Two days of on going performances activated by the artists and the audience will open 'Presencia activa'
With Maja Bajević, John Bock, Thom Kubli Mads Lynnerup, Alastair MacLennan, Sergio Prego, Gema Ramos, La Ribot, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez, Nerea Santisteban Lorences and SUE-C+AGF
La Ribot. 'Laughing Hole', 2006. Photo: Anouk Furst
German artist Thom Kubli will open the on going performance programme designed by LABoral to celebrate the opening of Presencia activa [Active Presence] with his attempt to beat the longest guitar solo ever played. The exhibition, which is coproduced by the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón and MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo [Contemporary Art Museum in Vigo], includes works by 12 international artists. All of the pieces show the different possible relationships between performance and installation art in a diverse landscape of dynamic pieces that will be activated by artists and the public within the spaces of LABoral.
Starting at 10 am on Friday 5th, Kubli will try to beat the mark that has been set at 15 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds following the stopover of his work Record Attempt at the Galician centre. As of Monday 7th, anyone interested may apply to beat the record that is established by making a prior appointment. All of the performances will be supervised by a notary and streamed online via the LABoral website.
Without interruption until 9.30 pm (see attached schedule), 11 of the 12 artists taking part in the show -curated by Sergio Edelsztein, Director, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, and Kathleen Forde, Artistic Director of Borusan Contemporary- will feature in the different performances selected for the occasion.
The public will have the opportunity of seeing the proposal by Scottish Alastair MacLennan in Lain Nail; going for a stroll around a virtual space created with pneumatic hoses by Basque artist Sergio Prego; and meanwhile Maja Bajević’s performers will chant slogans in Slogans Remix, which will be later activated in various places in Gijón during the months the exhibition is open, thanks to the collaboration from a group of non-professional singers. At 8 pm, the Bosnian artist, together with the group Basheskia & Edward EQ, will put music to around a hundred slogans.
Before this visitors will be able to work out in Plastic Gymnastic, the installation by Danish Mads Lynnerup which will be regularly reactivated until February 25th -the closing date of Presencia Activa [Active Presence]- with the help of Club Metropole and its instructors; or see how German John Bock actuates Vas-y!, a kind of spaceship which spins round like a mouse wheel. The wheel rotates when someone walks in it which makes it impossible to stay inside this dwelling.
In her work Lo que estoy viviendo [What I Am Experiencing], Asturian Gema Ramos reflects on the current crisis situation bringing democratic systems into question, as well as on the powers of the imagination to understand and participate from a conscious and unconscious state in this world. From 9 pm the performance Algo que hacer [Something to Do] will be presented at LABoral.
The performances will continue on Saturday 6th until 9.30 pm. From 2 in the afternoon La Ribot features in Laughing Hole, an art action lasting six hours in which the site, randomness of the movements and sound improvisation combine to produce a piece that is more akin to durational performance art than to spectacle.
Galician Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez will carry out his performance Libro extrañamiento [Estrangement Book], an unusual volume of blank pages previously licked by a man of greater stature than the artist; while the other Asturian artist taking part in Presencia activa [Active Presence], Nerea Santisteban Lorences, will invite spectators to become participants in her work Revelación espacial [Spatial Revelation] by bringing along a pair of socks, putting it in an abandoned space and photographing it, so as to include it in the installation as a collection of recovered spaces.
Infinite Jest by Sue C and AGF closes the inaugural programme between 8.30 and 9.30 pm on Saturday –a performance that comes to life as a live home-movie, which is inspired by the complex and outstanding novel of the same title by Foster Wallace, in which the artists explore the expression of seduction through sound and image.
Many of the works will continue over the four months during which the show is on exhibit at LABoral. For Saturday 20th October, starting at 7 pm, one of the pioneers of video art Gary Hill will interact with a projection in Writing Corpora in which spectators stumble on words which are converted into sculptures that in turn crash into the images.
Asturian Support
Coproduced by the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijón and MARCO-Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo [Contemporary Art Museum in Vigo], the exhibition that will be shown at LABoral until 25 February 2013 has the backing of a wide range of companies in Asturias.
These are Club Metropolitan, AEPA-Asociación de Empresas de Producción Audiovisual del Principado de Asturias [Association of Audiovisual Production Companies in Asturias], Restaurante Las Delicias, Pronorte, Emilio Martínez Brut Nature, Agua de Borines, Bilur 2000, S.L., Blue Hoteles and EMULSA which, through their collaboration in specific works or in the exhibition as a whole, show their desire to support the activity of the Centro de Arte and link their image to innovation and creativity which characterise the LABoral programme.
SCHEDULE FOR THE PERFORMANCES
On the 5th and 6th October the Opening of the exhibition Presencia Activa [Active Presence] will be held throughout two consecutive days, on which the performances will be activated by the artists and/or the audience.
Opening: Friday 5 October
10 am: Record Attempt. Thom Kubli. Galería de Exposiciones
11.30 am-1 pm: Lain Nail. Alastair MacLennan. Sala de Proyectos
12 noon-2 pm: Sin título. Sergio Prego. Vestíbulo
12 noon-2 pm: Slogans Remix. Maja Bajević. Varios espacios
11.30 am-1 pm: Lain Nail. Alastair MacLennan. Sala de Proyectos
12.30 noon-1.30 pm: Plastic Gymnastic. Mads Lynnerup. Galería de Exposiciones
5 pm-8 pm: Sin título. Sergio Prego. Vestíbulo
5 pm-8 pm: Slogans Remix. Maja Bajević. Varios espacios
6.30 pm-12.30 am: Lain Nail. Alastair MacLennan. Sala de Proyectos
8 pm-9 pm: Plastic Gymnastic. Mads Lynnerup. Galería de Exposiciones
8.30 pm-9 pm: Vas-y! John Bock. Sala de Proyectos
9 pm-9.30 pm: Algo que hacer. Gema Ramos. Galería de Exposiciones
10 pm-11 pm: Slogan Remix. Maja Bajević. Performers: Basheskia & Edward EQ. Plat0
Saturday 6 October
12 noon-2 pm: Sin título. Sergio Prego. Vestíbulo
12noon-2 pm: Slogans Remix. Maja Bajević. Varios espacios
12.30 noon-1.30 pm: Plastic Gymnastic. Mads Lynnerup. Galería de Exposiciones
2 pm-8 pm: Laughing Hole. La Ribot. Galería de Exposiciones
5 pm-7 pm: Libro extrañamiento. Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez. Sala Nueva
5 pm-8 pm: Sin título. Sergio Prego. Vestíbulo
5 pm-8 pm: Slogans Remix. Maja Bajević. Varios espacios
5.30 pm-6 pm: Revelación espacial. Nerea Santisteban. Sala Nueva
8.30 pm-9.30 pm: Infinite Jest. SUE C + AGF. Galería de Exposiciones
Saturday 20 October
7 pm: Writing Corpora. Gary Hill. Galería de Exposiciones
