SUPERFRONT 1432 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY | 11216 | www.superfront.org



ARCHEOGRAPHY III (SUSPENDED GARDENS)

February 21 2009 - March 29 2009

Opening Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 6-9 PM

SUPERFRONT with MonstaH Black

Organized by Mitch McEwen and MonstaH Black



SUPERFRONT gallery is proud to present SUSPENDED GARDENS, a performative installation conceived collaboratively between SUPERFRONT and Monstah Black.

This multi-disciplinary exhibition is on view from February 21, 2009 through March 29, 2009. Live performances will take place in the installation Saturday, February 21st at 7PM and Sunday, February 22nd at 3PM. The project explores an integration between choreography and architecture, in which a design workshop and dance workshop share responsibility for producing a performance and site-specific installation over the course of 6 weeks.


The installation and dance work begin with an investigation of Le Courbusier's early drawings of interior "free plan" space. The site specific installation, designed and built by both architects and dancers (featuring Monstah Black, Afro Mosaic Soul Dance Collective and dancers from NYC dance community) over the course of a 6 week workshop, appropriates motifs from these drawings that include ropes, punching bags, and landscaped turf. The choreography tests this environment through movement that includes climbing, spinning, and walking up walls. Elements of capoeira, parkour and hip hop are integrated with modern dance.



ARCHEOGRAPHY III (SUSPENDED GARDENS) is the third of a series of Archeography Projects at SUPERFRONT, which will present the combined work of architects and choreographers through May 2009.

The Archeography Project series pairs an emerging architect or designer with a choreographer to generate the material for a weekend-long performance. All aspects of orchestrating a performance are at stake - the built parameters of boundaries and floor planes and seats, as well as the movements and effects generated by performers. The series presumes that precepts of movement may act authoritatively upon architecture and, conversely, that architecture may operate within a logic of performance.

SUPERFRONT is a new space for architectural experimentation, located in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.


SUPERFRONT is located on 1432 Atlantic Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Gallery hours: Sat & Sun 1-6 PM and by appointment. Subway: A train to Nostrand Avenue. Walk 2 avenue blocks east to Brooklyn Ave and 2 short blocks south to Atlantic Ave. For more information: info@superfront.org






Biographies:




MITCH MCEWEN, co-curator of the Archeography Project, founded SUPERFRONT in January of 2008. Mitch has lectured at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning and practices architectural and urban design (primarily in the office of Bernard Tschumi Architects). Mitch holds an M. Arch from Columbia University and A.B. from Harvard College, cum laude.


MONSTAH BLACK, co-curator of the Archeography Project, is a choreographer based in New York since 1999. MonstaH has received support and commissions from various arts organizations, including Blackout Arts Collective, Topaz Arts, The Field and Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center. He has taught dance and choreography at George Washington University, with a focus on site-specificity and improvisation.



AFRO MOSAIC SOUL DANCE COLLECTIVE, Mosaic Soul is the dance style, Afro Mosaic Soul is the collective. Mosaic Soul is the next evolution of dance. The newest form of African American social dance has risen from the underground. It carries the genetic traits of its forbears: African dance, Latin dance, tap, modern, popping & locking, break dancing(b-boying), hip hop, house dance, lofting and capoeira to name a few.