Battle of Everyouth (working title)

by Ali Momeni and Jenny Schmid

in collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute for Art

Commissioned by the Joyce Foundation

Timing:

June 4, 2011: 9pm-11.59pm

Description:

The Battle of Everyouth explores the dual responsibilities of art in times of crisis through twenty-first century modalities. While the voice of critical inquiry, resistance and even revolution must speak loudly, clearly, humor, the mundane, and a celebration of the present moment become of critical importance. The beautiful depiction of this duality in the complex Persian panoramas of the Mughal period inspires the point of departure for this commission. Taking on contemporary “contradictions,” political and otherwise, this performance creates a multiple projection installation—splashed across the museum’s neo-classical facade at the MIA’s first ever “Night at the Museum”—with figures that animate a complex panorama of the urban and the rustic, battle and recreation, perturbation and tranquility.    

An artist-spurred intervention, “Night at the Museum” will be held in and outside of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on June 4, 2011 as a part of the city white dusk-to-dawn festival, Northern Spark.  The event will literally open up the museum to the neighborhood, with art and activities spilling out into Washburn Fair Oaks Park.  Our project for this event, The Battle of Everyouth, is a projection based performance staged at multiple sites on and around the museum.  A blend of live cinema, participatory theater and live performance, this work creates a context for exploration and conversation on the theme of global youth and violence.  A "mixing station" staged in front of the main facade will produce large-scale panoramic projections onto the the northern and western facades of the museum from live video feeds from numerous dispersed performance contexts ; real-time video mixes are also projected onto two large geodesic domes placed in the park that will function as meeting and resting points for the audience.  The performance contexts that generate our raw materials are centered around a miniature urban set on display outside the museum; these performance contexts will be run by trained students from Washburn High who they act as the messengers as well as the listeners in this work.  They will use two types of instruments in their rapport with the public, both instruments mobile and wireless: the first, an ornate hat and is designed to capture up-close video footage of faces; the second, an augmented brief-case,  to capture writing and drawing with markers.  Video feeds from these interaction stations will be projected onto architectural components in the miniature set, and simultaneously recorded and projected at large scale onto the surrounding buildings.  

Site Locations:

-Northern and Eastern facades of the MIA (map)

-Washburn Fair Oaks Park (map)

Major Milestones:

-Wed. Oct 27, 2010: First meeting with Washburn teachers

-Early November: First meeting with Northern Spark director Steve Dietz

-December 9 2010: Meeting Washburn High School teachers

-December 13, 2010: Meeting with MIA curator Liz Armstrong

-Feb - May 2011: regular workshops with Washburn teachers and students

-March: First Usable prototype of the two interaction instruments

-April 2011: Initial projection attempts on-site

-May: 2011: Final rehearsal stage including 3 on-sited "dressed rehearsals" with all students during the last three weeks of May

-June 4, 2011: Battle of Everyouth

-Jun 5, 2011: Deep breathing.