French Institute Alliance Française's CROSSING THE LINE 2012 Set for 9/14-10/14
By: Kelsey Denette Jul. 06, 2012
The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, today announces the full program for Crossing the Line 2012, the sixth annual edition of its highly acclaimed fall festival presenting interdisciplinary works and performances by artists from around the world. Crossing the Line takes place this year from September 14–October 14 in venues throughout New York City. Nespresso is the Presenting Sponsor of Crossing the Line 2012. Tickets go on sale August 1.
This year Gideon Lester, Director of Theater Programs at Bard College, joins Lili Chopra, FIAF's Artistic Director, and Simon Dove, Director of the Herberger Institute School of Dance at Arizona State University, as Co-Curator of Crossing the Line.
Lili Chopra said, "Now in its sixth year, Crossing the Line continues to engage and inspire New York, and New Yorkers, with exciting, provocative, and genre-defying work from visionary artists who are reshaping the way we see the world." Simon Dove added, "We are thrilled to welcome Gideon Lester as co-curator of Crossing the Line. Over the course of his career, Gideon has commissioned and programmed work that redefines theater and performance. We are delighted to have him join us in presenting the significant voices who are transforming artistic practices both in New York and around the world."
"I've loved being in the audience for Crossing the Line since the festival began, and am delighted to be joining the curatorial team," said Gideon Lester. "With Simon and Lili I look forward to introducing New York City audiences to many superb artists from around the world, many of them exploring this great city as the canvas and setting for their work for the first time."
Crossing the Line 2012 opens in FIAF's newly renovated Florence Gould Hall with a special concert by visionary guitarist and composer Bill Frisell, uniting two of his groups, the 858 Quartet (featuring Eyvind Kang, Hank Roberts, and Jenny Scheinman) and the Beautiful Dreamers trio (featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston). Frisell will also present Early (Not Too Late), an unprecedented early-morning solo concert in Brooklyn's Christ Church, and the Crossing the Line commission Close Your Eyes, a unique glimpse into Frisell's creative process with longtime collaborator Eyvind Kang and visual artist Jim Woodring.
Newly-appointed Director of Visual Arts & Programs at FIAF Antoine Guerrero opens the 2012/2013 season with French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's portraits, a site-specific video and sound installation that blurs the line between the musical and the visual. Brazilian visual artist Bel Borba will create a new work each day of the festival in different locations around New York City, using only found and recycled materials. Borba is also the subject of Bel Borba Aqui, a new documentary by Burt Sun and André Costantini that will premiere as part of the Festival. With Shaboygen, Brooklyn based artists-and brothers-Steven and William Ladd recreate visceral memories from their adolescence using intricately sewn, handmade boxes rendered from locally-sourced materials.
Acclaimed theater director David Levine presents Habit, a 90-minute drama performed in a continuous loop for eight hours that fuses conventional theater, reality TV, and visual arts. Director, video artist, and co-founder of The Chocolate Factory Brian Rogers premieresHot Box, a live performance (and endurance challenge) that draws inspiration from extreme movies such as Francis Ford Coppola'sApocalypse Now and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo.
Director and choreographer Faustin Linyekula returns to Crossing the Line with two works: a conversation with renowned stage directorPeter Sellars on the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change; and his new solo work Le Cargo, in which he examines his personal story within the context of his native Congo's rich and tumultuous history.
Blending performance, pop music, and magical interludes, Crossing the Line artist-in-residence Gérald Kurdian's new work The Magic of Spectacular Theater explores contemporary views of magic. Set amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy public square, award-winning Dutch director Lotte van den Berg's Pleinvrees/Agoraphobia is an intimate monologue for both a knowing and unsuspecting public.
Choreographer DD Dorvillier's Danza Permanente transposes the score of a Beethoven string quartet into movement for four dancers, each of whom takes the part of a single instrument. In Mon Ma Mes, New York-based choreographer Jack Ferver presents a solo lecture/performance in which he scrutinizes his life and work amidst a live documentary shoot. Following the vast acclaim she garnered as an artist-in-residence during the 2012 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, choreographer and director Sarah Michelsonwill offer an event under the Lecture/Performance rubric-without lecturing or performing-about the myriad layers that comprise her work.
In 4 Prepared Dreams, French native and Crossing the Line artist-in-residence Joris Lacoste explores hypnosis as an artistic medium. And in the English language premiere of renowned director Pascal Rambert's Love's End (Clôture de l'amour), performers Kate Moranand Jim Fletcher portray a couple exploring the dissolution of their relationship via separate monologues that at times run parallel to each other, and at times intersect.
Returning to Crossing the Line for the third time, German-born performer, director, and choreographer Raimund Hoghe presents his climactic duet Pas de Deux, sharing the stage with Takashi Ueno, a young Japanese dancer.
Crossing the Line 2012 Commissions and Residencies
Crossing the Line's robust program of Commissions and Residencies supports artistic evolution and the development of exciting new work by both established and emerging artists. This year, Crossing the Line commissioned Bill Frisell's Close Your Eyes, the English-language production of Pascal Rambert's Love's End, and co-commissioned DD Dorvillier's Danza Permanente together with The Kitchen. Additionally, three artists, Gérald Kurdian, Joris Lacoste, and Pascal Rambert are receiving residencies to further the development of work to be presented during the festival.
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Bill Frisell
Crossing the Line 2012 opens with three special events centered on the work of this visionary composer and musician.
Opening Concert
Bill Frisell with the 858 Quartet and Beautiful Dreamers (World Premiere)
Friday, September 15 at 8pm
Brooklyn's St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague St.)
Advance $30, Day-of $35, FIAF Members $25, Student Rush $10, All three events $50
Bill Frisell launches this year's festival in FIAF's newly renovated Florence Gould Hall with a rare concert that unites two of his seminal groups, the 858 Quartet, featuring Eyvind Kang, Hank Roberts, and Jenny Scheinman, and Beautiful Dreamers, a trio featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston.
In a career spanning more than 35 years and over 250 recordings-including over 40 albums of his own-guitarist, composer, and bandleader Bill Frisell has established himself as a visionary presence in American music. He is celebrated for using an array of effects to create unique sounds from his instrument. His recordings are extensive and his best-reviewed albums include Have a Little Faith and This Land, Unspeakable (2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album), and History, Mystery(nominated for a 2009 Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album). A rare opportunity to see this exceptional musician and composer joined by two of his closest collaborators.
Early (Not Too Late) (World Premiere)
Saturday, September 15 at 8am
Christ Church in Cobble Hill, 320 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NYC
Advance $25, Day-of $30, FIAF Members $20, Student Rush $10, All three events $50
Bill Frisell's first ever early-morning solo concert, offered in the serene setting of Christ Church in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill. Inspired by the special hour and sacred space, Bill Frisell will play electric and acoustic guitar, demonstrating his distinctive approach to contemporary music.
Close Your Eyes featuring Eyving Kang and Jim Woodring (World Premiere)
Co-presented with The Invisible Dog Art Center, Saturday, September 15 at 8pm
The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NYC
Advance $25, Day-of $30, FIAF Members $20, Student Rush $10, All three events $50
Bill Frisell offers an intimate insight into his creative process. He invites viola player and long-time collaborator Eyvind Kang and acclaimed visual artist Jim Woodring, to explore his extensive note books. While the two musicians seek to make sense of Frisell's musical thoughts and ideas, Woodring illuminates what he hears with real-time illustrations.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, portraits (U.S. Premiere)
Friday, September 14–Saturday, November 10
FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Free and open to the public
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot explores the realms of the musical and the visual in portraits, a site-specific video and sound installation that opens the 2012/2013 season of Visual Arts at FIAF. portraits is composed of filmed interviews with six musicians projected at varying sizes on the walls and ceiling of the Gallery, creating an immersive experience. The images are accompanied by a soundtrack created by a technique developed by Boursier-Mougenot that transposes the video signals into sound.
Bel Borba with Burt Sun & André Costantini
Bel Borba has captivated his native Salvador, a 500-year-old city in the Brazilian state of Bahia, with stunning outdoor artworks, from small mosaics to large-scale pieces composed of brightly-colored broken tiles, steel, wood, recycled materials, and sand. Bel Borba's eclectic work beautifully channels the experiences of the communities in which he works, providing a window into the city's rich and complex history and culture.
For nearly two decades, filmmakers and photographers Burt Sun and André Costantini have worked with International Artists to document and illuminate their creative processes. In this unique collaboration, the three artists work across multiple platforms to create a powerful and multifaceted artwork.
DIÁRIO ( através de um OLHO BAIANO ) (U.S. Premiere)
Co-presented with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
Friday, September 14–Sunday, October 14
Various Locations
Free and open to the public
Bel Borba creates a new visual work each day in different locations around New York City over the course of the festival, using only recycled or discarded materials found in the city and drawing inspiration from New York's people and urban landscape. Burt Sun and André Costantini will document the month-long project using film and photography to create clips shared daily on the festival's website.
Burt Sun and André Costantini, Bel Borba Aqui (New York Premiere)
Wednesday, September 19 at 7pm
FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
FIAF Members Free ($2 tickets in advance), Non-Members $10
Bel Borba is the subject of this documentary chronicling the artist's work and creative processes. Hailed by Voice of America as "one of the most mesmerizing and must-see documentary films this year," Bel Borba Aqui captures the artist's vivacious personality and intimate relationship with the culturally rich city of Salvador.
Steven and William Ladd, Shaboygen
Co-presented with The Invisible Dog Art Center, Saturday, September 15–Saturday, November 3
Opening Reception September 15, 6–10pm, with performances by the artists at 7 & 9pm
The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NYC
Free and open to the public
Brooklyn-based brothers Steven and William use locally-sourced materials to create energetic, meticulously crafted installations inspired by their childhood memories and day-to-day shared life experiences. In Shaboygen the brothers recall the memory of escaping a fiery death one morning when their car was suddenly engulfed in flames while they were on their way to school. Using intricately sewn, handmade boxes, the brothers resurrect this traumatic event. The textile landscape appears painstaking yet spontaneous, creating an intimate, emotional piece that reflects the creative process behind the work, as well as the personal story it recalls.
David Levine, Habit (New York Premiere)
Co-presented with Performance Space 122
Friday, September 21–Sunday, September 30; Times are TBA
Essex Street Market: Building B, Lower East Side
Free and open to the public
Within a four-walled, fully furnished and functional American ranch house (stocked refrigerator, working stove, plumbing, running water), three actors perform a 90-minute drama on a continuous loop for eight hours a day. Although the language never changes, they improvise the staging to suit their needs-when they're hungry, they cook; when they're dirty, they wash. Spectators will circulate around the outside of the house, observing the action through the Open Windows and doors. A play contained within a sculpture, Habit fuses conventional theater, reality TV, and visual arts performance, short-circuiting our assumptions about spectatorship, performance, routine, and realism.
Co-presented with The Chocolate Factory, Previews Thursday, September 13–Friday, September 14; Opening Saturday, September 15; performances Monday, September 17–Saturday, September 22, all at 8pm
The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Avenue, L.I.C., NYC
$15
Hot Box is loud, dark, foggy, sweaty, hot, drunk, and very live. Inspired by films such as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, a considerably drunk Rogers projects real-time images of himself and another performer via a live video feed. Disjointed sounds accompany the images, creating a violently noisy sense of disorder. Within this immersive, chaotic environment, Rogers seeks to create a focused stillness that exists amidst, even in spite of, the mayhem.
Faustin Linyekula & Peter Sellars, Dialogue (World Premiere)
Co-presented with the Museum for African Art, Monday, September 17 at 8pm
FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10
Friends, artistic collaborators, and mutual admirers, director and choreographer Faustin Linyekula and director Peter Sellars come together on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street to speak about each others' work and the power of the arts as an agent for social and political change.
Through his unconventional interpretations of classic works from Mozart to Sophocles, Peter Sellars has reimagined the way artists and audiences view performance. Faustin Linyekula has gained critical acclaim worldwide for his provocative work addressing the legacy of war and atrocities in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo where he remains a singular voice in contemporary performance. A unique conversation between two remarkable artists.
Faustin Linyekula, Le Cargo (New York Premiere)
Co-presented with the Museum for African Art, Tuesday, September 18 at 8pm
FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10
Dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula returns to Crossing the Line after his sold-out, critically acclaimed performances in 2011 with a new solo work. In the raw and intimate Le Cargo, Faustin Linyekula explores his story within the context of his native Congo's rich and tumultuous history. Infused with potent music, and his powerful personal narrative, Faustin beautifully investigates his relationship with dance, the physical language through which he has told his country's stories for a decade, as he searches for traces of this brutal history on his body.
Gérald Kurdian, The Magic of Spectacular Theater (World Premiere)
Co-presented with Abrons Arts Center, Tuesday, September 18–Wednesday, September 19 at 8pm
Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), NYC
Advance $15, Day-of $20, Student Rush $10
Crossing the Line 2012 artist-in-residence Gérald Kurdian charmed festival audiences in 2011 with his evocative songwriting, extraordinary voice, and inventive lo-tech storytelling that challenged expectations of musical performance. The Paris-based artist returns this year with his new work, The Magic of Spectacular Theater-part of his ongoing THIS IS THE HELLO MONSTER! avant-folk music project-with stage design by Obie Award winner Philippe Quesne. Blending performance, pop music, and magical interludes, the piece whimsically explores two prevalent contemporary views of magic: the mystical practices of sorcerers and astrologers on the one hand, and the illusionism of the more conventional conjurer on the other.
OMSK/Lotte van den Berg, Pleinvrees/Agoraphobia (English-language Premiere)
Thursday, September 20–Friday, September 21 at 3pm, Saturday, September 22 at 11am & 3pm
Location to be announced.
Free and open to the public. For more information, visit fiaf.org/ctl.
Award-winning director Lotte van den Berg's Pleinvrees/Agoraphobia explores the impossibility of being together: we desire to be among people yet fear it; we hope to share our lives with others, but fearful of loss, we keep to ourselves. Performed in a busy public square, a solitary man walks around, apparently talking to himself. Yet his words are streamed to bystanders and eavesdroppers-actually audience members who have called in to listen to him on their cell phones. Pleinvrees/Agoraphobia is at once an intimate performance about how this solitary man experiences the world and an insightful experience for an audience of spectators and passers-by.
DD Dorvillier/human future dance corps, Danza Permanente (U.S. Premiere)
Co-presented with The Kitchen, Wednesday, September 26–Sunday, September 30 at 8pm
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC
$15
The choreography of Danza Permanente comes from a musical composition created in Vienna two centuries ago by a deaf man, Beethoven. In this new work, the score is transposed into movement for four dancers, each taking the part of a single instrument. They embody the musical structure and dynamics of the string quartet, behaving as sound, in silence. The transposition is by choreographer DD Dorvillier and composer Zeena Parkins, with dancers Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill, Naiara Mendioroz, and rehearsal assistant Heather Kravas. The lighting design by Thomas Dunn, and the acoustic environment by Ms. Parkins, follow the score, framing the silence and the visible music.
Sarah Michelson, Not a Lecture/Performance (World Premiere)
Thursday, October 4, at 8pm
FIAF, Tinker Auditorium, (55 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15, Student Rush $10
Following her acclaimed residency at the 2012 Whitney Biennial, choreographer and director Sarah Michelson neither lectures, nor performs about the myriad layers that comprise her work.
Jack Ferver, Mon Ma Mes (World Premiere)
Saturday, October 6 at 8pm
FIAF, Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $20, Day-of $25, FIAF Members $15
The New York Times has described choreographer, writer, performer, and teacher Jack Ferver's work as "restless, visceral, and often painful...as sympathetic as it is bitingly corrosive." In this solo lecture/performance, Jack Ferver scrutinizes his life, in a rare moment of vulnerability in front of the audience. He uses a stylized and impersonal question and answer format to recount his life, while simultaneously performing and deconstructing one of his works, all while a documentary is shot of him. The layered combination of self-analysis and performance creates an intimacy with the audience that reveals as much as it presents.
Joris Lacoste, 4 Prepared Dreams (U.S. Premiere)
Wednesday, October 10–Saturday, October 13 at 8pm
FIAF, Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue)
Advance $12, Day-of $15, FIAF Members $10, 4-Performance Pass $30
Crossing the Line artist-in-residence Joris Lacoste presents 4 Prepared Dreams, a project that explores hypnosis as an artistic medium. For 4 Prepared Dreams, FIAF commissioned Joris Lacoste to create four scripted dreams for four New York artists, who will experience their dream during a one-on-one hypnosis session with Lacoste. The performance is the dream experienced during the private hypnosis session, when the subject succumbs to the fiction Lacoste has constructed and provoked. The session will be followed by a post-performance interview-open to the public-between Lacoste and the artist about the experience.
Pascal Rambert, Love's End (World Premiere of the English version of Clôture de l'amour)
Co-presented with Abrons Arts Center, Wednesday, October 10–Saturday, October 13 at 8pm
Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), NYC
FIAF Members $20, Non-Members $30
In the English language premiere of director Pascal Rambert's Love's End (Clôture de l'amour), performers Kate Moran and Jim Fletcher portray a couple in the grips of a broken relationship. Set in a bare room, the couple revisits the end of their relationship through separate monologues, following a script that Pascal Rambert has specifically tailored for these two performers. Using physical movement when words alone will not suffice, Love's End is an intense and raw investigation into the nature and purpose of human relationships.
Raimund Hoghe, Pas de Deux (U.S. Premiere)
Co-presented with the Baryshnikov Arts Center
Wednesday, October 10–Friday, October 12 at 7:30pm
Howard Gilman Performance Space, Baryshnikov Arts Center
$20
A term emblematic of 19th-century virtuoso classical dance, the Pas de Deux, danced by couples, is the crowning moment in a classical ballet. Raimund Hoghe's Pas de Deux with the Japanese dancer Takashi Ueno is, in its own way, virtuosic. The hand and arm movement at the start of the piece–bold up and down strokes tracing words in the air–can be seen to represent an anthology of dance, beautifully encapsulating the art form's array of gestures. The two dancers move together in isolation, subtly revealing their worlds.
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About Crossing The Line 2012
Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s annual fall festival presenting interdisciplinary works and performances created by artists from around the world in New York. The festival provides opportunities for New Yorkers to explore the dialogue between artist and participant, examine how artists help re-imagine the world, and engage in the vital role artists play as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions and takes place this year from September 14–October 14, 2012.
Inaugurated in 2007, Crossing the Line has enjoyed increasingly strong audience response from diverse segments of the New York City area, as well as critical acclaim. The festival was voted "Best of 2009" and "Best of 2010" by Time Out New York, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times has said, "The French Institute Alliance Française's annual Crossing the Line has carved out a particular identity as an invigorating, unpredictable, occasionally provocative mix of genres and disciplines…It's the artistic equivalent of a splash of water on the face."
Crossing the Line 2012: Partners
FIAF is thrilled to work once again with numerous partners throughout New York City, including:
Abrons Art Center; Baryshnikov Arts Center; The Chocolate Factory; Christ Church, Brooklyn; The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics; The Invisible Dog Art Center; The Kitchen; Movement Research; Museum for African Art; The Paula Cooper Gallery; Performance Space 122; and the Times Square Alliance.
Crossing the Line 2012: Acknowledgements
FIAF would like to thank the following for their generous support of Crossing the Line 2012:
Nespresso, Presenting Sponsor of Crossing the Line 2012
American Airlines, the Official Airline of FIAF; 972, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Institut français; Florence Gould Foundation; The French-American Fund for Contemporary Theater, a Program of FACE; Fondation d'entreprise Hermès; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The Enoch Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Museum for African Art; Institut français / Paris / Afrique en créations; Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques; NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal; Netherlands Cultural Services; The Netherland-America Foundation; FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance) Program; The Hemispheric Institute; APAP Cultural Exchange Fund; and Robert de Rothschild.
Special thanks to Arizona State University.
VENUE INFORMATION
FRENCH INSTITUTE ALLIANCE FRANCAISE (FIAF)
Florence Gould Hall – 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison avenues), NYC
For tickets call 800.982.2787 or go to fiaf.org/ctl
Tinker Auditorium – 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison avenues), NYC
For tickets call 800.982.2787 or go to fiaf.org/ctl
Le Skyroom – 22 East 60th Street; 8th floor (between Park and Madison avenues), NYC
For tickets call 800.982.2787 or go to fiaf.org/ctl
FIAF Gallery – 22 East 60th Street; ground floor (between Park and Madison avenues), NYC
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am-6pm
For information call 646.388.6667 or go to fiaf.org/ctl
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), NYC
For tickets call 212.598.0400 or go to abronsartscenter.org
Howard Gilman Performance Space, Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues
For tickets call 866.811.4111 or go to bacnyc.org
The Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, L.I.C., NYC
For tickets call 718.482.7069 or go to chocolatefactorytheater.org
Christ Church in Cobble Hill
320 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NYC
For information call 718.624.0083 or go to cchf.tripod.com
Essex Street Market
120 Essex Street (at Delancey Street), NYC
For information go to essexstreetmarket.com
The Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NYC
For information go to invisibledog.org
Open Thursday through Saturday, 1pm–7pm, Sunday 1pm–5pm
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, NYC
For tickets call 212.255.5793 ext.11 or go to thekitchen.org
Times Square
NYC, exact locations to be announced
Performance Space 122
67 West Street Unit 315, Brooklyn, NYC
For tickets call Theatermania at 212-352-3101 or go to ps122.org
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