this week in art

THE HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS BEHIND WALKERS: BE KIND REWIND

Mos Def and Jack Black have a wacky plan to save their video store in BE KIND REWIND

BE KIND REWIND (Michel Gondry, 2008)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, November 8, 4:30
Series runs through November 8 – December 27
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

When old man Fletcher (Danny Glover) takes off for a week, leaving Mike (Mos Def) in charge of his soon-to-be-demolished video store called Be Kind Rewind (they don’t have any DVDs or recent movies), his most important rule is to “Keep Jerry Out.” Jerry (Jack Black) is a crazy conspiracy theorist who covers himself in metal to ward off alien rays. After a botched attack on the local power plant, Jerry becomes a walking magnet (in a laugh-out-loud hysterical scene) and unknowingly erases all the videos in the store. Taking a page from the Little Rascals plots when Spanky and Alfalfa would suddenly put on a show for some local cause, Mike and Jerry recruit Alma (Melonie Diaz) as they proceed on their very strange attempts at Sweding — making their own versions of such films as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, and Robocop and renting them out as if they were the real thing. Following the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the extremely strange The Science of Sleep, writer-director Michel Gondry has fashioned a really stupid movie that has an overabundance of heart and charm. Glover and Mos Def are soft and gentle in this Capra-esque comedy, offsetting Black’s hyperactivity. Every time you’re ready to write the film off as being just too silly and ridiculous, something comes along to make you double over in laughter. Be Kind Rewind kicks off the Museum of the Moving Image series “Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact,” being held in conjunction with the new exhibition that examines how contemporary artists have used iconic Hollywood imagery in their work, with sculptures, photographs, paintings, videos, drawings, and more by Francis Alÿs, Richard Avedon, Jim Campbell, Gregory Crewdson, Jean-Luc Godard, Douglas Gordon, Isaac Julien, Martin Kippenberger, Guy Maddin, Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Prince, Tom Sachs, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Piotr Uklanski, Pierre Bismuth, and many others. Be Kind Rewind is screening November 8 at 7:00, preceded by Oscar winner Bismuth’s Where Is Rocky II? trailer. Bismuth will introduce the films, then participate in an artist talk with curator Robert M. Rubin afterward. After a break, the series picks up after Thanksgiving, continuing through December 27 with such iconic and influential classics as Dr. Strangelove, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, Chinatown, Psycho, and The Wild Bunch as well as several cult faves by Maddin, who will be on hand to talk about his latest, The Forbidden Room, on December 12.

FIRST SATURDAY — CONNECTING CULTURES: A WORLD IN BROOKLYN

Details of four works in the “Connecting Cultures” installation, from top: “Girl in a Japanese Costume,” circa 1890, William Merritt Chase; “Seated Shakyamuni Buddha,” late 19th–early 20th century; “Warrior Figure,” Huastec, 13th or 14th century; “Mask (Ges),” 19th century

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, November 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is making its long-term installation, “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” the focus of its November free First Saturday program. There will be live performances by Ilusha Tsinadze, Lafawndah, and OSHUN, an artist talk and performance by calligraphy master Wang Dongling, a calligraphy workshop with Society of Scribes, a movement workshop with Afro Flow Yoga, a music workshop with Afrika Meets India, a book club discussion with Patricia Park about her novel Re Jane, Belladonna* poetry readings by R. Erica Doyle, Kyoo Lee, and Nathanaël Stephens, a curator talk with Kevin Stayton, an interactive reading by Selina Alko of B Is for Brooklyn for kids, pop-up gallery talks, an art workshop inspired by Syrian mosaics, and Brooklyn Film Festival screenings of Girls Gone J-1 (Mikhail Shraga & Alina Smirnova, 2014), Green Card (Pilar Rico & David Whitmer, 2014), and Born into This (Lea Scruggs & Sean Ryon, 2014). In addition, the galleries are open late so you can check out such other exhibitions as “Impressionism and the Caribbean: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World,” “Kara Walker: ‘African Boy Attendant Curio (Bananas),’” “KAWS: ALONG THE WAY,” “Ai Weiwei: LEGO Collection Point,” and “Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence.”

ERNESTO PUJOL: 9 – 5

Eleven performers dressed in white take notes on passersby in Ernesto Pujol’s “9 – 5” at Brookfield Place (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brookfield Place
230 Vesey St.
October 26-28, free, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
brookfieldplaceny.com
9-5 slideshow

Social choreographer Ernesto Pujol takes the concept of the open office plan to a whole new level with 9 – 5, a site-specific durational performance running October 26 to 28 just inside the fifty-five-foot-tall front windows of the Pavilion at Brookfield Place. The Havana-born, New York–based Pujol has situated eleven performers, all dressed in white, at small desks, where they take notes, silently and calmly reflecting on what they observe as some thirty-five thousand people swirl about, on their way to Le District, Hudson Eats, the Winter Garden, the subway, or back to their own desks in their own offices. Meanwhile, outside and behind the eleven people, West St. is a whirlwind of activity, with massive construction, speeding cars, and the building of the new World Trade Center train station. There is a heavenly, meditative feeling in the air around the performers (Dillon de Give, Kate Harding, Young Sun Han, Sara Jimenez, Bess Matassa, James Rich, Valarie Samulski, Catilin Turski, Michael Watson, Joy Whalen, and Jayoung Yoon), almost as if they are guardian angels watching out for us as they jot things down in their notebooks; then again, they could also be spying on us in a very public form of surveillance. But mostly, Pujol is trying to get all of us — commuters, tourists, office workers, shoppers, passersby, etc. — to just slow down: “Close your eyes / Take a deep breath / Open your eyes and look around / (Repeat this if necessary) / Take a deep breath with eyes wide open / Begin to see.”

Ernesto Pujol’s “9 – 5” continues at the Brookfield Place Pavilion through October 28 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

There’s a Zen-like philosophy to what Pujol does, particularly as he examines the monotony of the 9 – 5 world. On his website, he explains, “I perform as a form of ephemeral, collective, and psychic portraiture. My public, durational, group performances seek to reveal the unseen, the intangible, the invisible, and the lost. It is performance practice as a form of perception, reclamation, and mourning. To memorialize and to mourn may result in transformative experiences, in steps toward forgiveness, reparation, and healing.” A collaboration with Brookfield Place and More Art, 9 – 5 is that much more powerful with the Freedom Tower standing outside, reminding viewers of the invisible and the lost, of what isn’t there — and what has arisen in its place, phoenix-like. Pujol, who has previously staged such works as Speaking in Silence in Hawaii in 2011, Farmers Dream in Kansas in 2010, and Baptizing a Garden in South Carolina in 2008, will be leading a free workshop, “Embodied Meditation,” on November 2 & 4 at 12:30 with body practice teacher Samulski and will deliver a free lecture, “The Art of Mindful Presence,” on November 4 at 6:30; advance RSVPs are required.

STEPHEN PETRONIO: LUMINOUS MISCHIEF

Spoken-word performances will take place under Teresita Fernández’s “Fata Morgana” installation in Madison Square Park on September 17 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Stephen Petronio will be staging free-form, improvised, and participatory music and dance event under Teresita Fernández’s “Fata Morgana” installation in Madison Square Park on October 30 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Stephen Petronio Company
What: “Luminous Mischief” under Teresita Fernández’s “Fata Morgana”
Where: Madison Square Park, 23rd to 26th Sts. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
When: Friday, October 30, free, 6:00
Why: “Let’s cause some mischief,” New York City–based dancer and choreographer Stephen Petronio declares about his one-time-only site-specific piece “Luminous Mischief,” taking place under Teresita Fernández’s “Fata Morgana” installation in Madison Square Park on October 30. The participatory dance and music event will feature nine members of Petronio’s company, along with a brass band led by clarinetist Mike McGinnis, who is inviting horn players to sign up in advance and join in the fun. The dancers and musicians will be interacting with the five-hundred-foot-long sculpture — a series of canopies of mirror-polished discs with small sections cut out of them resembling clouds or leaves — as well as passersby, so anything can happen, as this is a free-form, improvised party. Of course, that is always the case with Petronio, who staged his own New Orleans–style funeral at the Joyce in 2013 and walked down the old Whitney Museum building in homage to Trisha Brown in 2010.

PHOTOGRAPH: RINGO STARR AT THE STRAND

Who: Ringo Starr and Steven Van Zandt
What: Illustrated discussion celebrating recent release of Ringo Starr’s memoirs, Photograph (Genesis, September 21, $50)
Where: The Strand, 828 Broadway at Twelfth St., 212-473-1452
When: Monday, October 26, free with advance purchase of Photograph, 2:00
Why: On his 1973 solo album, Down and Out, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr sang, “Every time I see your face / It reminds me of the places we used to go / But all I’ve got is a photograph / And I realize you’re not coming back anymore.” Forty-two years later, he has published his memoirs in a book filled with stories and photographs from throughout his childhood and music career. On October 26, he will be at the Strand to talk about the book and his life, in conversation with Steven Van Zandt. The event is limited to the first two hundred people who have purchased the book from the Strand in advance; although Ringo will not be signing the books, each one comes with a limited edition bookplate with a reproduction of his signature. “These are shots that no one else could have. I just had the camera with me a lot of the time,” Ringo says about the photos in the book. “There’s a lot of shots of ‘the boys’ that only I could have taken. Together they chart the story of four lads from Liverpool trying to live normal lives amidst the frenzy that surrounded them.” Ringo will be back in town on October 31 with his All Starr Band for a Halloween show at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn that concludes their month-long North American Tour in conjunction with Ringo’s latest album, Postcards from Paradise.

PERFORMA 15

(photo by Alan Prada / courtesy of LUomo Vogue)

Francesco Vezzoli and David Hallberg’s FORTUNA DESPERATA kicks off tenth anniversary of biannual Performa arts festival (photo by Alan Prada / courtesy of L’Uomo Vogue)

Multiple venues
November 1-22, free – $500
15.performa-arts.org

Performa is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its biennial with another diverse lineup of live, cutting-edge performances, taking place at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The festivities begin November 1 with a special opening-night benefit gala presentation ($250-$500) of Francesco Vezzoli and David Hallberg’s Renaissance-inspired Performa commission, Fortuna Desperata, at St. Bart’s and conclude November 22 with a Grand Finale party ($45) at Hôtel Americano, with the awarding of the Malcolm McLaren prize, which has previously gone to Ragnar Kjartansson and Ryan McNamara. One of the key participants this year is dancer and choreographer Jérôme Bel, whose Ballet (New York) ($15-$25) will be at the Marian Goodman Gallery November 6-7, the Martha Graham Studio Theater November 14-15, and El Museo del Barrio November 19; Bel will also teach a free Artist Class on November 5 at the Performa Hub at 47 Walker St. and will sit down for the free conversation “Don’t Just Sit There; Talking About Dance” with Performa head RoseLee Goldberg and the great Yvonne Rainer at Albertine on November 8. Meanwhile, from November 1 to November 18, Ryan Gander’s Ernest Hawker will feature an actor portraying the British artist’s future self at various Performa events; he will also give a free Artist Talk at the Performa Hub on November 2 at 3:00 with curator Mark Beasley. Below are ten other highlights of this always fascinating festival.

Friday, November 6
and
Saturday, November 7
Volmir Cordeiro: Inês, Danspace Project, $15-$20, 9:00

Saturday, November 7
Simon Fujiwara and Christodoulos Panayiotou: Lafayette Anticipation Session, featuring welcome speeches, screening of Fujiwara’s New Pompidou followed by a discussion with Fujiwara and Stuart Comer, and Panayiotou’s lecture-performance Dying on Stage with Jean Capeille, Performa Hub, free, 3:00 – 7:00

Opening of My Silent One (In the Sweetness of Time), live exhibition environment by Doveman and Tom Kalin, Participant Inc., free, 6:00 pm – 12 midnight

Saturday, November 7
and
Sunday, November 8
Arnold Schönberg’s Erwartung — A Performance by Robin Rhode, Times Square between Forty-Second & Forty-Third Sts., free, 4:30

Thursday, November 12
and
Friday, November 13
Erika Vogt: Artist Theater Program, live exhibition with collaborators Math Bass, Shannon Ebner, and Adam Putnam, Roulette, $20-$25, 9:00

Claudia de Serpa Soares, Jim White, and Eve Sussman join together for MORE UP A TREE at BAM (photo by Eve Sussman)

Friday, November 13
through
Sunday, November 15
Jesper Just: Untitled multimedia performance installation in collaboration with FOS, venue and price to be announced, 5:30

Monday, November 16
through
Sunday, November 22
Oscar Murillo: Lucky dip, live work about production, protest, and displacement, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm

Thursday, November 19
“Unorthodox: On Art II,” with Austė, Brian Belott, Meriem Bennani, Brian DeGraw, Tommy Hartung, Nick Payne, Jeni Spota, Jamian Juliano Villani, and others, the Jewish Museum, free with pay-what-you-wish admission, 6:00

Thursday, November 19
through
Saturday, November 21
More up a Tree, by Claudia de Serpa Soares, Eve Sussman, and Jim White, BAM Next Wave Festival, BAM Fisher Fishman Space, $25, 7:30

Saturday, November 21
Ilija Šoškić: Maximum Energy — Minimum Time, re-creation of past works in commemoration of the suicide of Russian Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, WhiteBox, free, 6:00

TERESA DIEHL: BREATHING WATERS

Site-specific installation immerses visitors in a fantasy world of water (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

NO LONGER EMPTY
117 Beekman Pl.
Daily through October 25, free, 12 noon – 7:00 pm
Free performance October 25, 4:00 – 6:00
www.nolongerempty.org
breathing waters slideshow

Miami-based artist Teresa Diehl emphasizes humanity’s intrinsic relationship with water in her immersive installation “Breathing Waters.” Diehl, who was born in Lebanon and raised in Venezuela, incorporates sound and video into a mazelike path of walls and hanging screens made of monofilament onto which drops of resin have been added, resembling dripping water or even tears. Diehl quotes from “The Paradox of the Nature of Water” in the Tao Te Ching, evoking awe at the power of water: “Nothing is weaker than water / But when it attacks something hard / Or resistant, then nothing withstands it, / And nothing will alter its way.” As you wind through the room, motion sensors trigger sound effects that add to the playful magic and mystery of it all, and the site-specific work directly references the South Street Seaport area, where the Hudson and East Rivers come together. Diehl, whose “L-Aber-Into” was part of No Longer Empty’s “When You Cut into the Present the Future Leaks Out” group show at the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse this past spring, also references a quote from Ishmael in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: “Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries — stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.” Make sure that the door in the back is closed so you get the full meditative effect of “Breathing Waters,” which Diehl sees as a healing refuge, especially in the crowded, fast-paced Seaport District. On October 25 at 4:00, closing day, members of Areytos Performance Works will dance through the “Breathing Waters” labyrinth, inspired by Yemayá, the orisha of motherhood and the queen of the sea.