Son[i]a #219
Gigiotto Del Vecchio
Founded in 1947 by abstract expressionist painter Julian Beck and actress Judith Malina, The Living Theater was a group of artists, political activists and militant theater-makers devoted to blurring the lines between art, life, representation, poetry and political compromise.
In New York city, the collective became a sort of hub for various scenes, attracting a host of intellectuals, artists and key figures of the New York context, from John Cage and Merce Cunningham to Andy Warhol, Jonas and Adolfas Mekas, or Allen Ginsberg to name but a few. For several decades, Beck, Malina and their associates constantly pushed the limits of their own formal language in an attempt to break the fourth wall and promote ideas of anarcho-pacifism and liberalism around the world.
Son[i]a talks to art gallerist, critic and curator Gigiotto Del Vecchio about some of the key aspects of Beck and Malina’s practise over the years. In 2014, Del Vecchio co-curated a retrospective show at Supportico Lopez in Berlin, which told the story of The Living Theater from a different angle, namely Beck’s past as a painter and his radical shift of medium.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with choreographer and performer Alma Söderberg that we were unable to include the first time around. Alma discusses her influences, teachers and schools and two collective projects of different sorts: Manyone and John The Houseband.
David Levine
David Levine discusses the historical precedents of what he calls "infiltrations" in everyday life, such as Adrian Piper's "The Mythic Being", Vito Acconci's "Following Piece", and Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Roberta Breitmore". Almost an hour chatting about reality and fiction, representation, invisibility, loops, and disappearances of all kinds.
André Lepecki
André Lepecki talks about the chronopolitics of disappearance, dance, Louis XIV, the acquisition of choreography, testimonial power, object-oriented ontologies, choreopolicing, the writing of movement, and selfies.
To complement the exhibition "The Anarchy of Silence. John Cage and Experimental Art" and "Ray Johnson. Please Add to & Return", this programme documents the Fluxus movement, an international network of artists which emerged in New York in the early 1960s.