ARTISTS & COSMONAUTS - The New Futurists

[anna balint]

from info at artscatalyst.org

The Arts Catalyst presents
ARTISTS & COSMONAUTS - The New Futurists
www.artscatalyst.org/htm/russia2001events.htm Fri 1 March 2002
Sat 2 March 2002
Fri 19 
April 2002
plus talk by Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev 
- date to be announced
Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Rosebery 
Avenue London EC1, UK
In the last two years, an extraordinary mix of 
artists, dancers,  scientists and
musicians have joined forces with 
Russia's space programme to create work in a
zero gravity world where there 
is no up or down: a modernist laboratory for making art
for the 
cosmos.
>From afro-futurism to oriental fantasies of flying 
carpets, datasuits to
dance movement analysis, the Arts Catalyst, the 
science-art agency, has rounded
up the best projects for floating in air and 
transported them to the Yuri
Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, 
Russia, to turn dreams of
flying into reality.
Now London audiences have a chance to sample the 
art of weightlessness as
practised in space conditions - not computer 
simulations, but in a large jet
aircraft converted into an artists' studio - 
diving at 25,000 feet.  We can't take
audiences into space - yet - but 
coming to Sadlers Wells for our
season of zero gravity work will give you an 
idea of the possibilities of
the future.
Choreographer Kitsou Dubois, the first artist in 
zero gravity, and dancer
Morag Wightman present dance in weightlessness, 
philosopher Mikhail Ryklin
reflects on Russian cosmism, the Zero Genies - 
artist-musicians Ansuman Biswas
and Jem Finer - show spectacular real flying 
carpet sequences, and noted DJ/sampling
group Hallucinator play music for 
the long-distance cosmonaut. Russian media artists
Andrey and Julia 
Velikanov premiere their film of Arts Catalyst's 2001 expedition to
Star 
City, heart of the Russian space programme. Other zero gravity pioneers include 
Kevin Fong, lecturer in medicine in extreme environments and advisor to 
NASA, and
film-maker Andrew Kotting, whose latest film Filthy Earth was 
recently released
to critical acclaim.
An additional event will be announced 
shortly.  Arts Catalyst is bringing a true cosmonaut hero, Sergei 
Krikalev, to the UK to share his experiences on the Mir Space Station and the contrasts of the East and West's 
perspectives on space research.  Krikalev 
was, famously, the last Soviet citizen (stranded on the MIR Space Station 
during the coup against Gorbachev) and was recently a member of the first 
mission to the new International Space Station.
Take part in zero gravity workshops to gain a 
better understanding of gravity:
how it moulds our bodies and the cosmos. 
Experience moments of "zero gravity",
challenge your balance and 
orientation, and explore the history of gravity, with
zero gravity dancer 
Morag Wightman and performance artist Tim Millar.
Fri 1 March 2002
8 pm :
BODIES IN 
SPACE
The Zero Genies (Ansuman Biswas and Jem Finer), Masha Chuikova, Anthony 
Bull,
Kevin Fong, Morag Wightman, Louise K Wilson
Sat 2 March 2002
11 am to 4 pm :
ZERO GRAVITY 
WORKSHOP led by Morag Wightman and Tim Millar. (Minimum age - 14 years)
8 pm 
:
ARTISTS & COSMONAUTS
Anna Alchuk, Alexei Blinov, Andrew Kotting, 
Marko Peljhan, philosopher Mikhail Ryklin,
Andrey & Julia Velikanov, 
music by Hallucinator
Fri 19 April 2002
8 pm:
A DANCER IN 
WEIGHTLESSNESS
Kitsou Dubois, Nick Davey and colleagues, Biodynamics Group, 
Imperial College
Join the new futurists, book all three Lilian 
Baylis events for
UK £15 (UK £12 concessions) or UK £6 (UK £5 concessions) 
each night.
Sergei Krikalev talk - TO BE ANNOUNCED.
Zero gravity 
workshops UK £ 8 (UK £ 6)
Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Rosebery 
Avenue London EC1, UK
Box office tel: 020 7863 8000
Book on-line: www.sadlerswells.com
The Arts Catalyst
the science-art agency
www.artscatalyst.org