Yorker in 1989 and became its theater critic in 2002. A former staff writer for Village Voice and former editor-at-large for Vibe magazine, Als is the author of The Women, a meditation on gender, race, and personal identity, and The Group, a discussion of James Baldwin and the black and Jewish intellectual worlds.

 

TICKETS are $20 general admission, $16 members and students

The Mark Bradford exhibition will be open until 6:30 pm for members and ticket holders.

 

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Coming in 2011:

Feb. 4—6, 2011 World Premiere- Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company: Body Against Body

April 1—3, 2011 The National Theater of the United States of America: Chautauqua!

May 13—15, 2011 Bellona, Destroyer of Cities, Adapted and directed by Jay Scheib after Samuel R. Delaney’s Dhalgren

 

An influential forum for multi-disciplinary arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art has been at the leading edge of art in Boston for more than 70 years. Like its iconic building on Boston's waterfront, the ICA offers new ways of engaging with the world around us. Its exhibitions and programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA, located at 100 Northern Avenue, is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. —5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. —9 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. —5 p.m. Admission is $15 adults, $13 seniors and $10 students, and free for members and children 17 and under. ICA Free Admission for Youth is sponsored by State Street Foundation. Free admission on Target Free Thursday Nights, 5—9 p.m. Free admission for families at ICA Play Dates (2 adults + children 12 and under) on the last Saturday of the month. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our Web site at www.icaboston.org.

 

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