The Watermill Center and Métamatic Research Initiative are pleased to announce a one-night only concert by John Bock entitled Lecker Puste (Delicious Breath) on Saturday, March 10 at 6 p.m. at The Watermill Center.
In 2009, the Métamatic Research Initiative decided to host an open call for entries, in its quest to promote artistic research to the legacy of the artist Jean Tinguely. The result was an overwhelming response of 297 valid entries of which an internationally renowned jury selected eight artists. Berlin based Artist John Bock was amongst the eight selected artists with his proposal for a concert for voice, cello, land machine and objects, which he further developed during the course of 2011.
The concert will be recorded and the result of the recording will be included in the MRI collection, together with the used stage objects.
Jury report by Roland Wetzel, director of the Museum Tinguely, Basel: ‘John Bocks proposal addresses central issues of Tinguelys métamatics. It opens up a complex scenario through the setting of machine and man interaction with weird mechanisms of transmission to produce a surreal scenario of pathetic and intimate gestures in the “concert” he intends to produce. Sculptural power, multiple kinetical issues, references to art history (as for example an intimate theatre of “la mariée mise a nue…”) and acoustical paraphrases will result in a showdown of exuberant beauty and disturbia (we hope…). The strength of Bocks approach to Méta-Matic lies as well in its literal understanding and in its creative, perpetual and spectacular transformation.’
Cast
Cellist: Audrey Chen
Dancer: Colin Stilwell
Foley Artist: Leslie Bloome
About John Bock
John Bock’s work has been included in several collections such as MoMA, New York, MoCA, Los Angeles, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, TATE, London and Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. Recent solo presentations include exhibitions at Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany (both 2011); Centro de Arte Contempraneo de Malaga, Malaga, Spain, and Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (both 2010). Recent group shows include Surreal versus Surrealism in Contemporary Art, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern Valencia, Spain (2011); The Art Magazine Becomes Art, Louise Bain Foundation, London (2011); 6th Curitiba Biennale, Curitiba, Brazil (2011); Berlin 2000-2011: Playing Among the Ruins, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2011); Colección Art Foundation Mallorca 2011, CCA Andratx, Spain (2011); Adaption: Between Species, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2010); 17th Biennale of Sydney – The Beauty and the Distance, Sydney, Australia (2010).
About The Métamatic Research Initiative
The Métamatic Research Initiative is an initiative of the All Art Initiatives Foundation, based in Amsterdam. The foundation is a privately funded non-profit initiative set up to stimulate research into ideas stemming from the work and legacy of the Swiss-French artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991).
Jean Tinguely lived most of his artistic life in Paris, where he was one of the initiators of the Nouveau Réalisme movement in 1960. Tinguely was amongst the leading artists incorporating movement and other time-based elements in his work. Out of a fascination with Tinguely’s work the initiative wishes to stimulate research into the ways in which contemporary artists deal with his legacy. At the same time the Initiative strives to promote research that places Tinguely within his historical and the contemporary context. The goal is to produce a number of seminal works of art and groundbreaking academic research.
For more information visit www.metamaticresearch.info
This event is by invitation only. All attendees must have a reservation to attend.
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