ActionHere/BeingThere Performance Video Exhibition - Denver Month of Video at Understudy Gallery

Image Credit: Zachary Fabri, Mourning Stutter, 2017/2022

Denver Month of Video (.MOV) 
ActionHere/BeingThere
Understudy Gallery
890 C 14th St.
Denver, CO

JULY 1 - JULY 30, 2023
Curators Talk + Reception: Friday, July 21 | 6-9pm
Curated by Quinn Dukes

Performance is Alive is pleased to present ActionHere/BeingThere - a performance art-based video exhibition curated on the occasion of the inaugural Denver Month of Video (.MOV). ActionHere/BeingThere presents an exciting range of performance-based practices from international artists, providing .MOV viewers an opportunity to experience the boundlessness of performance.

The selected works boldly display seminal live art tropes such as endurance, repetition, and the political body. Performance, as an act of transference, is explored by Zaire Kaczmarski’s ritualistic performance, Remember. In comparison, repetition serves as anchor points for Caida Libre (Free Fall) by Momo Magallon and Chinasa Vivian Ezugha’s glossolalic audio piece entitled Tongues.

Durational actions are enacted by Nicola Fornoni in the site-specific video Overshoot Day, filmed within a marble quarry. Riccardo Matlakas’ public performance, Melting Borders, Mexico / USA border presents an excerpt from a project that has spanned multiple iterations across 4 countries.

Actions birthed from an exploration of intersectionality and the political are prominent within works by Zachary Fabri, Arantxa Araujo, and Kiyo Guitierrez. Fabri’s piece, Mourning Stutter, is informed by successive murders of African Americans by police officers. Araujo’s performance for camera punctuates the politics of migration, and Gutiérrez organized a fierce public performance on the ‘Roundabout of the Disappeared’ in Mexico feminicida.

In the making and presentation of performance art, performers must be actively engaged in their individual “beingness” while inspiring the viewer to grow aware of their presence. This exhibition tests the boundaries of self and the limitations of live actions presented on screen.

Artists:
Arantxa Araujo (Mexico City, MEX)
Chinasa Vivian Ezugha (Nigeria/UK)
Zachary Fabri (USA)
Nicola Fornoni (Italy)
Kiyo Gutiérrez (Guadalajara, MEX)
Zaire Kaczmarski (Venezuela/USA)
Momo Magallon (Panama City, PAN)
Riccardo Matlakas (UK)

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exhibition catalog

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