ICA Announces WINTER/SPRING 2012 Schedule
Performances, Talks And Film Programs
By: Joyce Linehan - Dec 05, 2011
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents an ambitious new season of performance and film in the ICA’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, a stunning glass-enclosed stage overlooking Boston Harbor. Highlights of the Winter/Spring 2012 season include Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good), a witty re-envisioning of Andy Warhol’s films for stage, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s new performance red, black, GREEN: a blues (rbGb) with set design by artist Theaster Gates.
The ICA’s New Music Now series returns with four exciting concerts of adventurous music, and the film program offers an exciting line-up this season, including a day-long screening of acclaimed artist Isaac Julien’s films, the Annual LGBT Film Festival, and the 2012 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films. Tickets for these programs go on sale to ICA Associate Members on Tuesday, Dec. 6, and to the general public on Wednesday, Dec. 14, and can be purchased at www.icaboston.org or by calling (617) 478-3103.
PERFORMANCE: THEATER
Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13 and 14, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 15, 2 p.m.
Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good) - BOSTON PREMIERE
A live film with bad coffee, nervous breakdowns, wild parties, and modern hairstyles. Inspired by Andy Warhol’s films—including Kitchen, Eat, Sleep, and Screen Test—Gob Squad, a collective of UK and German artists who combine performance, theater, film, weird happenings, and real life, grab Warhol’s hand and travel back to the underground cinema scene of New York City in the 1960s. Although nothing much happens in the original films, they encapsulate the hedonistic experimental energy of the time. Too stoned to learn their lines, the actors—including Edie Sedgwick—hang around and improvise about nothing in particular. Gob Squad reconstructs the experimental films in a quest for the original, the authentic, the here and now, the real me, the real you, and the hidden depths beneath the shiny surfaces of modern life.
“An outstanding live video performance in the spirit and style of Andy Warhol”--Christiane Kühl, Zitty, Berlin
“A brilliant show, full of wit, life and humanity”—Der Standard, Vienna
Tickets: $25 reserved, $22 members and students
Friday and Saturday, May 11 and 12, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 13, 2 p.m.
red, black, GREEN: a blues (rbGb) - BOSTON PREMIERE
Written by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Set design by Theaster Gates
Designed to initiate a dialogue about environmental justice, social ecology, and collective responsibility in an era of climate change, this full-length, multimedia performance combines dance and imagery in a new mode of kinetic performance. rbGb reunites seven artists from the acclaimed work, the break/s: a mixtape for stage: writer/performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph; director Michael John Garcés; choreographer Stacey Printz; musician Tommy Shepherd; documentary filmmaker Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi; lighting designer James Clotfelter; and media designer David Szlasa. Joseph is joined on stage by dancer/actor Traci Tolmaire and vocalist/visual artist Theaster Gates, who also designed the malleable stage installation of repurposed building materials. Through poetry and performance highlighted by vivid films and vibrant murals, rbGb presents the idea that nurturing our lives and communities are the first steps in nurturing our planet.
“A piece as smart and provocative as it is breathtakingly beautiful.”—San Francisco Chronicle
The presentation of red, black, GREEN: a blues was made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project. Major support for NDP is also provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust.
Tickets: $25 reserved, $22 members and students
PERFORMANCE: MUSIC
New Music Now
New Music Now is a series of creative music concerts at the ICA/Boston presenting some of the world's most adventurous musicians and composers. Organized with renowned composer and saxophonist Ned Rothenberg, New Music Now showcases artists who challenge musical convention and genres.
Friday, Feb. 3, 7:30 p.m.
Georg Freidrich Haas: in vain - BOSTON PREMIERE
Featuring Sound Icon
Performed to great acclaim across Europe, Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas’s in vain is a shattering work featuring Sound Icon, a 24-member chamber orchestra led by conductor Jeffrey Means. The progressive performance unleashes a luminous sonic landscape of light and darkness, expanding the parameters of how listeners hear, see, and experience music, often while immersed in total darkness.
“Waves of opulently strange, beautiful sounds…a masterpiece”—The New York Times
Tickets: $18 reserved, $16 members and students
Friday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Either/Orchestra: The Collected Unconscious - BOSTON PREMIERE
New England’s premier jazz ensemble, the 10-piece Either/Orchestra returns with the Boston premiere of The Collected Unconscious, a new suite composed by founder Russ Gershon. Inspired by the band’s tour of Ethiopia, the music is broad in scope, recalling Ethiopian rhythms alongside the music of Ellington, Mingus, Tito Puente, Sun Ra, and others. Nostalgic, exciting, and challenging, the evening also includes a revival of music written by Nerses Nalbandian, an Armenian expatriate who shaped modern Ethiopian music from his position as music director of the Haile Selassie National Theater during the 1950s and ’60s.
Composition and presentation of The Collected Unconscious was made possible with support from Chamber Music America.
"One of the few bands around equally at home at the Vision Festival, the Roseland Ballroom, or CBGB."— The Wall Street Journal
Tickets: $18 reserved, $16 members and students
Friday, March 2, 7:30 p.m.
Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris: A Conduction® with New England Conservatory
Butch” Morris redefines the roles of composer, conductor, arranger, and performer and is recognized internationally as the principal theorist and practitioner in the evolution of Conduction®. In this structured yet free improvisation, Morris conducts an ensemble from the classical, jazz, and contemporary music departments at New England Conservatory, where he was recently in residence.
“All kinds of folks downtown are conducting improvisers these days, but Lawrence D. ‘Butch’ Morris is the orchestrator who gave the concept wings.—Time Out New York
Friday, April 6, Time TBD (please check www.icaboston.org for update)
Marc Ribot with special guests Mostly Other People Do the Killing
During the past 25 years, guitarist and composer Marc Ribot has released 19 albums under his own name, drawing influence from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban compositions of Arsenio Rodríguez. Rolling Stone notes, “Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985’s Rain Dogs, and since then he’s become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers.” He’s written songs for such talents as Elton John and Leon Russell; Medeski Martin & Wood; Marianne Faithful; Madeline Peyroux; Norah Jones; Jolie Holland; and The Black Keys among others, and works regularly with Grammy® award–winning producer T Bone Burnett and composer John Zorn.
Called “a jazz quartet with a diligent grasp of history, but an anarchic take on convention”(The New York Times), Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a New York City–based jazz quartet featuring highly acclaimed musicians Peter Evans on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on sax, Moppa Elliott on bass, and Kevin Shea on drums. A feverish set morphs from free improvisation to deconstructed standards to original compositions, paying homage to such jazz legends as Ornette Coleman and Charles Mingus, while offering a highly persuasive account of their vision of a revolutionary jazz future.
Tickets: $20 reserved, $18 members and students
FILM/VIDEO AT ICA/BOSTON
One of the finest film programs in Boston, the ICA celebrates the art of experimental, independent, and rarely seen films by both emerging and acclaimed national and international artists. Join us in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater this season for programs including early films by Isaac Julien, selections from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, International Experimental Cinema Exposition, as well the National Center for Jewish Film, Annual Boston LGBT Festival, and more.
Tickets: $10 general admission, $8 members and students, unless otherwise noted.
Sunday, Jan. 29
Isaac Julian Cinema
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves, this selection of Julien’s earlier films include 2001 Turner Prize–winners The Long Road to Mazatlán(1999) and Vagabondia (2000), as well as the acclaimed poetic documentary, Looking for Langston (1989). Julien’s films relate experiences of black and gay identity by uniting elements of visual and performing arts to create powerful visual narratives.
PROGRAM 1
Noon–1:30 p.m.
Baadasss Cinema (2002)
Baltimore (2003)
PROGRAM 2
2–3:30 p.m.
Looking for Langston (1989)
Derek (2008)
PROGRAM 3
4–5:30 p.m.
Vagabondia (2000)
The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999)
Paradise Omeros (2002)
True North (2004)
The Leopard (2007)
Single screenings: $10 general admission, $8 members
Two screenings: $15 general admission, $13 members
Three screenings: $20 general admission, $16 members
FILM FESTIVALS at ICA/Boston
The ICA is proud once again to host some of the most progressive film festivals from around the globe. For complete festival information and schedules, visit icaboston.org/film.
Friday and Saturday, Jan. 27 and 28, 7 p.m.
The Best of Ottawa International Animation Festival
The largest event of its kind in North America, the Ottawa International Animation Festival brings together a collection of audience favorites and award winners from the OIAF Official Competition. Film buffs, art lovers, and cartoon fans won’t want to miss this line up!
Sunday, April 1, 4 p.m.
The International Experimental Cinema Exposition (TIE)
This renowned festival presents innovative and poetic celluloid-based films by experimental artists from around the world. The screenings include works by New England filmmakers Jonathan Schwartz and Saul Levine, who join TIE curator Christopher May for a post-screening discussion.
Thursday, April 26, 7 p.m.
The National Center for Jewish Film
15th Annual Film Festival
Once again the ICA is delighted to present a Boston premiere from this storied festival. The National Center for Jewish Film helped launched the now de rigueur programming of Jewish film festivals and is responsible, in part, for the development of Jewish and ethnic film as a subject for academic study and public exhibition.
Sunday, April 29
The 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival
"At the forefront of experimental and avant-garde programming" (Florence Almozini, Director of Programming, BAM Cinématek, NYC), The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America. This season the ICA screens two short films from the Festival. Featuring international digital selections, including award winners in animation (Japan), technical innovation (New York), and experimental cinema (USA/Brazil), the selections also include notable works in 16mm from the US and Canada, boasting Jury and the Eileen Maitland awards. The Digital Program screens at 2 p.m. and the 16mm Program screens at 4 p.m.
Thursday, May 3, 7 p.m.
28th Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival
Opening Night
A new collaboration with the Boston LGBT Film Festival, the ICA is thrilled to host the largest festival of films by, and about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in New England.
Monday, Feb. 20, 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 23, 7 and 9 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25, 6 and 8 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 26, 1, 3 and 5 p.m.
Thursday, March 1, 7 and 9 p.m.
Sunday, March 11, 1, 3 and 5 p.m.
2012 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films
Join us for a selection of Oscar-worthy short films in animation, live action, and documentary.
TALKS
Tuesday, March 29, 6:30 p.m.
ICA/AIGA DESIGN SERIES
Josh Chen
Fingerprint: Design and the Handmade
Cut and paste; the once tedious task involving scissors and glue can now be accomplished with just a few computer strokes. Despite these advances in digital technology, however, many designers choose to incorporate handmade elements in their work. In his book, Fingerprint, renowned designer Josh Chen of Chen Design Associates, San Francisco, examines this trend and discusses how today’s leading designers incorporate handcrafted elements into their digital designs.
This program is made possible through the generosity of Vivien and Alan Hassenfeld.
Tickets: $15 reserved, $12 members and students
Thursday, March 22, Time TBD (please check www.icaboston.org for update)
Swoon in Conversation
This past fall the ICA unveiled Anthropocene Extinction, a site-specific installation by street and activist artist Swoon. Using intricate hand-cut paper creatures, a 40-foot hanging bamboo sculpture, and massive portrait of an Aboriginal nomad, she makes references to the current geological climate, as well as the ecological dangers facing our planet. Join Swoon for a conversation about her labor-intensive collage techniques as well as her tireless involvement in global humanitarian projects.
Tickets: $18 reserved, $15 members and students
Louis Vuitton is proud to support Anthropocene Extinction, a site-specific installation by Swoon. Additional support provided by Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté, Geoff Hargadon and Patricia La Valley, Tim Phillips, and Connie Coburn and James Houghton.