ENTER 25.5

Video Enter: https://youtu.be/ia-8XRkOcjk

Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jk4uzkp0a5pf3xl/AACy23qg-ddVdtSZRfHOg4Xra?dl=0

New works by: Madeline Best & Brian Rogers, Tei Blow, keyon gaskin, Dynasty Handbag, Annie-B Parson

ENTER: The entire house turns into a stage. Reflecting on the present day, this moment in time and the current situation, the Onassis Foundation continues to share and create without contact but with the same love for culture and its people, the artists and their audiences. Onassis Stegi, Athens, and Onassis USA have commissioned new works by artists across the world, created in 120 hours during the quarantine period. Without having any access to theatre stages, rehearsal rooms or studios, the artists create everything on their own; their laptops are turned into a superpower. From our homes we press ENTER to view new works, new artistic forms, which aim to constitute a kind of artistic digital time-capsule; a ray of hope for the artistic world which has been hit hard, yet another proof that we are not alone.

The Chocolate Factory Theater, a strong voice in New York City supporting awareness of the power of the arts, has been assigned by the Onassis Foundation to curate this week’s works. The works will be available from Monday, 25 May, at onassis.org. Lighting designer and director of production of The Chocolate Factory Theater, Madeline Best, along with director, film maker, and artistic director of The Chocolate Factory Theater, Brian Rogers, explore how the end of the world can be so boring in “4 Fixations”. In “Essays in Idleness”, performer and designer Tei Blow revisits the work “Essays in Idleness” by Yoshida Kenkô, immersing us into the world of the Zen monk and poet, while his house transforms into a scenic space. keyon gaskin’s “How to Get Away With Westworld” comments on the way we can deal with the Western world. Performer, video artist, and actress Dynasty Handbag gets ready for an invisible destruction in “Untitled Emergency”. Choreographer and artistic director of Big Dance Theater, Annie-B Parson, deconstructs all that we have been required to do in terms of the body in order to prevent the spread of the disease in “6΄”.

Vallejo Gantner, Artistic and Executive Director of Onassis USA, says of this collaboration, “The Chocolate Factory Theater has been a beacon of new performance in Queens, supporting artists from NYC and around the world. Defiantly artist-centric, they are a vital part of the ecosystem and we at Onassis USA are proud to collaborate with them, and their incredible group of provocative, funny, and melancholic works. From across NY and indeed across the US, these are an assemblage of right now.”

The Chocolate Factory Theater Co-Founder/Artistic Director Brian Rogers says, “Vallejo Gantner and I have been collaborators, in a variety of contexts, for a very long time; and I value that relationship. The opportunity to work closely with Onassis USA, and with this brilliant cohort of artists, has been incredibly welcome. Each of the artists represented here brings a singular perspective (which, collectively, are quite divergent to say the least) to the question of how to live and what to do in this very strange and critical moment in time. Onassis USA's commitment to putting resources in the hands of artists, quickly and responsively, is inspiring. I'm just so happy to be a part of it.”

With this free series, artists across generations, genres, and continents invite viewers to enter the mental and physical spaces these works inhabit, to press ENTER on a new mode of connection. This series of original works—created in the conditions of the “here and now”—surpass these limitations, as ENTER explores new ways of bringing audiences into contact with art and artists. As this moment feels too big, too strange, and too immediate for any one person to grasp, the works made for ENTER offer myriad observations, which, taken together, create something akin to an online time capsule. This project in its totality speaks to this crisis, from tragedy to banality, from isolation to reimagined socialization and unexpected sources of inspiration.

Since its launch on April 24, each week, the project has released new groupings of commissions, and in the coming weeks Onassis USA will continue to collaborate with exciting partners. Week 4 of ENTER was curated by the Queens Museum, who engaged artists including Xin Liu, Samita Sinha, Frisly Soberanis, QUEENSBOUND, and Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer; Greek artists who contributed to Week 4 included Lena Kitsopoulou, Maria Papadimitriou, and RootlessRoot. Week 3 included: acclaimed Independent Spirit Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated actress and writer Isabella Rossellini and Flying Karamazov Brothers member Paul Magid; Ziad Antar; Evi Kalogiropoulou; Kareem Kalokoh; Risa Puno and Avi Dobkin; RootlessRoot; Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, and Alexis Fidetzis; and Akira Takayama. Elias Adam, Simos Kakalas, Vasilis Kekatos, Andonis Foniadakis, Emily Johnson, Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester), RootlessRoot, and Stefanos Tsivopoulos were featured in Week 2; and the series launched in Week 1 with works from Dimitris Karantzas, Efthimis Filippou, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Maria Antelman, Kimberly Bartosik, Annie Dorsen, and Radiohole.

Afroditi Panagiotakou, Director of Culture of the Onassis Foundation, says of ENTER, “We needed something to breathe differently. To see and live through an experience proving that the mind does not stop giving birth to ideas when you enclose it, out of necessity, in the four walls of a house; that imagination does not stop, when we are surrounded by fear of what is happening, by the agony of what may come to pass. We turned towards the people who transport us to other worlds; to those who, with their art, enrich our lives. The artists. This group of people who tend to our soul and move our thought. How does a dancer dance in his kitchen? How many images capture the eyes of a director, when he spends most of his time on his couch? Is the entire house a scene? We enter in order to see. As guests. You too. ENTER.”

In the next days, new and original works will be added online by the following artists: Daniel Wetzel, Effie Birba & Aris Servetalis, Maria Diakopanagiotou, Ioannis Mandafounis, Yorgos Zois, Tim Etchells, Ethan Lipton, and many other artists and organizations. The list is ever expanding. Each artist, but ultimately all together, create works that beam from their living rooms over to ours, bringing home the message that art must never stop, regardless the restrictions.

Press ΕΝΤΕR, free of charge and time limit, and explore artistic works that reflect on the current situation.

ENTER WEEK 5 WORKS

Madeline Best & Brian Rogers / The Chocolate Factory Theater, 4 Fixations

Video / audio | Duration: 9΄35΄΄

A hastily assembled micro-EP forms the soundtrack to a teaser for the least interesting no-budget sci fi film (n)ever made. Comprised of modular synthesizer home recordings made while half-asleep, and otherworldly images drawn from commonplace materials (often filmed in extreme closeup), the results speak to the night terrors lurking beneath (and within) the everyday experience of prolonged isolation – not to mention the advanced insomnia of its makers – asking: how could the end of the world be so...boring?

Madeline Best designs lighting and is the Director of Operations at The Chocolate Factory Theater. Best graduated from Bennington College, grew up in Durham NC and currently lives in Long Island City, Queens. Recent lighting design projects include work with the artists, Aki Sasamoto, Lauren Bakst, Juliana F. May, luciana achugar, Big Dance Theater, Moriah Evans, Yve Laris Cohen. Upcoming projects include works with Anna Sperber, Heather Kravas, Milka Djordjevich, Efraín Rozas. Madeline has been a longtime collaborator with Brian Rogers and this project is one of many they have made together. She has also performed in the work of Juliana F. May, and Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty.

Brian Rogers is a director, filmmaker, video and sound artist, co-founder and artistic director of The Chocolate Factory Theater, which supports the creation of theater, dance, music and multimedia performances at its 5,000 sq ft facility in LIC, Queens. Since 1997, Brian has conceived and/or directed numerous large scale films and performances at The Chocolate Factory and elsewhere including “Screamers” (Abrons Arts Center, 2018 / Baryshnikov Arts Center, 2019), “Hot Box” (September 2012, co-presented with FIAF’s Crossing The Line Festival / January 2013, PS122’s COIL Festival / February 2013, EMPAC Center, Troy NY – supported by a MAP Fund grant), the Bessie-nominated “Selective Memory” (July 2010, Mount Tremper Arts / September 2011, The Chocolate Factory / January 2011, PS122’s COIL Festival) and “the horror the horror” (Movement Research Festival 2011, Abrons Arts Center / 2012). Brian recently composed the soundtrack for Shaun Iron & Lauren Petty’s film “Standing By: Gatz Backstage”; and has collaborated as a sound and video artist with numerous experimental dance and theater artists in NY and elsewhere. In addition to his own work, Brian curates The Chocolate Factory's Visiting Artist Program (now in its 15th year) which supports the work of more than 100 theater, dance, music and multimedia artists each year.

Images by Madeline Best and Brian Rogers

Directed, composed and edited by Brian Rogers

https://www.onassis.org/video/4-fixations-madeline-best-brian-rogers

Tei Blow, Essay in Idleness

Video | Duration: 8΄

“Essay in Idleness” is a reimagining of the ‘Tsurezuregusa’, a classic 14th-century text by Zen monk and poet Yoshida Kenko who wrote 243 short entries on the aesthetic beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence. Never intending for his writing to be published, it was compiled posthumously into what became a classic of Japanese literature. In this adaptation, the artist examines 88 objects from his home and the desktop of his computer, folding Kenko’s world into his own.

Tei’s work combines live performance, video, and sound with found media. It has been featured at Hartford Stage, Dance Theater Workshop, Lincoln Center Festival, The Kitchen, BAM, The Public Theater, The Broad Stage, MCA Chicago, MFA Boston, Kate Werble Gallery, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and other theatres around the world. In addition to Big Dance Theater, he has performed and designed for: The Laboratory of Dmitry Krymov, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group. He received a 2015 New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Outstanding Sound Design, a 2016 Creative Capital Award, a 2016 NYSCA Individual Artist Grant, and a 2018 Cage/Cunningham Fellowship from Baryshnikov Arts Center. He is a founding member of Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, a musical priesthood exploring contemporary mythologies of love and connection.

“Essay in Idleness” is adapted, produced and performed by Tei Blow.

Excerpts from various translations of “Essays In Idleness” by Yoshida Kenko.

https://www.onassis.org/video/essay-idleness-tei-blow

keyon gaskin, How to Get Away With Westworld

Video | Duration: 2΄43΄΄

Getting a check.

keyon gaskin is a(n) (con) artist.

Concept & direction: keyon gaskin

https://www.onassis.org/video/how-get-away-westworld-keyon-gaskin

Dynasty Handbag, Untitled Emergency

Video | Duration: 2΄21΄΄

Dynasty Handbag must pack a go bag for vague disaster. What are the necessities she shall take with her into the unknown future? Is there a single object which will once and for all guarantee her survival, her self-worth, her youthful good looks and her totalitarian potential? Jibz Cameron is a performer, video artist and actor living in Los Angeles. Her multi-media performance work as alter ego Dynasty Handbag has spanned 15 years and been presented at institutions internationally. She has been heralded by “The New York Times” as “the funniest and most pitch perfect performance seen in years.” She has written and produced 7 evening length performance pieces, dozens of short works, a zillion video works and 2 albums of original music. She also works as a professor of performance and comedy. Jibz also acts professionally and has been in many low budget web series no one has ever seen.

Concept & direction: Dynasty Handbag

https://www.onassis.org/video/untitled-emergency-dynasty-handbag

Annie-B Parson, 6΄

Re-purposed video of live performance | Duration: 3΄10΄΄

Set against video material of dancers in 6-foot proximities, Parson reads from a diaristic meditation on the spatial protocols that have been set for us in our new world of Covid-19 behaviors. From the choreographic mind, Parson deconstructs what we are asked to do physically in order to forestall illness. Parsing these protocols, she notes that spatial awareness is suddenly in the forefront for pedestrians, asking everyone, in a sense, to have the perspective of a dancer. She sets her thoughts against footage from a video of a dance she made last year when dancers entered studios together, with their bodies in close proximity. Parson teams up with video artist Deborah Johnson (aka CandyStations) who reimagines this performance footage through references to the Victorian Zoetrope, one of the earliest forms of animation and the precursor to modern cinema. The Zoetrope reminded Johnson of the codes of social distancing, as it relies on a particular structural spacing between images. Together with a plaintive song by Jack Lazar/Noah Chevron, they create an intimate video piece expressing what it’s like to live in this moment.

Annie-B Parson is a choreographer and the artistic director of the Obie award-winning Big Dance Theater, with whom she has created over 20 large-scale works for such venues as BAM, The Japan Society, The Old Vic (London), Sadler’s Wells (London), The Walker Art Center, The National Theater in Paris, and The Kitchen. Parson has also made choreography for rock shows, marching bands, movies, museums, objects, television, augmented reality, opera, ballet, theater, symphony orchestras, string quartets, and a chorus of 1,000 amateur singers.

Some of the artists she has worked with include David Byrne, David Bowie, St. Vincent, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, Anne Carson, Jonathan Demme, Spike Lee; she has also two works in the repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Her work with David Byrne has spanned over 10 years including “American Utopia,” on Broadway and Spike Lee’s documentary movie (forthcoming).

Choreography & Text by Annie-B Parson

Video Design by Deborah Johnson/CandyStations

Music by Jack Lazar and Noah Chevan

Produced by Big Dance Theater

6’ was created by Annie-B Parson in collaboration with video artist Deborah Johnson (aka CandyStations)

Original recording of members of the Martha Graham Dance Company in Annie-B Parson’s “I used to love you.” Anne O’Donnell, Leslie Andrea Williams, Laurel Dalley Smith, and Xin Ying.

https://www.onassis.org/video/6-annie-b-parson

New entries from 25 May 2020

Madeline Best & Brian Rogers / The Chocolate Factory Theater, 4 Fixations

Video / audio: 9΄35΄΄

Tei Blow, Essay in Idleness

Video | Duration: 8΄

keyon gaskin, How to Get Away With Westworld

Video| Duration: 2΄43΄΄

Dynasty Handbag, Untitled Emergency

Video| Duration: 2΄21΄΄

Annie-B Parson, 6΄

Re-purposed video of live performance | Duration: 3΄10΄΄

Already available

Lena Kitsopoulou, Lalka

Video | Duration: 13´21´´

Maria Papadimitriou, Alter Ego

Video | Duration: 2´41´´

RootlessRoot, Our Feet

Video | Duration: 1´27´´

Week 4 of Onassis USA’s ENTER commissions was curated by the Queens Museum

QUEENSBOUND 2020 (Nadia Q. Ahmad, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Pichchenda Bao, Nana Brew-Hammond, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Robert Ostrom, KC Trommer), In the Here and Now

Video | Duration: 4´46´´

Samita Sinha, Into the day

Video | Duration: 3´00´´

Frisly Soberanis, Forces of a City #1

Video | Διάρκεια: 3´43´´

Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer, A Compass for the House Door

Video | Duration: 11´06´´

Xin Liu, Sleepwalk

Videogame

Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid, Darwin, What?

Video | Duration: 8´22´´

Risa Puno & Avi Dobkin, The Quiet: Part 1

Game

Akira Takayama, Heterotopia Garden

Instructions on how to make your own “garden” at home

Ziad Antar, The Little Boat [Il Était un...]

Video | Duration: 3΄

Evi Kalogiropoulou, Tiles

Video | Duration: 10´28´´

Kareem Kalokoh, Swim

Video | Duration: 3΄30΄΄

Alexis Fidetzis, Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, Notes to Readiness: Step 1

Role-play Game, Video in live-streaming on YouTube

RootlessRoot, Take your Time

Video series | 2nd video duration: 2’46’’

600 HIGHWAYMEN, Fighting World

Video | Duration: 10´57´´

Elias Adam, HAMLET, a desktop performance

Video | Duration: 34΄11´´

Maria Antelman, AntiBody

Video | Duration: 1´12´´

Kimberly Bartosik, The Game

Video | Duration: 5´19´´

Annie Dorsen, Training Text, Step 2250

Video | Duration: 6´16´´

Efthimis Filippou, Video 2: Body Parts, Fabrics and Sports

Video | Duration: 15΄37΄΄

Andonis Foniadakis, st Dominique bd Arago

Video | Duration: 4΄01΄΄

Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester), Every Hologenome For Themselves

Video | Duration: 8΄49΄΄

Emily Johnson, inbetween Kwimiak, blue

Video | Duration: 22΄47΄΄

Simos Kakalas, Tarantino

Video Series | Duration of video 1: 3΄04΄΄

Dimitris Karantzas, Houseplants

Video | Duration: 4΄03´´

Vasilis Kekatos, As you sleep the world empties

Video | Duration: 12΄33΄΄

Radiohole, Happy Hours

Video | Duration: 10´29´´

RootlessRoot, Untitled, Part 1

Video Series | Duration of video 1: 2΄56΄΄

Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Untitled (Junkopia Redux)

Video | Duration: 4΄17΄΄

For more information, visit: onassis.org/enter