Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya return for third commission by New York Restoration Project
Company:
XIMENA GARNICA and SHIGE MORIYA
XIMENA GARNICA AND SHIGE MORIYA EXPLORE EXILE AND TENSION
FOR NEW COMMISSION BY NEW YORK RESTORATION PROJECT
QUALIA - UMBEL (INSTALLATION):
AUGUST 29-SEPTEMBER 18
IN ILLO TEMPORE VIGNETTES (PERFORMANCE): SEPTEMBER 8, 10, 17 // 7:30pm
HECKSCHER FOUNDATION CHILDREN’S GARDEN
134-136 SCHOLES STREET
FREE
Brooklyn-based artists Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya are commissioned for the third year in a row by The New York Restoration Project, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Bronx Museum of Arts to create a month-long installation and three performances with the LEIMAY Ensemble and local community artists. Composer Jeremy Slater will return to create an original score for the performance.
In Illo Tempore Vignettes is a performance of bodies suspended in time, revealing the echoes of memory, alienation, and exile. The performers parade through relentless streams of invisible stimuli in a voyage between presence and absence. The piece addresses the innumerable stories of the exiled, the ones that are visible and the ones that take place in a vacuum.
Qualia - Umbel is an installation by New York based multidisciplinary artists Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya. Qualia - Umbel is part of the artist’s Qualia Series.
Qualia Series alters pre-existing spaces, structures or objects, primarily using dozens of white masonry strings to reveal the observer, the observed and the process of observation. This practice invites the viewer to reconsider their seemingly ordinary surroundings and listen to a realm of perception that is unquantifiable, internal, and subjective.
In Qualia - Umbel, dozens of strings spread from a common center creating a blooming tension shooting across the garden grounds.
This partnership marks the third time that The New York Restoration Project has commissioned Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya to create new public artworks in their gardens. The first commission, in 2014, took place at Gil Hodges Memorial Garden in Gowanus, and featured a month-long installation and two performances. The following year, NYRP again commissioned Garnica and Moriya to make a month-long installation and two performances. Both years saw the gardens overflowing with audience members for the performances, and a strong community appreciation for the free, public art works presented in the garden.
LEIMAY develops its partnership with New York Restoration Project as an exercise in creating work with the community for the community. Every year, LEIMAY hosts weekly donation-based community classes at its Williamsburg studio. The classes are created for all skill levels, and are meant to provide an entry point into Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya’s artistic practice through exercises exploring the body’s weight and relationship to gravity, internal rhythm and fluidity, and utilizing imagination and imagery to enlarge states of perception. Students from LEIMAY’s community class and local performers engage in a short-term creative process for the new public performance. They are joined by the LEIMAY Ensemble to form a diverse 20-performer group.
In its 20th Anniversary Year, New York Restoration Project (NYRP) is kicking off another season of free programming to 27 green spaces across the five boroughs. For the third year, NYRP is continuing to partner with Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and The Bronx Museum of the Arts to present a season of free arts programming in six NYRP community gardens including the Bed-Stuy, Gowanus, Williamsburg, Longwood, and Highbridge neighborhoods.
The collaboration between New York Restoration Project and LEIMAY demonstrates a sustainable partnership model that presents local communities with opportunities to enjoy free, dynamic programming on their block or in their neighborhoods. The robust program also encourages people to engage more actively with their local environment. NYRP’s network of 52 community gardens and two Northern Manhattan parks are places where individuals can interact with nature and build community within a socio-economically diverse environment. By turning these outdoor public spaces into interactive event venues, the program will increase awareness of green spaces as resources for local communities as well as the wider NYC audience.
LEIMAY In "Illo Tempore Vignettes," 2015. Photo by Shige Moriya.
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