U.S. Premiere of MASSIVE ATTACK V ADAM CURTIS to Open 9/28 at Park Avenue Armory

The U.S. premiere of Massive Attack V Adam Curtis will open at Park Avenue Armory September 28. The epic work, created by film maker Adam Curtis and Robert Del Naja, will run through October 4 and is a co-commission of Park Avenue Armory, Manchester International Festival, and Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts.

Robert Del Naja from the legendary English band Massive Attack and the radical film maker Adam Curtis have worked together to create an epic experience unlike any other. Music and film are woven together with personal stories and the grand sweep of history to conjure up a rich and multilayered experience. Intense volume and giant multiple screens completely envelop the audience in a mesmerizing and overwhelming sensory extravaganza that also carries a powerful political argument.

The overall narrative of the show tells the history of the last 50 years in a totally original way. It describes the transition from a world inspired by an optimistic vision of the future to today's fearful and risk averse, managed society.

In a vivid and emotional way the narrative shows how we have tried to build a bubble to protect us from all possible future dangers and keep us safe from harm. But it will also show how, in order to do this, we have turned back to the past, constantly mining its data, looking for patterns, to create a predictable and unthreatening future.

A future without accidents of chance and unforeseen consequences.

But this itself has had the unforeseen consequence of trapping us in a constant feedback loop of the past, where nothing genuinely new can ever be imagined. The dead sing on forever, the recorded images are replayed over and over again. And we are always being offered more of what we had yesterday - if you liked that then you will love this.

The very experience of the show leads the audience to see that we have created for ourselves a world that is haunted by the past - trapped in a sarcophagus of giant screens which continually replay our own past desires to us. A sarcophagus that keeps us safe - but prevents us from moving forward and changing the world for the better.

And at the heart of the grand narrative are a number of extraordinary individual stories - of those who found they could not live without the dream of a better future. In a world without hope.

Massive Attack V Adam Curtis is the creation of documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, with the innovative art and design firm United Visual Artists and radical set designer Es Devlin. Joining Massive Attack for the live performance accompanying the film are singers Liz Fraser and Horace Andy. The music will include covers of popular music from the last three decades-from early Streisand to Siberian punk.

Massive Attack V Adam Curtis is part of the Armory's 2013 season, which presents a series of commissions, co-commission, and programs that blur the distinctions between genres and break new ground for artists and audiences alike using the unconventional platforms of the Armory's soaring drill hall. The Armory breaks the mold of traditional presentation, enabling artists to create, and audiences to experience, immersive and adventurous work that cannot be realized elsewhere in New York. The season also includes a recital series presented in the Armory's exquisitely renovated Board of Officers Room, featuring baritone Christian Gerhaher, violinist Vilde Frang, and pianist Anton Batagov (September 29-October 27); and Robert Wilson's powerful new staging of The Life and Death of Marina Abramovi? (December 12-21). The season was launched in March with OKTOPHONIE, Karlheinz Stockhausen's epic electronic masterpiece, ritualized in a lunar environment created by visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, followed by WS, a monumental installation by Paul McCarthy. The first play co-commissioned by Park Avenue Armory for the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, Matt Charman's The Machine, will be presented September 4-18.

More information on Park Avenue Armory's 2013 season is found at www.armoryonpark.org.