The upcoming digital season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center will premiere seven video works commissioned by the organization in September from artists including Kyle Marshall, Bijayini Satpathy and Justin Hicks. Debuts begin on February 1st with the release of Satpathy’s “Vibhanga”, a piece based on Indian classical dance forms, and end in late June with Marshall’s “STELLAR”, a choreographed result of improvisational sessions he will perform at Zoom This Spring. Each video can be streamed on demand for free for two weeks on bacnyc.org.
“It’s a huge experiment for us, but why not?” Mikhail Baryshnikov, the center’s founder and artistic director, said in an email. “When has there ever been a better time to get creative and rethink our work?”
Baryshnikov said he was intrigued by the dynamics of art exchange over the internet. “The work presented on a digital platform is kind of a massive blind date,” he said. “With such a global reach, the possibilities that someone can make a real connection with what they see are limitless.”
Dance-based work makes up most of the slate: Mariana Valencia’s solo brownout will be available March 1-15, and Stefanie Batten Bland’s collaboration with installation artist Conrad Quesen, “Colonial”, will follow in May.
However, several other interdisciplinary projects are also offered. Hicks’ “Use Your Head for More” combines found sound and spoken text to create a series of portraits (February 15 through March 1). Holland Andrews’ “Museum of Calm” includes vocal music, meditation and performance art (March 15-29); and Tei Blow’s digital installation “The Sprezzaturameron” uses video game technology to tell the story of artists in an apocalyptic near future (May 17-31).
Baryshnikov Arts will continue to share performances from its archive throughout the spring. Planned highlights are the New York premiere of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s dance duet “Verklierter Nacht” from 2019 (April 8-15) and a concert performance by the Tesla Quartet and soprano Alexandra Smither (April 15-22) in 2018.
