ULAY & JAŠA: Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth
May 6 – June 1, 2016
Kustera Projects, Brooklyn, NY
WE.ARE Institute and Kustera Projects is delighted to announce the exhibition ULAY & JAŠA: Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth, a site-specific installation and performance curated by Mitra Khorasheh. The exhibition will be on view from May 6 – June 1, 2016 at Kustera Projects Red Hook, with a special 3-day opening reception performance by the artists on May 6, 7, and 8, from 6-10pm. Performances will take place sporadically within the installation throughout the duration of the three- day opening, with an exclusive performance by ULAY on May 7th entitled “Water Mark”.
ULAY’S last performance project in New York was in 1986. This exhibition will mark ULAY’s return to the city after 30 years, for a one time only collaboration with the Slovenian artist JAŠA.
A pioneer and central figure of performance art since the 1970’s, ULAY’s most recent artistic activity has focused on environmental issues, specifically on initiatives that raise awareness, enhance the understanding, appreciation and respect for our most precious resource: water. One of Slovenia’s most prolific and critically acclaimed artists, JAŠA transforms spaces into experiences, driving them toward their poetic and ecstatic potentials. His most recent project was the highly acclaimed installation and performance series he produced for the Venice Biennial.
Cutting Through The Clouds of Myth is a series of actions, an intimate happening, an experiential installation, a language of communication, a provoking exploration of dualities, a setting of madness and tranquility, mockery and admiration. The result: an optimistic consciousness. A dialogue of togetherness. Presence. Spirit. Matter. Hope.
Two personas with radically different approaches to performance and in drastically different moments in life are placed within a space for a specific duration of time. What is this space, this in-between space, this gap, this meeting point, this marked moment? The space is at once far too tiny and too vast for the both of them. This juxtaposition, this placement in time and space creates a necessity of opposites to co-existence. The necessity to co-exist on a common ground is the only common ground; co-existence is a bare fact rather than a statement.
ULAY’s use of time and space is radical. True to his legacy, he will come in and will leave his mark; he is the main protagonist in the action. Whereas JAŠA’s approach to performance centers on molding time into something less palpable, through creating a rhythm that goes beyond what it seems. The environment and JAŠA’s actions are one of the same, a body where every autonomous element works within the wholeness. By virtue of the necessity to co-exist, JAŠA creates a reacting environment for ULAY to be ULAY; progressive, reactionary, a landscape, a soundscape, a physical condition, a living atmosphere within which each artist can stand for what he is and who he is. In this palpable landscape of expression, the exterior meets the interior, day meets night, nature meets nurture, reality meets perception, presence meets absence, ULAY meets JAŠA. — Mitra Khorasheh
performance dates:
JAŠA: 5. 6. 2016
JAŠA: 5. 8. 2016
JAŠA: 5. 21. 2016
JAŠA: 5. 26. 2016
