Muzeul National de Arta Contemporanea

I As In Us

Digital Distraction in the Age of Addiction

09 Feb - 23 Mar 2017

I As In Us, Digital Distraction in the Age of Addiction
Photo: Anna Pors
I AS IN US
Digital Distraction in the Age of Addiction
9 February – 23 March 2017

Curated by Cristina Bogdan

Artists: Vivienne Griffin and Cian McConn
Performers: Katrina Damigos, Kaspars Groševs, Paul Dunca
Choreographic assistant: Samuel Kennedy

I AS IN US or the staging of the everyday loop.

The space as the setting for a performance based around a constant feedback between the human and the digital. Most of the time – empty.

The sound score – a mix of field recordings from techno parties, an electronic experimental piece, various recorded vocals. Singers and movers reply.

Movement focused on the physical, which replaces the rational or intellectual. The movers represent online profiles and the human beings behind them.

The body as an instrument used to develop a vocabulary, at times abstract, to talk about isolation in a room filled with people.
This oscillation between human-digital also manifested through 3D-scanned sculptures of body parts.
Observe an attempt to display the beauty but also opacity of gestures against the digital surface.

/ Biographies

Vivienne Griffin is an artist interested in transdisciplinary practices engaged with music and noise. She is currently completing her PhD Addicted to Noise at the Royal College of Art in London and is represented by Bureau in New York. Vivienne studied at Hunter City University New York after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship in 2006. She recently performed at Survival Kit 8, 2016, a live performance festival in Latvia. Recent exhibitions include Artists Voices at the Centre d’édition contemporaine, Genève, 2016, at P!, New York and Frieze New York.

Cian McConn (b. 1980, Ireland) completed his MA at the Royal College of Art, London in 2012. He uses performance to engage and collaborate with other practitioners including: Katrina Damigos Call 2 Response Manifesta 16, Vivienne Griffin I As In Us Drop Everything 2016, Philine Rinnert and Johannes Müller Reading Salome, Berlin 2015 and Eve Vaughan Open Close Thing, London 2013.

Cristina Bogdan (b. 1985, Bucharest) is online editor of Revista ARTA and runs ODD, a curatorial and educational platform in Bucharest. She lectured in art theory at the University for the Creative Arts Farnham and the London College of Communication, and freelances as a curator since 2010.

Kaspars Groševs (b. 1983) is an artist and curator based in Riga. Some of his recent solo shows are Dancing Water (with Ieva Kraule) at Futura, Prague (2016); Didn’t have wi-fi, so I started to paint at C.C. von Strizky’s villa, Riga (2016); Qu’est-ce que ça peut faire tout ça (with Ieva Kraule) at Shanaynay, Paris (2015); OAOA (Jūras griesti) (with Ola Vasiljeva) at theater house Jūras Vārti, Ventspils (2014). His work has been shown in the XII Baltic Triennial at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Art in General in New York, CareOf in Milano, Garage Contemporary Art Museum in Moscow and kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga. Kaspars Groševs sometimes performs his own music, or writes for the Latvian culture press. Co-founder and curator of 427 gallery in Riga.

Katrina Damigos (b. 1987, London) is an experienced singer and vocal coach with over two decades of performance experience and classical training. In 2014 she gained her masters in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, and works on diverse music projects in the community.

Paul Dunca – a physical queer activist – was born in 1983 in Bucharest where he still lives and works today. After graduating the National University of Drama and Film I.L.Caragiale (Choreography section) and studying Play-Writing at U.N.A.T.C. Bucharest, he wanted to try everything. That is why his work is very eclectic and includes various means of expression: from waiting tables to his own MTV show, from community art and go-go dancing to performing at the Venice Biennale in the frame of the Romanian Pavilion, from articles in glossy magazines and roles in local movies, performing his work at the National Centre of Dance in Bucharest and showing it in the Judson Church, New York to live concerts with his band, FLUID. All in all he’s happy whenever he can be useful.

The performance starts at 19:30 and lasts for about an hour. It is followed by a drink offered by Crama Oprișor.
Free entrance for the exhibition opening. Car/taxi access, as well as parking in front of the museum are ensured.
 

Tags: Vivienne Griffin, Ola Vasiljeva