PS21’s 2020 Summer Season
Despite the COVID pandemic, our 2020 season was an unalloyed success: forty-two programs of music, movement, multimedia, film, visual art, and discussion from July through October, held in the Pavilion Theater, in our fields, and along the trails. Forty of these programs were livestreamed more than 9,000 times.
D-CELL
An exhibition and durational performance in two parts, conceived and directed by multi-disciplinary visual artist David Michalek, D-CELL presented an encounter with deceleration in both dance and visual art. The project, a hybrid between an exhibition and a performance, was comprised of two distinct but related works:
SlowDancingLive1
Utilizing PS21’s architecture, grounds, and trails as media canvas, dancers from BodySonnet, Peridance, and Gallim performed decelerated sequences on sand-covered raised platforms stationed throughout the landscape. Live music by the Neave Trio accompanied the movement with works by Morton Feldman, whose compositions “seldom rise above a whisper . . . glacially slow and snowily soft” (Alex Ross, the New Yorker).
Portraits in Dramatic Time
The video installation, commissioned by Lincoln Center Festival and the Lincoln Center Public Art Fund, utilized ultra-high-speed cameras to record scenes with well-known theater and film performers which, when played back, unfold at a glacial pace, thereby creating new layers of scenic content and meaning. Portraits in Dramatic Time featured leading actors including Lili Taylor, William H. Macy, Patti LuPone, Holly Hunter, Alan Rickman, Ludivigne Sagnier, and Liev Schreiber.
David Michalek
Michalek’s body of work ranges from photography, drawing, sculpture, video/sound installations and live performance to site-specific works of public art. Much of his work in video has been focused on capturing marginal moments carefully staged that with minimal action develop density through the interplay of image, sound and most especially, decelerated time. Exploring notions of durational and rhythmic time, his works considers the potentiality of various forms of slowness alongside an examination of contemporary modes of public attention.
Read MoreESSENTIAL CINEMA
Firefighter’s Select
In recognition of the contributions and sacrifices of first responders, PS21 has invited members of the local fire companies and other first responders to select films for our “Firefighters Select” film series, which will open on July 16 with Catnip Nation, a documentary about stray cats (selected by Chatham Rescue Squad), and culminate in a screening of Miloš Forman’s classic The Firemen’s Ball.
Artist’s Select
Cinematic works chosen by a variety of notable artists of various disciplines living and working in the Hudson Valley, illustrating how cinema has inspired their work. Participating Artists: Joan Juliet Buck, Francine Prose, Ian Buruma, Nicole Ansari, Winsome Brown, and Brian Cox.
Read MoreJOHN LUTHER ADAMS’S TEN THOUSAND BIRDS
The highlight of PS21’s summer season was the New York State premiere of Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams’ Ten Thousand Birds, performed by the acclaimed Alarm Will Sound ensemble at PS21. Drawing inspiration from birdsong, the piece explored the connection between nature and music, with PS21’s landscape and vibrant nature acting as the sounding board.
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Left to right: Dancers during the performance of SlowDancingLive1; a musician nestled PS21’s landscape during the performance of Ten Thousand Birds; Socially distanced audiences at the performance of Ten Thousands Birds.
