Dear *|FNAME|*,

I'm excited to share Michel Groisman's NY Premiere at The Invisible Dog Art Center, beginning tomorrow, in Brooklyn, with you. We've been hearing great reports from our friends at PICA on Michel's time in Portland last week at the TBA Festival.

Claudia La Rocco had this to say about Michel's work in Portland Monthly Mag -

What purpose does it serve for a crowd of strangers and not-strangers to gather in a former high school classroom on a sweltering Sunday afternoon in late summer to sit in the almost-darkness and watch a man from another country strap candles to his body and smoothly, methodically noodle his honed body through pretzled poses so as to light these candles one tip to the next, only to extinguish them by blowing through a system of tubing as he goes?

How can it be that at one point most of the people in this crowd are smoothly and methodically spooning mint chocolate chip ice cream into their mouths as their eyes devour the ridiculously specific and arduous task this man has set for himself?

"What is this? What is he?" a little boy whispered from the floor, corkscrewing his body around to stare up at the older woman he was with. If she answered, I didn't catch it.

The what was Michel Groisman's Transference performance. It was in some ways utterly mundane and straightforward. Dressed only in shorts and occupying a low wooden platform, his body festooned by a homemade-cyborg-like system of leather straps and tubing and headgear, his bare skin soon speckled with wax, he cycled through repetitive positions, knotting and unwinding his body in order to serve the long white tapers affixed to his feet, arms, knees. He paused at times to catch his breath, and gave himself (or maybe only us) one long break in the middle (he encouraged the ice cream procurement). And though he sometimes progressed into more difficult phrases, he largely stayed away from the circus-trick expectation in which the feats must keep getting bigger, harder, more dangerous in order for the show to go on. He allowed for boredom, for space.

This week (Wednesday - Sunday), in Brooklyn, Michel presents a series of free interactive group experiences (many of which are great for kids ages 6 and up) as well as 2 different performances and Lois Weaver will host A Long Table Discussion on Proximity (on Saturday, September 24) that will get us all thinking and talking about some of the concepts that Michel's work brings up. All of us here at PS122 are looking forward to experiencing Michel's work and I encourage you to join us for as many of the offerings as possible. I've included details below about each performance, as well as ticketing & location info.

And - please don't forget that the best way to experience all that we have to offer this year, including Michel Groisman, Cuqui Jerez (October), COIL 2012 (10 shows in January), and our Spring Season, is to become a Friend with Benefits. For $75 you can enjoy 5 tickets to PS122 - valid through June 30 and to be used in any combination.

More information on the benefits of becoming a Friend

This season is already inspiring me, and it's barely begun, so I do hope to share it with you and hear your feedback - whether in person or via email, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube comments, or whatever new technology is developed in the coming months. Feel free to write about the show you saw, or video you watched or just what's on your mind. I can't believe our season launch party was already a week ago...if you missed it, our friends at Bomb Magazine did a nice round up with some photos from the night (and quotes from yours truly). Enjoy!

Cheers,
Laura Nicoll, Communications & Branding Manager

Michel Groisman - NY Premiere

at The Invisible Dog Art Center (51 Bergen St., Brooklyn, NY)
September 21 - 25, 2011

"I first saw Michel at the 2002 Intransit Festival in Berlin and was completely transfixed by his pure, inquisitive, and intimate performative games."
- Vallejo Gantner, PS122 Artistic Director

"The performance was a visual beauty, immensely engaging and inspirational from the perspective of how much can be done with how little."
- Jenise Silva, The Seattlest (on Transference)

Porta das Maos (Door of Hands)
$20, $15 (students / seniors)
A performance (and a game) in which Groisman explores the possibilities of movement and shape when restricted to two fingers from one hand remaining connected to two fingers on the other. Subtle yet transfixing, Door of Hands is an endless dance to examine and then attempt on your own.
Wednesday 9/21 8PM / Friday, September 23 9:30PM

Transferencia (Transference)
$20, $15 (students / seniors)
A performance in which candles are attached to Michel Groisman's body made possible by a series of leather straps and tubing. In one continuous action, candles are lit and extinguished in a constant ritual of fire and breath. Video of Transferencia on Youtube
Thursday, September 22 8PM / Friday, September 23 7PM

Sirva-se (Serve Yourself)
FREE - Reservations encouraged
A group experience in which participants are invited to place specially designed glasses on various parts of their body. With the glasses in position, water is used as a mean of communication between people, passed from one to another, the possibilities of such a transfer are explored.
Wednesday, September 21 3 - 5PM (recommended for families w/ children) / Thursday, September 22 9:30PM (for attendees of Transferencia) / Sunday, September 25 2 - 4PM

Polvo (Octopus)
FREE - Reservations encouraged
A card game in which players are dealt body parts instead of numbers in suit. Players will combine their own cards and reproduce the combinations with their own body. When a combination is impossible to be made alone the player may borrow a part of someone else's body to be able to continue to play.
Saturday, September 24 1 - 5PM (recommended for families w/ children) / Saturday, September 24 8PM (for attendees of the Long Table Discussion)

A Long Table on Proximity
FREE - Reservations encouraged
The Long Table is an experimental public forum originally developed by performance artist Lois Weaver. The Long Table experiments with participation and public engagement by re-appropriating a dinner table atmosphere as a public forum, and encouraging informal conversations on serious topics. It is literally a very long table set up with chairs and refreshments where anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the table, ask questions, make statements, leave comments, or simply sit, listen and watch.
To be held 2 doors down from The Invisible Dog @ 61 Local, 61 Bergen Street Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
Saturday, September 24 6PM

Performance Space 122
150 1st Ave. (@ E. 9th St.)
New York, NY 10009
Become a Friend with Benefits: ps122.org/support
Tickets Online: ps122.org
Tickets by Phone: at (212) 352-3101
Our box office is open for walk-up sales on performance dates To see active performance dates, please see our Calendar-at-a-Glance
ps122.org/performances

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