GENESIS PROJECT 2009
(Philadelphia)
Genesis Project, Philadelphia provided a space for individualized artistic inquiry, in addition to horizontal exchange of knowledge and cross-disciplinary collaboration, as defined by the resident artists.
Genesis Project received 36 applications from New York, Philadelphia, several other US cities, and 8 countries abroad. The 5 artists came from diverse backgrounds and brought their skills and curiosity to form a unique, dynamic group. They converged at Basekamp in Philadelphia from August 1st-28th, 2009. Please read on for more information about the artists, and the overview of the residency.
A complete set of photos has been assembled on this Flickr page
A video can be viewed on this Vimeo page
Interviews with each artist can be found on the Movement Research blog. Arturo Vidich and Aki Sasamoto interviewed each artist via Skype chat.
Interview #1: Carlos Monroy
Interview #2: Saul Melman
Interview #3: Meghan Flanigan
Interview #4: Fergus Byrne
Biographies of all participants
Fergus Byrne
Fergus Byrne works across several media – drawing, video, performance and writing. He is currently on the Artist’s Residency Programme at The Irish Museum of Modern Art until March 31st 2009. Recent work has involved an exploration of the physical movement in martial arts, freestyle wrestling and Contact Improvisation Dance. This enquiry is being conducted through practical investigation of the above arts. Parallel to this is the project ‘Souvenirs of The Overworld’ a work exploring memory. An intensive study of Greek Classics and their mythology supports this investigation. His work has been featured recently in shows at IMMA, The Sycamore Gallery, Broadstone XL and Birr Union Workhouse. Samples of two dimensional work may be seen on the studio website.
Meghan Flanigan
Meghan Flanigan is a dance artist whose work includes choreography for theatres and site-specific locations, multi-disciplinary collaborations, improvisation, performance and community focused work. Born in Baltimore, she began her studies in dance with classical ballet at the Peabody Preparatory. After receiving her BA in Public Policy from Brown University in 1996 she moved to New York City where she performed and studied contemporary, modern and improvisation in various dance studios. In 1998, she moved to London, England to study for a Masters in Dance Studies at the Laban Centre. After completing her masters, she continued to live in London where she focused her work on investigating creative process and choreographing professionally for theatres and site-specific events. During this time, she taught creative and academic courses at Laban. In 2004, she received grants to travel to Bogotá, Colombia and create work for festivals and universities. Subsequently, she returned to Bogotá where she became an important force for the development of contemporary dance in Colombia as an artist, educator and curator. In August 2008, she returned to Baltimore. She currently teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
http://www.meghanflanigan.blogspot.com
Saul Melman
Saul Melman is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He uses sculpture as a means to investigate the space between verbal language and the language of the body. He considers himself and the viewer as material and is interested in the physical relationship between the art work and the viewer as a vehicle to explore ideas and create experiences. He has made large-scale installations in the Nevada Desert and has exhibited sculpture and performance work at Moti-Hasson, Cooper Union and The Melville Gallery in New York City. Saul completed an MFA degree in sculpture from Bard College in 2009.
http://www.saulmelman.com/mov/icantbelieve.mov
Carlos Eduardo Monroy Guerrero
Fine artist and performer, graduated from art with two bachelors , one in Electronic media and time´s art, the other in History and theory of arts from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia in 2008. After he came back from a one year exchange at the arts department from the University of São Paulo, he developed his thesis ›Performance Product Ltda‹ , work that allowed him to finish his studies as an outstanding student. In November 2008 He participated at the ›Septimo Festival de Performance de Cali‹, that took place within the activities of ›41 Salon Nacional de Artistas‹ the most important art event of Colombia, invited by the curatorial program of the Helena Producciones Collective. In 2008 he flew again to São Paulo invited by the Galeria Vermelho and sponsored by the Spain embassy and the Centro cultural Brasil-España, to the festival ›VERBO 2008‹ to show his performance ›La performola‹ or ›The perforbox‹. Also during his stay he participated, invited by the curator Marta Lucia Velez, in the latinamerica video art retrospective called ›Visonário / Audiovisual na America Latina‹ event which took place at the Itau Cultural, and will be on a 2009 Latin American tour. En 2007 he did his first two solo exibithions at the alternative exhibition space ›La Vitrina‹ located at the Universidad de los Andes. The first one, an installation called ›Jesus Flow project vol.1‹, and the second, a series of 4 performances named ›I see you kissing damn you look good‹. After this, in october of the same year, he was part of the selected artists in the first art-action encounter from Bogotá called ›Primer encuentro arte-acción 27 al azar‹. In October 2004, he was invited to the international photography festival of Bogotá ›Fotologia 3 - festival internacional de fotografía de Bogotá‹ and he won the first place at the ›Artronica2/Festival Internacional de Artes Electrónicas de Bogota‹ with his video ›Retratos Familiares‹ / ›Family portraits‹ work that let him travel to Germany and show his work as part of the ›EMAF 2005/European Mediatic Art Festival‹ and made an artistic residence during the event in a place called ›Medien Haus Osnabrück‹ In 2006 his work was shown in different festivals such as ›Media Art Friesland Festival‹ in Holland, and the ›Victoria Independet Film And Video Festival‹ in Canada.In 2005 he helped the canadian-colombian collective ›We are not speedy Gonzales‹ during their stay in Bogotá. Currently he is working on new pieces like ›Monroy's performance service‹ & ›Performatic Steals ‹.
http://issuu.com/performanceproductltda/docs/portfoliocarlosmonroy0408englishversion