Watermill Center's Spring Open House Has Film, Art, and Performance
The Watermill Center will present an art exhibition, two open rehearsals, and tours of the building and grounds this weekend, beginning tomorrow at 1 p.m. with a screening at Francesca Fini’s “Ofelia No Anneka (Ophelia Did Not Drown)” and followed by an open rehearsal of “La Masca,” a mixed-media installation. Ms. Fini is a current resident at the center.
On Saturday, tours of the center will take place between 1 and 2:30 p.m., with the opening of “Post,” an exhibition by Basco Vazko, set for 3 to 5, and a rehearsal by Alan Lucien Oyen from 5 to 7.
For “La Masca,” Ms. Fini, who lives in Rome, will exhibit original masks inspired by “Fair and Lost,” a performance she presented at the center in July 2014. An interdisciplinary artist working with new media and performance art, she mainly focuses her work on the body and its narrative power. Addressing social and political issues, her projects mix generative audio, lo-fi technologies, and live video, along with handcrafted masks, costumes, and steampunk props.
A Chilean artist, Mr. Vazko is one of three recipients of the 2016 Inga Maren Otto Fellowships, which the center awards to emerging and mid-career artists who have demonstrated exceptional creative ability. His exhibition, “Post,” which will be on view through June 17, includes an artist’s newspaper created by altering pages of The New York Post by painting, collaging, and transforming them in other ways to change the original contents’ appearance or meaning.
Ms. Vazko began painting in the streets of Santiago in the late 1990s and developed a unique style that attracted public attention. The exhibition will include an indoor mural installation executed directly on interior walls throughout the center. In addition, each page from “Post” will be reproduced as a limited edition of prints, which will be distributed free to exhibition visitors. The show was organized by Noah Khoshbin, the center’s curator, and Daneyal Mahmood, its auction manager.
Mr. Oyen is a Norwegian writer, director, and choreographer whose work will be performed by an international touring company he formed in 2006, winter guests. Winter guests tells stories of the contemporary world with words, video, music, and movement. The works are often based on real-life experiences, including original texts, transcribed recordings, and improvisations, into which performers often insert their own reality. In addition to his work for winter guests, Mr. Oyen creates commissioned pieces for other companies in Norway and around the world.
The tour, exhibition, and rehearsals are free, but advance reservations, which can be made on the center’s website, are required.