The Broad Unveils 2018 Summer Happenings Music & Performance Line-Up Feat. Gang Gang Dance, faUSt, & More
By: Macon Prickett May. 31, 2018
The Broad today announced the lineup for the third edition of Summer Happenings at The Broad, a music and performance series sponsored by Leading Partner East West Bank. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "wildly eclectic mix of music and art," the summer event series - one of Los Angeles' most popular and anticipated events - will showcase more than 35 prominent and emerging artists and performers over four events. Tickets, including Series Passes (offers a savings of $25 and tickets to all four Summer Happenings), create-your-own ticket packages (offers a savings of $5 on each event when tickets are purchased for two or more events) and individual tickets ($30 advance), are available now at www.thebroad.org/happenings.
Summer Happenings kicks off on June 30 with an evening inspired by The Broad's new exhibition, A Journey That Wasn't - opening the same day - which explores artists' complex representations of time, nuancing assumptions about linear time through rhythm, repetition, duration, artifice and appropriation. July's Happening continues the museum's year-long exploration of the legacy and influence of Broad collection artist Joseph Beuys. In August, The Broad will present an evening featuring a diverse range of Chinese artists, from contemporary classical to punk and pop musicians, to performance artists - bringing many of them to perform for the first time in the United States. The final night of Summer Happenings in September will return to the themes of A Journey That Wasn't,exploring how artists manipulate time through memory, appropriation and repetition.
The 2018 Summer Happenings lineup features an extraordinary array of talent including: Gang Gang Dance, faUSt, Re-TROS, Kim Gordon + YoshimiO, Terry Riley, EYE, DJ Stretch Armstrong, Matmos, M.I.A. Banjee Ball + Ranika (formerly Kevin) JZ Prodigy, Asian Dope Boys + Aïsha Devi, Michael "5000" Watts, Total Freedom and Arto Lindsay.
"This year's programs build upon the unexpected range of artistic diversity for which the Summer Happenings have become known," said Ed Patuto, director of audience engagement. "The curators worked collectively on all of the Happenings this year, and it produced a richer, more surprising selection of artists. We've invited a wide scope of artists - from Terry Riley to deejays like Michael "5000" Watts and Stretch Armstrong, to the Banjee Ball and Arto Lindsay - artists and performers that would not usually be found on the same bill."
"At East West Bank, we believe that supporting the arts is key to strengthening the communities which we serve. We are proud to partner with The Broad in presenting another acclaimed season of this multidisciplinary event series that explores contemporary art with a wide range of artistic voices," said Emily Wang, senior vice president, director of marketing and community development at East West Bank. "In August, we are looking forward to sharing The Greater Body (Shi Dati), an exciting program that celebrates the diversity and vibrancy of Chinese artists and culture."
The 2018 Summer Happenings are guest-curated by artist and Afropunk festival co-founder James Spooner, curator Ryu Takahashi, Brandon Stosuy, editor-in-chief at The Creative Independent, and Darin Klein, associate director of events and programs, with assistance for August's program from Modern Sky USA's Sijie Liu and composer, performer and curator Du Yun.
Summer Happenings at The Broad is a series of late-night events featuring music, performance and art by an array of artistic talent that are held on the last Saturday night of each month from June through September. Summer Happenings is inspired by art in the Broad collection and occupies various spaces throughout the museum and outdoor Plaza. The events fluctuate between happenings, salons and scenes, and animate the important influences of the leading artists of our time. Made possible in part by the generous support of Leading Partner East West Bank.
2018 Summer Happenings at The Broad Full Lineup
Summer Happenings: A Journey That Wasn't - Part 1
Saturday, June 30 | 8 p.m.
The 2018 Summer Happenings at The Broad kicks off on the opening day of A Journey That Wasn't, the museum's new exhibition which explores artists' complex representations of time, nuancing assumptions about linear time through rhythm, repetition, duration, artifice and appropriation.
On the East West Bank Stage in the outdoor Plaza, Gang Gang Dance plays syncopated, experimental synth rock from their first new album release in seven years, Kazuasa. Renowned DJ Stretch Armstrong juxtaposes an eclectic mix of original songs and their remixes through his turntable mastery. Rapper-turned-ordained minister Jean Grae's Church of Infinite You takes over the museum's lobby with Grae's nondenominational sermon on time, interspersed with her choir's themed cover songs and special musical guests.
In The Oculus Hall, pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley performs his 2012 composition Aleph, which creates a meditation exploring ideas from Judaism, mathematics and raga. Composer and multimedia artist Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs presents an original choral and movement ensemble work inspired by mythological characters who journey between, over, and under worlds.
In the third floor galleries, punk veteran, genre-shifting singer and multi-instrumentalist Tara Jane O'Neil reflects on journeys both personal and geographical in conversation with the choreography and performance of Jmy James Kidd and The Sunland Dancer, and Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama loops her vocals and beatboxing to create layered, polyphonic harmonies, tying together hip hop and her Belgian-Congolese roots.
Summer Happenings: Social Shaman
Saturday, July 28 | 8 p.m.
Co-presented by Goethe-Institut, the second program in The Broad's Summer Happenings series is inspired by the creative practice of German artist Joseph Beuys, collected extensively by the museum, and the Fluxus movement he fostered. The artists featured all share key elements seen in Beuys' work that brought artistic, creative practice into everyday life: social sculpture, activism and radical Fluxus performance.
Highlighting Beuys' penchant for recontextualization, legendary Krautrock group faUSt performs experimental sets and Baltimore duo Matmos, who recently composed an album by playing a washing machine on a stage, will perform in The Broad's outdoor Plaza. faUSt will also stage spontaneous performances throughout the museum.
In 1982, Beuys wrote an anti-Reagan song, "Sonne statt Reagan," which translates to "Sun, not Rain/Reagan." With 2018 as its backdrop, The Broad's Oculus Hall features an imploded DJ set by EYE, the founder of the influential Japanese noise-rock group Boredoms. Pharmakon, the noise project of New York-based Margaret Chardiet, deconstructs and manipulates sound into a spiritual journey. Total Freedom, the New York-based artist and Fade to Mind associate, offers a disruptive, cross-genre DJ set that is as evocative as it is danceable.
In the museum lobby, FlucT, the New York City-based performance collective featuring Sigrid Lauren and Monica Mirabile, investigates the physical, political and emotional through a new performance created especially for the evening.
In the third floor galleries, trombone and drums duo Nelson Patton joins forces with Birmingham, Alabama-based, self-taught artist and musician Lonnie Holley for a shamanistic improvisational set.
Summer Happenings: The Greater Body (Shi-Dati)
Saturday, Aug. 25 | 8 p.m.
The heart of the Chinese people is revealed through the rich and varied culture produced by its abundance of artists. A constellation of musicians, composers, filmmakers and performers constitute the body of The Broad's third Summer Happening. The event will welcome artists from Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an to the United States - many for the first time - who present a culturally unique perspective on the performing arts, film and music as part of an exciting evening that highlights two artistic trends in contemporary China: the appropriation of and homage to concepts, genres and movements in the Western popular cultural sphere; and experimentation in and re-examination of traditional Eastern artistic forms of dance, performance and music. This program was curated with the assistance of Modern Sky USA's Sijie Liu and composer, performer and curator Du Yun.
The outdoor Plaza will feature a robust lineup of acts. Post-punk band Re-TROS (Rebuilding the Rights of Statues), pioneers in Beijing's music scene who have built acclaim through the strength of their musical releases Cut Off!, Watch Out! Climate Has Changed and Before The Applause, performs on the East West Bank Stage. Chinese Canadian techno artist MIIIA pumps out her rave-inspired beats that countless club-goers have fallen for at gigs throughout Shanghai and mainland China, Russia, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and Europe. Daniel Collás, Juliet Swanbo (Phenomenal Handclap Band) and Jie Ma perform Collás' original score for the pipa (a traditional four-stringed Chinese musical instrument), contemporary keyboards and percussion, in accompaniment to director Zhou Hongbo'sintimate and revealing documentary film, Lotus Ferry, about the eponymous district of Shanghai.
Asian Dope Boys celebrate the euphoria and psychedelia of eastern religions, art, music and live dance in collaboration with singer and musician Aïsha Devi, who channels metaphysical research, ritualistic practice and healing frequencies into an alternate club environment. The Oculus Hall transforms into an underground Beijing punk club with back-to-back sets by FAZI, whose music draws on the minimal rhythms of Krautrock and the abrasive rituals of post-punk; Hell City, blending the melody and arrangement of the metal genre with three-chord punk; and Shave n' Shut, an oi punk band formed by the members of legendary Chinese punk band Misandao, as well as former members of Life For Drinking, Gum Bleed, Point Blank and Unregenerate Blood.
Meanwhile, musician and poet Yan Jun presents performance work incorporating field recording, voice, feedback - and his own body - in response to the architecture of the museum. Composer Ji DongYong presents Ban 2.0 for the 37-reed sheng (a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument), paired with electronics and live digital projections performed by Dai Zifan, a rising star who specializes in the sheng at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
Summer Happenings: A Journey That Wasn't - Part 2
Saturday, Sep. 29 | 8 p.m.
The Broad's final Summer Happenings event will explore how artists manipulate time through memory, appropriation and repetition, themes examined by the museum's exhibition, A Journey That Wasn't.
On the East West Bank Stage, legendary experimental icons Kim Gordon and YoshimiO (the drummer in the Japanese rock band, Boredoms) create work in real time, collaborating on an instrumental improvisational set. The Banjee Ball, a monthly night of competitive voguing, dancing and catwalk strutting that takes place in downtown Los Angeles, has been commissioned to create a ball inspired by A Journey That Wasn't, and which features legendary performers of the Los Angeles ballroom dance community. Philadelphia ballroom dance icon Ranika (formerly Kevin) JZ Prodigy will also make her Los Angeles debut.
Michael "5000" Watts, pioneering co-founder of the Houston record label Swisha House, collapses time with a chopped and screwed DJ set in The Oculus Hall, and Rio-based artist and no wave legend, Arto Lindsay, presents a new experimental site-specific piece.
Laraaji + Arji OceAnanda performs a drone sound bath in the museum lobby that will explore the idea of meaning being made and remade over time, a theme that is investigated in A Journey That Wasn't.
In the third floor galleries, two artists will highlight rhythm and duration, devices explored by several artworks featured in the exhibition. Dedekind Cut, the music project from Northern California-based electronic composer and producer Fred Welton Warmsley III, offers his extracted industrial New Age music. In addition, multi-instrumentalist and Los Angeles producer Josiah Steinbrick explores percussive tones to create imagined worlds.
About the Guest Curators
James Spooner is a working artist from New York who is now based in Los Angeles. He first gained recognition with his critically acclaimed cult documentary Afro-Punk, which provided the inspiration for the Afropunk festivals that he also co-founded and co-curated for four years before leaving the organization. He has spent the last decade tattooing in his Los Angeles private studio, Monocle Tattoo, where he pioneered a vegan tattoo procedure. Currently, he is finishing his first graphic novel, for which he is both the author and illustrator. Spooner writes and illustrates a weekly webcomic chronicling his life from punk rock to fatherhood (Instagram: @SpoonersNoFun / Spoonersnofun.com). Spooner co-curated Basquiat and Oracle evenings of Summer Happenings at The Broad in 2017.
Brandon Stosuy is editor-in-chief at The Creative Independent. Previously, he was director of editorial operations at Pitchfork. He co-founded the Basilica Soundscape festival in Hudson, New York, and the ongoing Tinnitus music series in New York City. For the past several years, Stosuy and the artist Matthew Barney have collaborated on live events, objects and publications, and they launched a Trump Countdown clock in June 2017 across from the United Nations. Stosuy has collaborated on exhibitions and books with the German artist Kai Althoff and the American artist Brody Condon, and curated the 7 Inches For Planned Parenthood box set with The National's Matt Berninger. His anthology, Up is Up, But So Is Down: New York's Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992, was published in 2006. His first children's book, Music Is..., was published in 2016, and his second children's book is forthcoming in 2018. He manages the bands Zola Jesus and Wax Idols, and collaborates with the electronic artist Jlin on her shows in the United States and Asia. Stosuy has been a regular co-curator of Summer Happenings at The Broad since its inception in 2016.
Ryu Takahashi is an independent curator, producer and artist manager based in New York and Tokyo, and was formerly a publicist at Sony Music. As a co-director/curator at VACANT, a gallery and performance space in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, he has worked with artists including David Byrne, Zs, Jenny Hval and Devendra Banhart. He is currently managing artists Arto Lindsay, BIGYUKI, and Patrick Higgins. Takahashi curated the Strange Forest evening of Summer Happenings at The Broad in 2017.
About East West Bank
East West Bank (NASDAQ: EWBC) is one of the largest independent banks headquartered in California with total assets of $37.7 billion. As the premier financial bridge between East and West, the bank focuses exclusively on the United States and Greater China markets and operates over 130 locations worldwide, including in the United States markets of California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas and Washington. Forbes has named East West Bank among the top 15 of "America's 100 Best Banks" since 2010. For more information on East West Bank, visit the Company's website at www.eastwestbank.com.
About The Broad
The Broad is a contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, the museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement. The Broad is home to more than 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is among the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide.
The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation's worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984. Since opening in September 2015, The Broad has welcomed more than two million visitors. Generous support is provided by Leading Partner East West Bank.
For more information on The Broad and to sign up for updates, please visit thebroad.org.
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