Artistic Inquiry Conversation: Seth Riskin
October 23
The B3 Biennial 2020 takes place as a hybrid festival from October 9 to 18, 2020, focusing on TRUTHS. The film screenings as well as the art, games, VR/XR and conference program will be streamed in full on the Internet. B3’s overall program includes around 100 entries by artists and media professionals from 23 countries in the fields of film, art, games, and VR. the B3 Biennial’s Artistic Director is CAVS graduate, Bernd Kracke.
B3 2020 „Hello Truths“ Extravaganza Virtuale
The B3 2020 opening event „Hello Truths“ Extravaganza Virtuale is an artistic-political homage to the first international satellite broadcast Good Morning, Mr. Orwell by Korean video artist Nam June Paik on January 1, 1984, while at the same time adapting it to our current times. Paik said that soon, everyone would have their own television station. This prophecy has become a global reality, perpetuated lately by Covid-19: interactive video conferences in all social areas have become a new matter of course.
During the opening night of the B3 Biennial on October 9 at the B3 Festival Center, Astor Film Lounge Frankfurt, artists and media professionals from all continents will share their take on the B3 main theme of “TRUTHS” via the Internet. There will be slam poetry, video and film performances, art, games, XR and AI, statements and live music acts. The “Hello Truths” Extravaganza Virtuale that will include Silo Solos was conceived by CAVS graduate Bernd Kracke, Artistic Director of the B3 Biennial.
Bernd Kracke was a fellow (research affiliate) at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. Prior to his fellowship, he was a graduate student at CAVS and received the Master of Science in Visual Studies degree. His area of practice included media, video, performance, telecommunications, and environmental art. He was also a research assistant at the MIT Architecture Machine Group in 1980.
Cairo Stories
Judith Barry
…Cairo stories is based on more than 215 interviews conducted with women from many social and economic classes in Cairo between the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. The selection of stories featured in the installation chronicles the personal experiences of these women across a variety of social and economic classes in Egypt, and expands the artist’s concerns with notions of representation, history, subjectivity, and translation — particularly as these ideas circulate across cultures.
Silo Solos
During the long quarantine due to the global pandemic of 2020, the twin silos at the Goldring-Piene art farm in Groton, Massachusetts have served as individual studios for contemplation and new works by a group of artists including CAVS alumni and fellows. The Light Silo houses Otto Piene’s Star of David Light Ballet and the Bell Silo serves as a resonator for Paul Matisse’s artwork. Silo Solo artists: CAVS fellows Elizabeth Goldring, Aldo Tambellini, and Paul Matisse; CAVS/MIT graduates Ellen Sebring and Seth Riskin; musician David Whiteside; and artist Jessica Spira-Goldring and Sophie Matisse.
Silo Solos will be performed in the Light Silo and the Bell Silo at the Goldring-Piene art farm in Groton, Massachusetts. The twin silos have served as studios for contemplation and new works during the quarantine due to the global pandemic of 2020. Participants include alumni of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT during the period when German-born artist, Otto Piene, was director. The group is part of a larger cadre of artist-Fellows who carry on the CAVS legacy. The silo event celebrates the recent publication of Centerbook, the first history of CAVS by Elizabeth Goldring and Ellen Sebring, available through MIT Press.
Silo Solos – 8ight Circles
Ellen Sebring
The artist performs mechanical visual sounds that combine into a musical/visual piece. Simple, humble actions performed in a small space reflect the physical isolation of the silo—a tower of fairy tales where the protagonist is locked away. Multiple revolutions within the octagonal silo evoke time, the heartbeat, breath in and out, and repetitive motion. The slow quiet of sustained isolation draws inward towards the self and the body.
Silo Solos – Black TV
Aldo Tambellini
Black TV (1968) epitomizes the artist’s prescient and pioneering multimedia works, claiming and combining the period’s socially significant media and content. The work synthesizes violence on 20th Century TV (Robert Kennedy’s assassination, police brutality in Chicago, the war in Vietnam) and physical manipulations of film such as painting, drawing, burning, scratching, perforating and more. From the CAVS archives at MIT: “With Black TV, Tambellini clearly lays before the viewer the epochal changes then underway in media history and presents his dark vision of America’s future, marching towards black.”
Silo Solos – Collages
Jessica Spira-Goldring
From Concarneau, France, Jessica Spira-Goldring’s projections in the Light Silo, together with Otto Piene’s Light Ballet are a Fata Morgana floating between presence and absence. Jessica says of her quarantine collages, “I made [them] during the initial weeks of the confinement period in France. The collaging process evolved from a series of underwater, skyscape, moonscape, and train collages that I glued together with my son during morning home-preschooling hours….For me, the collages are remnants of a time of quiet contemplation just before the electric spirit of transformation took to the streets.
Silo Solos – Corona Journals
Elizabeth Goldring & David Whiteside
Writer Elizabeth Goldring reads from her Corona journals in concert with flutist David Whiteside’s improvisations. From France, Jessica Spira-Goldring’s projections in the Light Silo, together with Otto Piene’s Light Ballet are a Fata Morgana floating between presence and absence. Jessica says of her quarantine collages, “I made [them] during the initial weeks of the confinement period in France. The collaging process evolved from a series of underwater, skyscape, moonscape, and train collages that I glued together with my son during morning home-preschooling hours… For me, the collages are remnants of a time of quiet contemplation just before the electric spirit of transformation took to the streets.” David Whiteside is principal flutist with the National Philharmonic and frequently plays jazz.
Silo Solos – Red Breath
Seth Riskin
Riskin’s original Light Dance art form uses light to cross the boundary between the inner and outer spaces of bodily experience. In this work, the artist focuses on breath. A profusion of red-light circles reaches from his body to the interior surfaces of the silo. The space comes alive with the twofold movements of the heart and breath and the emotions they transmit. The red circles combine with the light forms of Otto Piene’s Light Ballet, creating a fabric of spatial expression that orbits around the central axis formed by Riskin’s body and Piene’s Star of David above.
The Extravaganza will begin Friday 9 October 4 p.m. Boston/10 p.m. Frankfurt featuring Silo Solos through the event. More information here
