CALENDAR » ALL EVENTS
NOVEMBER 
DECEMBER JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH
NOVEMBER '09
Sneak Peek: Festival Symposium
November 5, 2009
Thursday 6:00-8:00pm
Presented by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and Austrian Cultural Forum
A gathering of intellectuals and artists about presenting the performing arts in the context of political change. This is a special pre-festival event and a preview of a larger symposium scheduled for February 2010.
The Harriman Institute, Columbia University
President's Room 1, Faculty House
64 Morningside Drive (at 116th Street)
FREE
Reservations: rsvp@harrimaninstitute.org
www.harrimaninstitute.org
Rebel Waltz: Underground Music From Behind the Iron Curtain
November 6-7, 2009
Friday at 7:00pm
Saturday at 11:00pm
Kontroll Csoport, courtesy of the artist
Presented by the Hungarian Cultural Center in collaboration with the Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, the Consulate General of Slovakia and the Consulate General of Slovenia.
Rebel Waltz gives New York audiences a rare opportunity to experience the suppressed voices of a triumphant generation, including Dezerter (Poland), Kontroll Csoport (Hungary), Psi Vojaci (Czech Republic), Timpuri Noi (Romania), Bez Ladu A Skladu (Slovakia) and Pankrti (Slovenia). The music of these bands served as a form of political rebellion in the 1980s, and 20 years later, it is a celebration of a successful movement for change.
Rebel Waltz is part of Extremely Hungary, a yearlong festival celebrating contemporary Hungarian culture throughout 2009 in New York City and Washington, D.C.
(le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)
$15
More info: extremelyhungary.org/rebel.php
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com
www.lepoissonrouge.com
Information: www.extremelyhungary.org
Taylor Mac
The Lily’s Revenge
November 6-22, 2009
Thursday-Sunday at 6:30pm
photo: Lucien Samaha
Presented by HERE Arts Center
Taylor Mac’s epic extravaganza The Lily's Revenge tells the tale of a flower that goes on a quest to become a man and finds itself at the center of a revolution of flowers intent on destroying their oppressor: The God of Nostalgia. Part Noh play, part verse play, part vaudevillian theatrics, part installation, part puppet theater, and part dance, The Lily’s Revenge continues Mac’s radical experiments in genre-squishing and explores themes of alternative community and homogeneity in culture.
Supported by MAP Fund; Creative Capital; Franklin Furnace; J.B. Harter Charitable Trust; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; New Dramatists' Creativity Fund and Working Sessions; New York Foundation for the Arts.
HERE Arts Center
145 6th Avenue (between Spring and Broome Streets, enter on Dominick Street)
$35
Tickets/Information: 212-352-3101
www.here.org
1989: The End of History or The Beginning of the Future?
Video Art Exhibition - Comments on a Time Shift
November 6 – 24, 2009
Magda TOTHOVA, 'Lenin and the Maiden,' 2003, Video Animation, Color, Sound, 134 min, courtesy of the artist
Curated by Gerald Matt and Andreas Stadler
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Kunsthalle Wien in cooperation with the Czech Center, the Hungarian Cultural Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute
Twenty years ago, who would have dared to hope that the dictatorial regimes of Central and Eastern European communism would be swept away one after the other in the wake of mass protests? Democratization and introduction of capitalist market economies were accompanied by heated conflicts about the direction of the future and the interpretation of the past. Austria also underwent a profound transformation. This selection of films was guided by asking how video artists in particular have reacted to these changes.
Marina ABRAMOVIC, Thomas DRASCHAN, Josef DABERNIG, Harun FAROCKI with Andrej UJICA, Anna JERMOLAEWA, Jonas MEKAS, Csaba NEMES, Jakub NEPRAS, Marcel ODENBACH, Marek PIWOWSKI, PUSHWAGNER, Joanna RAJKOWSKA, Isa ROSENBERGER, Miha STRUKELJ, Magda TOTHOVA
Austrian Cultural Forum New York
11 East 52nd Street, btw. Fifth and Madison Avenues, New York, NY 10022
212-319-5300
www.acfny.org
Nejla Yatkin
Dancing with the Berlin Wall
November 9, 2009
Monday at 6:00pm
The Berlin Wall, courtesy of NY2Dance
Presented by the Goethe-Institut New York
Dancing with the Berlin Wall is a site-specific project by choreographer Nejla Yatkin. A Berlin native with Turkish roots, Yatkin grew up with The Wall. While for most of the world it was a striking symbol, for her it was a daily reality. With this project, Yatkin reflects on her own experiences, and also larger issues of boundaries and openness, constriction and freedom. The performance, which incorporates dance and film, will begin at Ludlow 38 and make several stops as it moves to the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building.
Ludlow 38
38 Ludlow Street (between Hester and Grand Streets)
Goethe-Institut New York Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street (between 2nd Avenue and Bowery)
FREE
Information: 212-439-8700
www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/enindex.htm
The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain
November 10, 2009
Tuesday at 7:00pm
Presented by Words without Borders and Open Letter Books in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York
A book launch and reading for The Wall in My Head, an anthology of texts and images that combines work from writers and artists who witnessed the fall of the Iron Curtain firsthand with impressions and reflections of those who grew up in its wake. Work by Mircea Cărtărescu, Zbigniew Herbert, Milan Kundera, Vladimir Sorokin, Uwe Tellekamp, and Dubravka Ugrešić is included. Authors Masha Gessen, Dorota Masłowska, and Dan Sociu will read at the book launch.
Idlewild Books
12 West 19th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
FREE
Information: 212-414-8888
www.idlewildbooks.com
www.PolishCulture-NYC.org
Archa Theater
1989 - WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Documentary theater on the theme of: Freedom! Freedom?
November 10, 2009
Tuesday at 7:00pm
Archa Theater by Jan Langer
Presented by the Czech Center New York
Archa Theater’s documentary theater work asks if the people of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as residents of the West, took advantage of our window of opportunity in 1989. Within the framework of a fictitious live broadcast on RADIO 89 FM that incorporates dramatic comics Kurt and Kveta and online debates between Václav Havel, Jacques Rupnik, and JirÌ Cerny, this multimedia premiere examines themes of real and simulated freedom, escaping from the past, the connection between private and political worlds, and the borders between what was required under totalitarianism and what was conscious collaboration. Conceived by Tomás Vrba, Ondrej Hrab, and Jana Svobodová, and featuring Jaroslav Rudis, Eva HromnÌková, Philipp Schenker and university students who were born in 1989.
Created in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and the Institutes for Contemporary History in Prague and Potsdam, Germany. With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.
Czech Center New York at the Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
FREE
Reservations: 646-422-3399 or info@czechcenter.com
www.czechcenter.com
Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič,
and Miha Turšič
Postgravity Art: Syntapiens
Informance: November 10, 2009, Tuesday at 8:00pm
50 hours for the 50 Years Theatre Project: continuing thru November 12 with interventions on the hour
Gallery hours: 12:00-6:00pm
Photo courtesy Zavod Delak
Presented by Performa 09 and Zavod Delak
The 50-year theatre project Noordung 1995–2045 was initiated with the idea that post-gravitational art is the condition under which art will be produced in the future. Noordung has performances scheduled every decade, and for its last performance in 2045, it will use a spacecraft to convey satellites into orbit to transmit signals to Earth representing the roles played by the deceased actors, while simultaneously sending 3D projections of their faces into deep space. Starting with the Postgravity Art informance on November 10 and continuing with hourly on-site and digital interventions through November 12, cosmonaut candidate Dragan Živadinov, mechatronic visual artist Dunja Zupančič, and designer of zero-gravity environments Miha Turšič will introduce basic concepts of theatre in zero gravity, fight for abstract theatre, and artistic satellites.
Eyebeam Art + Technology Center
540 W. 21st Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
$10
Information: 212-937-6580
www.eyebeam.org
Theatre of the Eighth Day
Wormwood
November 11-15, 2009
Wednesday-Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 3:00pm (post-performance discussion on November 12)
photo courtesy of Theatre of the Eighth Day
Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and Abrons Arts Center
A rare revival of the Theatre of the Eighth Day's landmark 1985 production of Wormwood, performed by the original cast. Theatre of the Eighth Day, founded in 1964, inaugurated an underground movement of political theater in Poland. Wormwood, the group’s last production in Communist Poland, openly described life under martial law and ultimately led to the denouncement of Theatre of the Eighth Day by Polish authorities.
Supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Marshall of the Wielkopolska Region and President of the City of Poznań.
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street)
$15
Tickets/Information: 212-352-3101
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.PolishCulture-NYC.org
Playwrights Before the Fall: Eastern European Drama in Times of Revolution
November 16, 2009
Monday at 6:30pm
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
A book launch for the first multi-author international anthology of Eastern European plays to appear in English. Edited by Daniel Gerould, the anthology features plays by Sławomir Mrożek, Portrait (Portret); Karel Steigerwald, Sorrow, Sorrow, Fear, the Rope, and the Pit (Hoře, hoře, starch, opratka a jáma); György Spiró, Chickenhead (Csirkefej); Matei Vişniec, Horses at the Window (Caii la fereastră); and Dušan Jovanović, Military Secret (Vojna tajna). The presentation includes staged readings of excerpts from the five plays and a panel with authors and translators on the playwrights’ role in the theatrical revolution of the 1980s.
The publication is supported by the Czech Center New York, Hungarian Cultural Center, Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and Consulate General of Slovenia.
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center / The Graduate Center CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
FREE
Information: mestc@gc.cuny.edu
www.TheSegalCenter.org
Deborah Brevoort
The Velvet Weapon
November 18, 2009
Wednesday at 7:30pm
Presented by La MaMa E.T.C.
A concert reading of The Velvet Weapon, an original backstage farce written by Deborah Brevoort and directed by George Ferencz. Inspired by interviews Brevoort and her colleague Pavel Dobruský conducted in the Czech and Slovak Republics with 43 ringleaders of the Velvet Revolution, The Velvet Weapon is a humorous examination of democracy told through a battle between high brow and low brow art.
Part of La MaMa EXPERIMENTS, a concert reading series of experimental plays curated by George Ferencz.
The Annex Theater at La MaMa E.T.C.
66 East 4th Street (between 2nd Avenue & Bowery)
FREE
Information: 212-475-7710
www.lamama.org
Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s
November 18, 2009 – March 20, 2010
Gallery Hours: Monday and Thursday 12:00-8:00pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00am-6:00pm; Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm
Detail of poster designed for November 1987 Orange Alternative happening, entitled "The Eve of the Great Revolution." Courtesy Orange Alternative Archives. Jacek Jankowski, artist.
Presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
This exhibition examines how performances attempted to break boundaries set by the Communist state’s politicians and censors, focusing on theater, music, and dance events that contested the prevailing totalitarian regime and anticipated the forthcoming political and social changes. As the revolutions in most Soviet bloc countries were not the result of a violent overthrow of power, art was one of the main arenas where “the revolutionary” started to happen. Curated by Karen Burke, Assistant Chief, Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Aniko Szucs, Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at New York University.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation. Support for this exhibition has been provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York. The Romanian presence in the exhibition has been conceived and supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York.
Materials in the exhibit are provided by the following European Organizations »
Vincent Astor Gallery, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street)
FREE
Information: 212-870-1630
http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/
Dissident Acts: 3 Plays
Directed by Gary Cherniakhovsky
November 19-21, 2009
Thursday-Saturday at 8:00pm (post-performance talk on November 19)
Presented by the Theatre Department at Barnard College, Columbia University
An evening of short plays by Samuel Beckett, a member of the WWII resistance, and his political counterparts and dramatic inheritors, the Polish and Czech playwrights Sławomir Mrożek and Václav Havel. Beckett’s miniature 1982 Catastrophe interrogates the public role of art in a taut homage to Havel, at the time imprisoned for subversion of the state. Mrożek's 1958 The Police unveils the deep absurdity of totalitarianism, and Havel's 1975 Unveiling transforms this absurdity into the hypocrisy of its elite. Performed by students of Barnard College and Columbia University, with Hana Worthen (dramaturg), Simon Pastukh (scenic design), and Galina Solovyeva (costume design).
Partially supported by The Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Minor Latham Playhouse, 118 Milbank Hall, Barnard College
3009 Broadway (at 118th Street)
$10 general admission/$5 with CU ID
Tickets: www.tic.columbia.edu
Information: www.barnard.edu/theatre/current_season.html
Untitled Theater Company #61
The Velvet Oratorio
November 19, 2009
Thursday at 6:00pm
November 30, 2009
Monday at 7:00pm
Velvet Oratorio. Photo by Arthur Cornelius
Untitled Theater Company #61 premieres The Velvet Oratorio, a retelling of the Velvet Revolution through text, choral music, and scenes based on Václav Havel's Vanek plays. The text for the oratorio draws upon U.S. State Department documents and corresponding Czechoslovakian / Soviet documents and interviews with journalists, diplomats, and ordinary people who were in the streets of Prague in November 1989. The Velvet Oratorio is a collaborative project between Edward Einhorn (playwright), Henry Akona (composer), and Karen Ott (dramaturg), the same creative team that was behind the Havel Festival.
Supported by The Czech Center New York and The Alma & Morris Shapiro Fund.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (November 19)
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street)
FREE
www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html
Bohemian National Hall (November 30)
321-325 East 73rd Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
FREE
Reservations: 646-422-3399 or info@czechcenter.com
www.czechcenter.com
Information: www.untitledtheater.com
Saviana Stanescu
NY Thru an Immigrant I or (r)evolution (Flagstories and other personal histories)
November 23, 2009
Monday at 6:00pm
Saviana Stanescu. Photo by Cristi Dima
Presented by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York
Playwright Saviana Stanescu participated in the Romanian revolution as a college student in 1989. In this autobiographical performative lecture, she explores both her youth in Romania and immigrant experience in New York through the lens of a personal dichotomy between East and West and an ongoing negotiation between the old and new set of values.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street)
FREE
Information: 212-870-1630
www.nypl.org/research/lpa/
Voices From the Center
www.VoicesFromtheCenter.net
Launch date: November 2009
Gabriel Gládek, Historian, Kosice, Slovak Republic. Photo: Janeil Engelstad
Produced by Janeil Engelstad
A web-based project by Janeil Engelstad that documents life during and after Communism through interviews with performing and visual artists, villagers, academics and former dissidents from Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. For many participants, including young adults who were children when the Berlin Wall came down, this is their first opportunity to publicly speak about their lives before and after the fall of the Wall. Additionally, Engelstad will use interviews housed on the website as the basis for exhibitions and discussions at art centers throughout Central Europe and the United States.
Produced with generous support from the U.S. Embassy, Bratislava, The Central European Foundation, Trust For Mutual Understanding, Stanica, Artreach and individual donors.
DECEMBER '09
(back to top)Fourth Annual Romanian Film Festival
December 4-6, 2009
Friday-Sunday
'Police, adjective' by Corneliu Porumboiu
Presented by the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, in collaboration with Transilvania International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival
The Fourth Annual Romanian Film Festival features, along with new releases from 2009, a special program dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the '89 Romanian Revolution and the fall of Communism, including The Oak (dir. Lucian Pintilie, 1992), and State of Things (dir. Stere Gulea, 1996).
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick Street (at Laight Street)
$10 Adults, $7 Students/Seniors
Tickets: www.tribecacinemas.com
www.icrny.org
Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s
Ongoing-March 20, 2010
Voices From the Center
Ongoing
JANUARY '10 (back to top)
Györ National Ballet from Hungary: Petrushka and the Fall of Communism
Lecture by Linda Szmyd Monich
Thursday, January 7, 2010, 6pm
Presented in collaboration with the Joyce Theatre.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street)
Admission is free and first-come, first-served
Information: 212-870-1700
www.nypl.org/research/lpa
A View from the East: Documentaries of Eastern Europe
January 19 and 26; February 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2010
Tuesday at 2:30pm
Film still from Diamonds in the Dark (dir. Olivia Carrescia, 1999)
Presented by the Reserve Film and Video Collection at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Over the past 20 years, some of the most daring and innovative documentaries have come out of Eastern Europe. This film series spotlights post-1989 documentaries made in the Performing Revolution festival’s represented countries, including The Man Who Overestimated the Czech Soul: The Escapes of Josef Bryks (dir. Jan Novak, 2007); Diamonds in the Dark (dir. Olivia Carrescia, 1999); Cold Waves (dir. Alexandru Solomon, 2007); The Old and the New (dir. Neven Korda and Zemira Alajbegovic, 1997); The Orange Alternative (dir. Mirosław Dembicki, 1989), Dwarves Go to the Ukraine (dir. Mirosław Dembicki, 2005), and Do Communists Have Better Sex? (dir. Andre Meier, 2006). In addition to the screenings at the Library for the Performing Arts, programs will be arranged at neighborhood branch libraries in The New York Public Library system.
Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street)
FREE
Information: 212-870-1700
www.nypl.org/research/lpa
Győr National Ballet from Hungary
January 26–31, 2010
Tuesday–Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday-Friday at 8:00pm
Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00 and 7:30pm
Győr National Ballet from Hungary in Rite of Spring. Photo by Béla Szabó
Presented by The Joyce Theater
Györ National Ballet, one of Europe’s most respected contemporary ballet companies, returns to The Joyce with the U.S. premieres of Rite of Spring (choreographed by Atilla Kun) and Petrushka (choreographed by Dmitrij Simkin). The all Stravinsky program commemorates the fall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe; both ballets explore the sacrifices of personal freedom and individual expression that occur under a totalitarian government.
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street)
$49; $35; $19; $10 (ticket prices subject to change)
Tickets/Information: 212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
Polish Dance in the 1980s: Silence or Revolution?
January 2010
Panel Dates and Times TBA
Polish Dance Theater in Etiuda b-moll (Etude b minor), Choreographed by Conrad Drzewiecki
Presented by Dance New Amsterdam
Dance New Amsterdam presents three panels intended to provoke discourse about Poland’s revolution in dance during the late 20th century. The first panel will focus solely on Poland, while the others will be a roundtable format with representatives from other Performing Revolution festival countries. With Roman Pawlowski (chief theater and dance critic for Gazeta Wyborcza), Roman Arndt (dance historian), Dr. Agnieszka Jelewska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), and Dr. Jacek Łuminski (Founder/Executive Director of Silesian Dance Theatre and Dean Dance-Theater Department State Drama School in Krakow), George Jackson (critic and dance historian), Prof. Anna Peterson Royce (Indiana University at Bloomington), and Prof. Alan Kucharski (Swarthmore College). The panels will be simulcast online with a live blog for offsite audience interaction.
Developed in conjunction with the 2009 Understanding Dance conference in Poland, and supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, American Express, Polish Cultural Institute in New York, and Silesian Dance Theatre.
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (enter on Chambers Street)
FREE
Information: 212-625-8369
www.dnadance.org
Poland in the 1980s: Searching for Revolution in Dance
January-February 2010
Gallery Hours: Daily 9:00am-9:00pm
Polish Dance Theater in Ostatnia niedziela (The Last Sunday), Choreographed by Conrad Drzewiecki
Presented by Dance New Amsterdam
This multi-media exhibition features Polish dance documented through historical video, film, and photography. Curated by Dr. Jacek Łuminski, Founder/Executive Director of Silesian Dance Theatre, and Dr. Agnieszka Jelewska, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, with advisors Roman Arndt (Poland) and George Jackson (U.S.).
Developed in conjunction with the 2009 Understanding Dance conference in Poland, and supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, American Express, Polish Cultural Institute in New York, and Silesian Dance Theatre.
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (enter on Chambers Street)
FREE
Information: 212-625-8369
www.dnadance.org
Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s
Ongoing-March 20, 2010
Voices From the Center
Ongoing
FEBRUARY '10 (back to top)
Storm Cloud Warnings: Resistance and Reflection in Polish Cinema, 1977-1989
February 3-11, 2010
Adam Ferency and Krystyna Janda in Ryszard Bugajski’s 'Interrogation,' 1982 © Polish National Film Archive
Presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, in association with the Polish National Film Archive
Polish filmmakers working from the late 1970s to the fall of Communism faced enormous challenges and censorship from the totalitarian regime, yet produced extraordinarily rich films. Titles to be screened include classics from the Cinema of Moral Anxiety and a number of films that were banned: Krzysztof Zanussi’s Camouflage, Andrzej Wajda’s Rough Treatment, Feliks Falk’s Top Dog, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Camera Buff, Kazimierz Kutz’s Beads of One Rosary, Stanisław Bareja’s Teddy Bear, Barbara Sass’s Without Love, Marcel Łoziński’s How Are We to Live?, Agnieszka Holland’s A Woman Alone and Ryszard Bugajski’s Interrogation.
Made possible through a grant for new copies from the Polish Film Institute in Warsaw and additional support from Polish Television.
Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
$11 adults/ $8 seniors/ $7 Film Society members, students, children
Tickets/Information: 212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.org
Performative Aspects in Art from
Eastern Europe
Works from Kontakt: The Art Collection of
Erste Bank Group
February 6 - March 7, 2010 (opening reception on February 5, 6 to 8pm)
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 1:00-6:00pm
Rasa Todosijevic, Serbia “Was ist Kunst? (What is Art?)”, video, 1976
Presented by Erste Bank Group and La MaMa La Galleria
Curated by Walter Seidl
Artists: Ion Grigorescu, Sanja Iveković, Edward Krasiński, Natalia LL, Raša Todosijević
This exhibition focuses on the historically important decade of the 1970s in Eastern Europe, demonstrating how artists articulate performative gestures on a visual level, in opposition to the dominant, politically conservative and restrictive reality. The presented artistic statements create performative environments that reflect on given societal processes and their models of inclusion and exclusion. Curated by Walter Seidl, the Art Collection of Erste Bank Group.
LaMaMa La Galleria
6 East 1st Street (between 2nd Avenue and Bowery)
FREE
Information: 212-505-2476
www.lamama.org
WaxFactory
QUARTET v4.0
Text by Heiner Müller, translated by Douglas Langworthy
February 24–28, 2010
Wednesday-Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 5:00pm
Production still from an earlier version of WaxFactory’s Quartet v4.0, directed by Ivan Talijancic. Photo by Tasja Keetman.
WaxFactory’s sci-fi QUARTET v4.0 stages East German playwright Heiner Müller’s controversial text in a sterile, post-apocalyptic world that serves as the arena for the vicious endgames of its protagonists. In WaxFactory’s production, the actors’ live performance is simultaneously broadcast with video images captured from multiple angles by surveillance cameras, which are edited, processed, and projected in real time. Conceived and directed by Ivan Talijancic, the production features performers Erika Latta and Todd Thomas Peters, surround sound design by Random Logic, video by Antonio Giacomin, and costumes by Haans Nicholas Mott, and a visual installation created in collaboration with architect Pavel Getov.
Supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Greenwall Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and others.
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street)
$15
Tickets/Information: 212-352-3101 or www.abronsartscenter.org
www.waxfactory.org
After Communism: Achievement and Disillusionment since 1989
February 26-27, 2010
Panel schedule: Friday at 2:00pm, 3:45pm, 5:30pm and 7:15pm | Saturday at 2:00pm, 3:45pm, 5:30pm
Presented by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, and Austrian Cultural Forum.
This multi-day symposium brings together public intellectuals, policymakers, cultural figures, and academics from both sides of the Atlantic to assess the global meaning of the 1989 revolutions in East-Central Europe and their aftermaths. Speakers will discuss the changes in our understanding of the Communist system and the sources of its collapse, and the age of “post-communism,” a condition whose contours and duration remain unclear.
Download complete program (PDF) »
The Harriman Institute, Columbia University
President's Room 1, Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive (at 116th Street)
FREE
Reservations: rsvp@harrimaninstitute.org
www.harrimaninstitute.org
A View from the East: Documentaries of Eastern Europe
Ongoing-February 23
Poland in the 1980s: Searching for Revolution in Dance
Ongoing-February
Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s
Ongoing-March 20, 2010
Voices From the Center
Ongoing
MARCH '10 (back to top)
Walter Steinacher
Yugostalgia
March 3-May 1, 2010 (opening reception on March 3)
Gallery Hours: Daily 12-7pm
Mama Tito #1
Presented by HERE Arts Center and WaxFactory in collaboration with Austrian Cultural Forum
This exhibition of paintings by Austrian artist Walter Steinacher captures the post-communist nostalgia Steinacher observed during his long-term residency in Slovenia. Most of the paintings on view are part of a series that humorously addresses the image of (Josip Broz) Tito, the Yugoslav president whose death in the mid-80s triggered the domino effect that led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the end of socialism in the Balkan region. Curated by Ivan Talijancic (WaxFactory).
HERE Arts Center
145 6th Avenue (between Spring and Broome, enter on Dominick)
FREE
Information: 212-352-3101
www.here.org
Revolution!
March 4-21, 2010
Thursday-Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 3:00pm
Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre by Pavel Dobrusky.
Presented by Theater for the New City
In this new creative work that bridges puppetry, object theatre, and circus arts, Czech and Czech-American theater artists join together to offer their perspectives on the 1989 Velvet Revolution and an overview of the idea of revolution through the ages. Revolution! is performed in the tradition of Central European medieval street and traveling circus shows, using stilts and strings as a metaphor for an unstable revolution. Created and directed by Pavel Dobruský and Vít Hořejš with The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre and guest artists from the Czech Republic: Facka/The Slap Theater, Pavel Strouhal, and Hana Kalouskova.
Made possible in part with public funds from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Puppeteers of America, Materials for the Arts, Agentura Dell'Arte, GOH Productions, and private donors.
Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets)
$10
Tickets/Information: 212-254-1109
www.theaterforthenewcity.net
Untitled Theater Company #61
Rudolf II
March 5-28, 2010
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Emperor Rudolf II
Rudolf II’s thirst for knowledge, whether artistic, scientific, or mystical, was insatiable—as was his desire for lovers of both sexes. He was surrounded by visionaries like Tycho Brahe and Arcimboldo, plagued by visions of Libuše, and constantly attended by the mistress who had borne his only children, and his valet, a converted Jew whose secret relationship with Rudolf makes him the emperor’s most valued confidant. Set completely in Rudolf’s bedroom, the play is a portrait of an emperor who was both extraordinary visionary and self-destructive, as he confines himself and those closest to him to an increasingly suffocating atmosphere of paranoia and mounting madness.
Bohemian National Hall (November 30)
321-325 East 73rd Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
Tickets: $18
Information: www.untitledtheater.com / info@czechcenter.com
BaPoDi (Banovce Underground Theatre)
The Gilded Red Cage
March 13 and 14, 2010
Saturday at 10pm, Sunday at 5pm
March 17 and 21, 2010
Wednesday and Sunday, 7:30pm
Silvester Lavrik. Photo by Vladimir Yurkovic
Presented by the Consulate General of Slovakia and The Tank
Slovakia’s Banovce Underground Theatre (BaPoDi) presents a program of two dramatic monologues by Silvester Lavrik, one of Slovakia's leading playwrights. Hana's Shame, performed by Katarina Morhacova, portrays a woman’s internal dialogue as she realizes that the main figures in her life simultaneously love her and destroy her. The Canary who Ate the Cat—a tour de force performed by Lavrik himself—captures the contradictions of socialist life via an endearing chameleon-turncoat-survivor who promises everything, yet delivers nothing. Plays are performed in English (translation by Janet Livingstone), with Radek Jahudka (set and costume design), Margit Garijszki (dramaturg) and Boris Lenko (music for Canary). An exhibit by Radek Jahudka of documentary photos from pre- and post-revolutionary Czechoslovakia will be on display in the theater lobby.
Implemented with the Plus421 Foundation and with financial support from the International Visegrad Fund, Open Society Foundation and the Central European Foundation in Bratislava.
La Mama Theatre (March 13 and 14)
74 East 4th St.
www.lamama.org/
web@lamama.org
212-475-7710
The Tank (March 17 and 21)
354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
$12
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com
www.thetanknyc.org
Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks
Hold the Clock
March 19-21, 2010
Friday-Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 3:00pm
Ursula Eagly of Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks. Photo by Yi Zhao.
Presented by the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and GOH Productions
Yoshiko Chuma was the first Western artist invited to work with dancers in Budapest, Hungary in 1986. Since that landmark project, she has spearheaded residencies and toured extensively throughout the region. Using a combination of text, movement, and media in a live installation, Chuma challenges her collaborators—including choreographers Ursula Eagly and Jon Kinzel, and lighting designer Rie Ono—to co-create this world premiere that questions the ‘revolutions’ in East Central Europe via the personal histories of The School of Hard Knocks.
Commissioned in part by the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival for its 75th Anniversary Season: Past-Future-Now. Funded in part by the Harkness Foundation for Dance, Jody and John Arnhold, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, among others.
Buttenwieser Hall, 92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue (at 92nd Street)
$15
Tickets/Information: 212-415-5500
www.92Y.org/Harkness
SAMETOVÁ - VELVETY
Directed by Pavel Dobruský
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
March 25-28, 2010
Thursday-Sunday at 7:30pm
Hana Kalouskova, courtesy Agentura Dell’Arte
Presented by Agentura Dell'Arte and The Tank
Set in the Communist Ministry of Culture, a lonely young janitor daydreams while cleaning up the excrement of the regime. In her fantasy, the Velvet Revolution happens and she is selected to be the new minister. Using classic Czech cynicism and humor, this dance theater work utilizes an interactive set of panels that chronicle the events of the Velvet Revolution, and draws on influences from Hasek, Kafka, Kundera, and others. Performed by Hana Kalouskova, with an installation by Milan David, and documentary materials and projection by Pavel Stingl.
The Tank
354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
$15
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com
www.thetanknyc.org
Revolutionary Voices: Performing Arts in Central & Eastern Europe in the 1980s
Ongoing-March 20, 2010
Voices From the Center
Ongoing
© The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, 2009