Xavier Veilhan & Eliane Radigue: SYSTEMA OCCAM

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1 For Immediate Release Media Contact: Natascha Bodemann French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Hermès Foundation s New Settings Program present Xavier Veilhan & Eliane Radigue: SYSTEMA OCCAM Collaboration Between Renowned Visual Artist and Pioneering Electronic Music Composer Launches Opening Weekend of FIAF s Crossing the Line 2013 Thursday, September 19 at 8pm FIAF; Florence Gould Hall New York, New York, August 22, 2013 The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York s premiere French cultural center, and the Hermès Foundation are delighted to launch the opening weekend of Crossing the Line 2013 with SYSTEMA OCCAM, a unique collaboration between renowned French visual artist Xavier Veilhan and visionary French electronic music composer Eliane Radigue on Thursday, September 19 at 8pm in FIAF s Florence Gould Hall. Inspired by the modernist legacy of the 20th century, Xavier Veilhan has created a two-part performance that pairs the emotional power of music with the visual ingenuity of the fine arts. SYSTEMA OCCAM begins with a sensory art installation, interpreted by five performers who breathe life into inanimate objects through simple movements. Gradually, it gives way to Occam I, Eliane Radigue s work for solo harp performed by illustrious British harpist Rhodri Davies, creating an immersive, continuous soundscape. One of the most influential living composers and a leading figure in electronic music, Eliane Radigue s spiritual, meditative work manipulates tiny variations of subharmonic compounds in sound, subtly toying with the limits

2 of our perception and dramatically expanding the experience of time. Since 2004, Radigue whose work Naldjorlak was a highlight of Crossing the Line in 2010 has focused exclusively on acoustic music. Radigue s contemplative sounds echo the dreamlike tableaux vivants of Xavier Veilhan s visual world. Long fascinated by technological progress and mechanical systems, Veilhan draws on the constructivist principles of biomechanics devised by 20th-century Russian theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold to produce refined, dynamic, and physical actions. This show fills a space between Eliane Radigue s music and the art pieces I usually create for exhibitions. Around actions performed without any virtuosity and traditional folk dance steps, perceptive special effects are produced on stage while objects are constructed in real time. Frequencies, gravity, vibration, continuum, and strings tensioned into space, pendulum and swivel objects are released in an evolving landscape made of objects. Xavier Veilhan The freedom to be immersed in the ambivalence of continuous modulation with the uncertainty of being and/or not being in this or that mode or tonality. The freedom to let yourself be overwhelmed, submerged in a continuous sound flow where perceptual acuity is heightened through the discovery of a certain slight beating, there in the background, pulsations, breath. Eliane Radigue on OCCAM I SYSTEMA OCCAM (2013) A performance by Xavier Veilhan for a musical piece by Eliane Radigue With David Artaud, Annina Roescheisen, Florian Sumi, François Valenza, Marine Varoquier, and Rhodri Davies on harp Artistic Collaboration: Alexis Bertrand and Violeta Kreimer Coordination: Léa Wanono Stage Management: Jean-Paul Moissette Executive Production: Françoise Lebeau lebeau & associés Associated Producers: Xavier Veilhan ARTER Productions - lebeau & associés With the support of the Hermès Foundation (Fondation d entreprise Hermès) as part of its New Settings program. Xavier Veilhan would like to thank Charles Aubin for his significant contribution to the project and the Ménagerie de Verre, the Centre National de la Danse, the Château La Coste, Jack Degorgue, Lionel Marchetti, and Florian Pineau. About Xavier Veilhan Xavier Veilhan is a French artist born in 1963 who lives and works in Paris. Inspired by the vocabulary of classical art, his work is steeped in the modernist legacy. Sculptural, photographic, or scenic, Veilhan s creations emphasize an evolving ambulatory space in which the audience becomes an active participant. Veilhan studied at the École National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1982), the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin (under Georg Baselitz), and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques in Paris under the direction of Pontus Hulten ( ). Beginning in 1988, he collaborated with the artists Pierre Bismuth and Pierre Huyghe. During the 1990s, Veilhan s work was featured in various group exhibitions in France and later abroad, alongside likeminded artists of his generation including Pierre Joseph, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, and Liam Gillick. Since then, Xavier Veilhan s work has been exhibited worldwide, in Paris, New York, Miami, Tokyo, and Seoul. He has collaborated with the designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, as well as with the artist Daniel Buren. In 2009, Veilhan presented a large-scale exhibition in the Château de Versailles.

3 Most recently, with his project Architectones, Xavier Veilhan has turned his attention to the physical context in which his work is presented. Inspired by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich ( ), Veilhan seeks to blur the boundaries between art and architecture. For Architectones, Veilhan has occupied various renowned modernist structures, from Richard Neutra s house in Los Angeles (built between ) to Le Corbusier s Cité Radieuse in Marseille (1952), and Sainte Bernadette du Banlay Church in Nevers (1966), designed by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio (opening October 6). About Eliane Radigue Eliane Radigue was born in Paris in Her work has been associated with the movements of electronic, minimal, and meditative music. Until the year 2000, she composed exclusively on the synthesizer. In 2002, she began composing pieces using acoustic instruments, including cello, basset horn, and harp. Married to the French-American artist Arman in the 1950s, Radigue was close to the Groupe de Nice and to artists including Ben, Robert Filliou, and Yves Klein. Soon thereafter, she began studying electroacoustic music techniques under Pierre Schaeffer, founder of the musique concrète movement. In the late 1960s, Radigue settled in Paris, where she worked alongside Pierre Henry. There, she developed the signature elements of her compositions, including microphone feedback, the manipulation of tiny variations in the subharmonic components of sound, the use of drones, and the dramatic expansion of time. In the 1970s, she regularly traveled to the United States, where she met various minimal composers, including La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. At the turn of the millennium, she began a collaboration with the composer Kasper Toeplitz before turning to composition for acoustic instruments. Her work Naldjorlak had its New York premiere at FIAF s Crossing the Line festival in About Rhodri Davies Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales, and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England. He plays harp, electric harp, and live-electronics, and builds wind, water, and fire harp installations. His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, The Sealed Knot, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Common Objects, Cranc, a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch, SLW, and Apartment House. In 2008, Davies collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on Self-cancellation, a large-scale audiovisual collaboration in London and Glasgow. He also performs and researches contemporary music. New pieces for harp have been composed for him by Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Michael Pisaro, Carole Finer, Mieko Shiomi, Radu Malfatti, and Yasunao Tone. In 2011, Davies was part of Eliane Radigue s show OCCAM I for harp, in which he performed the first piece of the new series of works for acoustic instruments by the French composer. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. About the Partnership between Crossing the Line and the Hermès Foundation s New Settings program Crossing the Line is thrilled to partner with the Hermès Foundation s New Settings Program, launched in 2011 with the purpose of encouraging the development and staging of new performing arts productions. The projects supported involve the collaboration and creative dialogue between artists from the performing and visual arts. This year, works by the following artists are presented as part of the New Settings Program within the framework of Crossing the Line: Eliane Radigue and Xavier Veilhan; Fanny de Chaillé and Philippe Ramette; and Kyle decamp and Joshua Thorson. For more information, visit fiaf.org/ctl. About the Hermès Foundation (Fondation d'entreprise Hermès) The Fondation d'entreprise Hermès supports people and organizations seeking to learn, perfect, transmit, and explore the artisan skills and creativity that shape and inspire our lives today, and into the future. The Foundation s active engagement in three key areas support for new work in the contemporary arts, education and training, and the preservation of our natural heritage is guided by our central focus on the

4 promotion of skills and creativity, and their continuing relevance to the changing needs of society today. The Foundation supports partner organizations across the globe. At the same time, we develop and administer our own projects in the contemporary visual arts (exhibitions and artists residences), the performing arts (the New Settings program), design (the Prix Émile Hermès international design award), and biodiversity. The Foundation s unique mix of programs and support is rooted in a single, underlying belief: We are what we create. About Crossing the Line 2013 Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) s annual fall festival, presenting interdisciplinary works and performances in New York. The festival explores the dialogue between artist and public, and examines how artists help re-imagine the world as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions. The festival s seventh edition takes place this year from September 19 October 13, Since its inauguration in 2007, Crossing the Line has cultivated an increasingly large and diverse following, and received numerous accolades in the press. The festival has been voted Best of 2009, Best of 2010, and Best of 2012" by Time Out New York, Frieze, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Events at the festival have won several Bessie awards, and 2012 s Habit received an Obie award for creators David Levine and Marsha Ginsberg. The New York Times states, For terrifically unusual, unpredictable, unnameable performance, we ve come to expect a lot from the curators of the French Institute Alliance Française s interdisciplinary festival, and Time Out New York says, This interdisciplinary festival is one of the season s great joys Forget about categories; this is a whirlwind of art. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit fiaf.org/ctl. About FIAF FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. fiaf.org Merci! FIAF would like to thank the following for their generous support of Crossing the Line 2013: Nespresso, Proud Presenting Sponsor of Crossing the Line Air France and Delta Air Lines, the official airlines of FIAF and Lead Sponsors of Crossing the Line Louis Roederer Foundation, Premier Sponsor of Crossing the Line Hermès Foundation (Fondation d'entreprise Hermès) s New Settings program; Florence Gould Foundation; Institut français; The MAP Fund; National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works; New York State Council on the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; FUSED: French U.S. Exchange in Dance, a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., and FACE (French American Cultural Exchange); The Enoch Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; British Council; Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques; the Goethe-Institut; Robert de Rothschild; Marie Nugent-Head; Sarina Tang; and Elisabeth Wilmers.

5 LISTING SUMMARY What: Crossing the Line 2013: Xavier Veilhan & Eliane Radigue, SYSTEMA OCCAM When: Thursday, September 19 at 8pm Where: FIAF, Florence Gould Hall 55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenue) Admission: FIAF Members $20, Non-Members $30, New Settings Package $50 (see above for info) Tickets: fiaf.org/ctl Information: fiaf.org/ctl Transportation: Subway: 4, 5, 6, N, R and W to 59th Street & Lexington Avenue; F to 63rd Street & Lexington Avenue Bus - M1, M2, M3, M4, Q31 to 59th Street; M5 to 58th Street ###