Palissimo

This Artist Residency Award affords the New York City-based dance theater company Palissimo, led by Czechoslovakian-born artistic director and choreographer Pavel Zuštiak, the opportunity to rehearse and mount all three full-length sections of its enigmatic and atmospheric Painted Bird Trilogy for the first time in sequence. The trilogy (Bastard, Amidst, and Strange Cargo) is inspired by the classic Jerzy Kosinski novel of the same name set in wartime Eastern Europe, in which a brilliantly painted bird, mistaken for an imposter, is violently killed by its own flock. Zuštiak's ambitious project excavates the tale's themes of identity, otherness, displacement, and transformation in three separate, uniquely staged performance events. Each section of this tour-de-force features live music by composer Christian Frederickson (well-known to Wexner Center audiences as a former member of the chamber-rock band Rachel’s). The New Yorker notes, "A vivid, often anguished, imagination shines through in Zuštiak’s work.”

Audience members can attend either a pairing of two sections or come on the final day of performance for the full three-part experience, which will utilize both the Performance Space as well as the Black Box on Mershon Stage in novel configurations. The residency begins September 4, and performances are September 12 (parts 1 and 2), 13 (parts 2 and 3), and 16 (all 3 Parts). While in residence, the company will also work with a large group of local volunteers who will perform in Part 1 of the trilogy (those interested in volunteering should contact Sarah Swinford at 614 292-6190 or sswinford@wexarts.org), as well as offer a master class and discussion for dance students at Ohio State and members of the Columbus dance community.

The Painted Bird Trilogy is a Palissimo production co-commissioned by Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, Stanica Zilina in Slovakia, La MaMa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Performance Space 122. More info: http://www.thepaintedbird.org/ and www.palissimo.com.

An update of current Artist Residency Award projects in process:

• The Builders Association’s multimedia theater production HOUSE / DIVIDED, which premiered here in October 2011, will tour nationally in the 2012-13 season and be seen in New York City, as well as at several prestigious venues and universities.

• Los Angeles visual artist Paul Sietsema is engaged in an ongoing residency to create a new multimedia piece, Chinese Box, to be on view as part of an exhibition of his work in the Wexner Center galleries in the summer of 2013.

• Dani Leventhal, a Brooklyn-based artist and Columbus native, is developing a new multi-channel installation. She was here for a series of public events in the fall of 2011 And will return to work in the center’s Film/Video Studio.

• New York-based French filmmaker Marie Losier was here in April to introduce The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, which she worked on in the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio Program last year. She is currently working on a film on Warhol superstar Mario Montez with the support of her Artist Residency Award.

• Last fall, filmmaker Michael Robinson shot a 16mm feature-length film and has made three visits since then to do post-production work in the center’s Film/Video Studio. The new film, tentatively titled Circle in the Sand, will screen at the center in the coming year.

• Matt Meindel, a Columbus-based filmmaker, is working on a new experimental animation which will premiere in The Box later this year.

• Artist Ernst Caramelle created wall painting currently on view in the center’s lower lobby through July 1.