twi-ny recommended events

SOCCER FEVER!

Diego Maradona is one of the many soccer legends examined in BAM series

BAMcinématek
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Wednesday, June 2, through Tuesday, June 8
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Do you have it yet? ’Cause we do. It’s called World Cup Fever, as the international community prepares for this year’s competition, with thirty-two teams battling it out to be the best June 11 through July 11 in South Africa. From June 2 to June 8, BAMcinématek will be presenting nine soccer-based films, ranging from SOCCER AS NEVER BEFORE, Hellmuth Costard’s 1971 examination of Manchester United legend George Best in one game against Coventry, to ZIDANE: A 21st CENTURY PORTRAIT, Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno’s seventeen-camera look at Zinédine Zidane (of head-butt fame) in a match between Real Madrid and Villareal. Other films follow a 2002 match contest Bhutan and Montserrat (THE OTHER FINAL), the 1966 finals (GOAL! WORLD CUP 1966), Argentine star Diego Maradona (MARADONA, THE GOLDEN KID), and preparations for the 2010 tourney (FAHRENHEIT 2010). And for some reason, BAM decided to include the silly Rodney Dangerfield comedy LAYDBUGS; what, they couldn’t get Khyentse Norbu’s THE CUP or even John Huston’s VICTORY, with Sylvester Stallone playing the goalkeeper?

PARIS SYNDROME

Japanese women go a little too crazy for Paris in new show at HERE Arts Center

HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave. by Spring St.
June 3-19
Tickets: $12 before June 3 for shows through June 12, $18 thereafter
212-647-0202
www.here.org
www.expgirl.net

Many people are deeply affected by trips to Paris, falling in love with the art, the food, the shopping, and other cultural aspects of the City of Light. But every year a small number of Japanese women are overcome by Paris syndrome, a psychiatric disorder, similar to Stendhal syndrome, in which the women suffer hallucinations as well as physical distress, triggered by unexpected events, and need to be repatriated to their home country. “An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures,” BBC News reported in December 2006. “But for the Japanese — used to a more polte and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger — the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.” Brooklyn-based dance theater company Ex.Pgirl examines the relatively new phenomenon in its latest work, PARIS SYNDROME, playing at HERE Arts Center June 3-19. Through dance, theater, film, music, video interviews, and even a little vaudeville, the multimedia production, directed by Emma Griffin, follows six women who journey to Paris and are soon battling the syndrome. Ex.Pgirl was founded in 2002 by Bertie Ferdman and Suzi Takahashi with the express purpose of using experimental theater by women to address issues of culture and identity; the cast of PARIS SYNDROME includes Ferdman, Takahashi, Elsa Carette, Valerie Issembert, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, and Soomi Kim, with original music by LaBulo, lighting by Lucrecia Briceno, and sets by Peter Ksander.

SOCIAL DECEPTIONS, WRY PERCEPTIONS: THE FILMS OF AGNÈS JAOUI

The career of LOOK AT ME writer, director, and star Agnès Jouai (right) will be celebrated at Lincoln Center this week

LOOK AT ME (COMME UN IMAGE) (Agnès Jaoui, 2004)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, June 1, 2:00; Wednesday, June 2, 8:45; Thursday, June 3, 4:15
Series runs June 1-3
212-875-6500
www.filmlinc.com
www.sonyclassics.com/lookatme

Agnès Jaoui directed, cowrote, and stars in this fabulously French film about literature, music, love, and loyalty. Lolita (newcomer Marilou Berry) is an overweight young woman with dreams of becoming an opera singer. However, people seem to take an interest in her only when they learn that her father, mean-spirited Etienne (cowriter Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jaoui’s partner), is a famous novelist and publisher. Indeed, that is the case when her vocal coach, Sylvia (Jaoui), finally agrees to help Lolita’s singing group prepare for a special performance. Meanwhile, Etienne takes Sylvia’s husband, struggling novelist Pierre (Laurent Grevill), under his wing, even as he ignores his daughter’s calls for love. Berry is simply marvelous in her first major role, utterly charming and heartbreaking as she reaches out to her father, puts her faith in the wrong relationship, and battles to express herself in a smothering world of hangers-on, wanna-bes, and, if she looks hard enough, true love. There’s a reason this film was chosen to open the 2004 New York Film Festival. Don’t miss it.

LOOK AT ME is part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s series “Social Deceptions, Wry Perceptions: The Films of Agnès Jaoui,” which also includes a sneak preview of Jaoui’s latest work, LET IT RAIN, on June 1 at 6:15, with Jaoui present. The short series features three films by other directors in which Jaoui stars: François Favrat’s 2004 film THE ROLE OF HER LIFE (June 1, 4:10), Alain Resnais’s 1997 tribute to Dennis Potter, SAME OLD SONG, cowritten by Jaoui and Bacri (June 1, 9:00, and June 2, 2:00), and Cédric Klapisch’s 1996 drama, FAMILY RESEMBLANCES (June 2, 4:15), in addition to Jaoui’s 2000 directorial debut, THE TASTE OF OTHERS (June 2, 6:30, and June 3, 2:00). Jaoui is a tremendous talent who should be much more well known in America, not just the darling of cineastes and critics.

DONNA UCHIZONO COMPANY: longing two

Donna Uchizono’s latest goes on the road in the city (photo by Melinda MX Lee)

Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th St., 7:00
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St., 8:15
Tuesday, June 1, through Saturday, June 5 (June 3 performance reviewed below)
Tickets: $20
212-868-4444
www.donnauchizono.org
www.thekitchen.org
www.bacnyc.org

New York City-based dancer/choreographer Donna Uchizono is trying something rather different for her newest evening-length work: The first half will be staged at the Baryshnikov Arts Center on West 37th St., with the second half being held at the Kitchen in Chelsea. Examining “proximity, perception, destination, and arrival,” the two-part piece will feature Uchizono, Hristoula Harakas, Anna Carapetyan, and Savina Theodorou, with original music by James Lo, costumes by Wendy Winters, lighting by Joe Levasseur, and set design by Ronnie Gensler and Orlando Soria. It’s been nearly three years since Uchizono, who is currently celebrating the twentieth anniversary of her company, has presented a new piece in New York, the world premiere of THIN AIR at Dance Theater Workshop in October 2007, so we’re extremely excited about longing two. Oh, and don’t worry about getting from one place to another; a bus will take all ticket holders from BAC to the Kitchen.

Donna Uchizono and Hristoula Harakas move to the Kitchen for second part of unique evening-length piece

Update: The show begins at BAC, where the audience is seated in two rows of folding chairs on either side of a fashion-runway-like setup bordered by two three-foot-high horizontal paper sheets. The two younger dancers, Anna Carapetyan and Savina Theodorou, wearing tight-fitting white costumes, move quickly up and down the runway, stopping to make eye contact with audience members, whispering lines from Neil Young’s “When You Dance,” and making swimlike movements to sounds of waves crashing on the shore. Meanwhile, Donna Uchizono and longtime collaborator Hristoula Harakas, standing side by side but facing opposite directions in looser, move flowing outfits, creep forward, almost imperceptibly slowly, down the middle of the runway. Only the top parts of the dancers are visible, the lower halves cut off by the paper border. Following a beautiful short section in which Carapetyan and Theodorou navigate the runway on their hands, only their legs showing, the audience is taken on a bus – with a little bonus to heighten their thirst – to the Kitchen, where everything is more wide open, a paper sheet strewn across the back and sides of the stage, enveloping the dancers along with the crowd. While Uchizono moves on the floor, using her feet and toes like hands and fingers, Harakas does mind-boggling leg lifts, turns, and twists while standing on the other leg. Like the first part at BAC, the pairs only come together near the end, needing one another to go on. Uchizono’s longing two is a fascinating work, incorporating Butoh-like precision, experimental noise, bright fluorescent white lights, and even a little synchronized swimming to examine relationships and distance, both human and environmental. And it is a thrill to see Uchizono onstage again, convinced by Harakas to perform for the first time in ten years to help celebrate the company’s twentieth anniversary.

PARKED

The Rickshaw Dumpling truck will be among several mobile food vendors at BKLYN Yard on Memorial Day (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

BKLYN Yard
388-400 Carroll St.
Monday, May 31, 12 noon – 7:00 pm
Admission: free
www.bklynyard.com

Although we love all the food trucks that are taking over the city offering all kinds of edible delights, we never can remember where any of them are, especially the ones that move around day to day or week to week. Well, at least for today, BKLYN Yard has done us a favor by bringing a bunch of them together as the cool outdoor event space continues its summer-season opening-weekend celebration with “Parked.” From 12 noon till 7:00 pm, nine trucks will be serving their wares, so you can arrange your own menu, beginning with chicken and Thai basil or vegetarian edamame dumplings from Rickshaw Dumplings, followed by knockwurst, kielbasa, or bauernwurst from Hallo Berlin, swallowing it down with a cantelope creamcicle (sic) or hot pink limeade from the Green Pirate. After a very short break, continue with an artichoke pie from Pizza Moto and a Taiwanese-style fried pork chop or Chinese tamale from Cravings NYC, and then it’s on to dessert: perhaps giandujia or red currant ice cream from Van Leeuwen Artisan, a key lime tart or pie from Steve’s Authentic, a chicken n’ waffle cupcake or car bomb (made with Guinness, Jameson’s, and Bailey’s!) from Robicelli’s Cupcakes, or maybe vanilla crème brulee or warm chocolate bread pudding from the former Le Cirque peeps who operate DessertTruck. In addition, there will be a Greenpoint food market. Admission to the Yard is free, but you’re on your own at each truck.

CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI: NO MAN’S LAND

Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” will be open on Memorial Day (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 13, 12 noon – 7:30 (Thursday 2:00 – 9:30) (open Memorial Day)
DAWN: June 2 at 6:00, June 3 at 7:30 (advance registration required)
Admission: $12 (children under twelve free)
347-463-5143
www.armoryonpark.org
www.mariangoodman.com
installation slideshow

French conceptual artist Christian Boltanski has filled the Park Ave. Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall with thirty tons of clothing, laying them out in rectangular piles that evoke such tragedies as the Holocaust, the earthquake in Haiti, and the Katrina disaster, each shirt, jacket, dress, and pair of pants representing an anonymous person who might or might not be alive. The hooded sweatshirts are particularly eerie, especially when turned upside down. The rows and rows of clothing recall scenes from Alain Resnais’s Auschwitz-set NIGHT AND FOG documentary as well as news shots of people seeking refuge in the Superdome after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. In the center of the fifty-five-thousand-square-foot space, a sixty-foot-high crane scoops up and then drops individual items on top of a large mountain of clothing, like the children’s carnival game in which kids use a claw to pick up a toy, except in this case the crane is like the hand of God, deciding who will live and who will die. That feeling is amplified because of the location of the installation itself, in a military armory with walls containing plaques dedicated to men and women who died in the service of their country. Visitors can both wander through the rows to get a more personal view and also climb the stairs to see the massive piece as a whole, offering a different perspective.

Boltanski’s multifaceted, multimedia installation will feature special performances June 2-3 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

When people first walk into the drill hall, they are met by a long, rusted, monolithic file cabinet with numbers on small drawers, a card catalog of the dead similar to Boltanski’s “The Reserve of Dead Swiss,” except in the latter he collected photographs of the dead instead of the random, out-of-sequence numbers displayed here. As Boltanski, who was born at the end of the Nazi occupation of France, notes in one of the display’s accompanying hand-outs, “The question is about destiny — why one person and not another?” But it’s not all about death; “No Man’s Land” also includes the sound of an enormous heartbeat echoing through the cavernous space, demonstrating that life goes on. Boltanski has been collecting heartbeats for years, creating Les Archives du Coeur, which he plans to maintain on Japan’s isolated Teshima Island; visitors to “No Man’s Land” can add the sound of their own heartbeat in a temporary “doctor’s office” in the outer hallway. It takes only a few minutes, and for $3 you can bring home a CD of your heartbeat. In another room, Heinz Peter Schwerfel’s documentary LES VIES POSSIBLES DE CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI gives great insight into the life and career of the enigmatic artist. And the gift shop is called “The Book as Witness,” offering rare copies of Boltanski’s artist books, going back to the early 1970s. Although the installation is usually closed on Mondays, it will be open on Memorial Day, a fitting way to honor the holiday. In addition, composer Franck Krawczyk’s DAWN will take place June 2-3 within “No Man’s Land,” performed by the Argento Chamber Ensemble conducted by Michel Galante; there will be a public rehearsal on June 2 at 6:00, followed by the premiere on June 3 at 7:30. Although the special musical event is free with general admission, advance registration is required.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

Visitors are encouraged to make themselves at home at Chelsea exhibit (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

7Eleven Gallery
169 Tenth Ave. at 20th St.
Through Sunday, June 6 (closed Monday)
Admission: free
www.7elevengallery.com
exhibition slideshow

Back in 2008, Friends Seminary graduates Sabrina Blaichman, Caroline Copley, and Genevieve Hudson-Price opened 7Eleven Gallery, so named not only because it was located at 711 Washington St. but because of the low-rent convenience store its name evokes. The three friends have since curated several shows at other temporary spaces, the latest being “Make Yourself at Home,” a charming and fun exhibit that has taken over a Chelsea garage on Tenth Ave. While much of New York has left town this Memorial Day weekend, art lovers can have a field day at the show, walking from room to room, taking seats in specially designed chairs and couches, turning on unusual radios and tape players, and relaxing in a small garden. In the bedroom, David Deutsch has installed a different kind of water bed, alongside a Scott Burton table, a Scott Healy mirror, and a Tom Sachs turtle lamp. In the bathroom, someone appears to be using Steven Spretnjak’s shower installation. The office is decorated with five mixed-media pieces by Joe Gaffney, a desk by Dustin Yellin, an unusual pair of shelves by Casey Neistat, and a light-projection drawing by Zilla Leutenegger that shows a woman hard at work. In the living room, visitors can lie down on Kwangho Lee’s knit rubber cord couch while watching Michael Smith’s short video or listening to Thomas Beale’s rather unique stereo cabinet. Other highlights include the maids quarters, a pantry with Johanna Landsheidt’s lovely “Hausfrau” C-print, a kids room designed by Carlton DeWoody, a music room featuring strange instruments by Shelby Gaines, a garden where Alex Rickard’s “Four Header Picknicker” keeps muttering to himself, dining room tables by Mary Heilmann and Richard Tuttle, fly and helicopter wallpaper by Francesco Simeti and Rob Wynne, respectively, a light sphere by Leo Villareal, glassed-in fairy-tale fantasies by Meghan Boody (who also made the awesome table of photographs behind tiny doors), and Max Lamb’s tall, black “Shelter,” which you can climb up inside for a different kind of view of the exhibition. (Be sure to lean against the back as you negotiate the somewhat treacherous footholds.) There is also home work by Chris Beeston, Nick Doyle, William Stone, R. M. Fischer, Steve Keister, and many other artists. For those New Yorkers who find themselves at home this week, checking out “Make Yourself at Home” is a great way to take a break, at least for a few hours. The exhibit ends Sunday, June 6, with an all-day party featuring live music by Gaines; visitors are strongly encouraged to bring some beer and have a blast at this home away from home.