YES ALL DOCUMENTATIONS FROM 2017 ARE READY TO WATCH!
Last year was a busy year with 5 large scale visual art performances Commissions, which four of them were a celebration to our studio’s 10th birthday.
Now finally we have edit all the documentations of the performances.
First in the year we presented – Passing through Metal by Oreet Ashery a major collaboration with London-based artist Oreet Ashery.
In Passing through Metal forty local knitters and the Doom / Sludge Metal band Pyramido unite in an apocalyptic performance.
Then in the fall we celebrated our 10th anniversary with a series of unique dinner performances by 5 beloved artists from Lilith’s past.
The invited artists were:
Dafna Maimon (Israel/Finland) – 22-24 September – YOU ARE INVITED – ORIENT EXPRESS, YOURSELF Myriam Laplante (Italy) – 12-14 October –YOU ARE INVITED – THE GATEWAY Odun Orimolade (Nigeria) – 24-25 November –YOU ARE INVITED – KALO KALO The Icelandic Love Corporation – Jóní Jónsdóttir & Eirún Sigurðaradtóttir (Iceland) – 14-16 December –YOU ARE INVITED – BABY SHOWER FOR MARY
We are happy to announce that a Lilith Commission from 2017 – YOU ARE INVITED – Orient Express Yourself by Dafna Maimon is opening tonight in its last and the 4th chapter
at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga with the title “FAMILY BUSINESS: POWER FAILURE”
“FAMILY BUSINESS: POWER FAILURE” is the last part in a series of exhibitions and performances inspired by autobiographical and micro historical research into a family-owned business – Finland’s first kebab and falafel restaurant ”Orient Express”, opened by the artist’s Israeli father in 1985. Located in the ”Forum” shopping mall in Helsinki city centre, the restaurant introduced Finns to the delicacies of the Middle East.
Some years ago, Maimon found a rather strange high-budget video ad from 1986 that her father had produced, which used his own exoticness in a high-paced narrative to market kebabs in Finland.Starting from this video-relic and her childhood memories, the artist has now reworked the commercial and reimagined the restaurant.
Today, Orient Express exists in a world beyond capital. The restaurant was first reconstructed in Lilith Performance Studio as the performance Orient Express Yourself, where it was equipped with a functioning kitchen, complete with trained “restaurant workers” whose task was to sell falafel in exchange for the audience’s own words. The customers paid prices ranging from 15 to 299 words, and answered questions relating to memories of family and gender roles, as well as the effects of destructive patriarchal structures. Their amplified recollections enabled a semi-shared and intimate space between strangers.
A few months later, Orient Express expanded its operations to Galerie Wedding, where the installation functioned as a ghostly memory of the long-gone restaurant. There it sold falafels to the audience only on the opening, where the word-payment was recorded into an old tape recorder. For the finnissage the restaurant catered to people again with the performance After Hours. Maimon scripted an absurd movement score based on restaurant chores a worker performs when closing up for the night. One chore was to count the takings; the words collected at the opening were played back within the performance as further fragmented memories to a new audience.
Its third stop was in Finland at SIC Space, 33 years after its initial opening, as the exhibition Family Business. The mutation of the restaurant served falafel cooked and sold by the artist’s actual family members – her siblings.
Now it has come the the last stop and the restaurant will branch out to Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga, where it will open on the 20 April in yet a new mutation as a performative space where collected local memories have been transformed into a script. The idea of a family business could be an overarching way to describe the artist’s work; she creates temporary small-scale communities that challenge stereotypical constructions. Through these communities, Maimon studies the very same elements her work materializes through; affect based constructions and their economies.
Lilith Performance Studio vinnare på Scenkonstgalan!
Lilith Performance Studio fick priset med motiveringen ”Lilith Performance Studio har skapat en unik plats för performancekonsten, där konstnärerna Elin Lundgren och Petter Pettersson, med konstnärlig forskning som ledstjärna, gör verklighet av storskaliga verk och galna idéer. Konstnärerna de arbetar med kommer från hela världen. I verk efter verk slås vi av den konstnärliga skarpheten och det brinnande engagemang som låter arbetet formas över tid. Utmanande, tillgänglig och tankefrämjande. Det är näringsrik mat för själen. Den första av sitt slag i världen. På ett generöst och unikt sätt ansvarar våra pristagare för, och utvecklar, konstformen. För arbetet med att skapa möjligheter, och för den otroliga lyxen att vi kan få ta del av frukterna.”
Lilith Performance Studio winner on the Performing Arts Gala!
Lilith Performance Studio got the award with the motivation. ”Lilith Performance Studio has created a unique place for performance art, where artists Elin Lundgren and Petter Pettersson, with artistic research as a lead star, make reality of large-scale works and crazy ideas. The artists they work with come from all over the world. In works by works we are struck by the artistic sharpness and the burning commitment that allows the work to be shaped over time. Challenging, accessible and thougtful. It is nutritious food for the soul. The first of its kind in the world. In a generous and unique way, our prize winners are responsible for, and developing, the art form. For the work of creating opportunities, and for the incredible luxury that we can get the fruits of. ”
Vi är glada och stolta över att ha blivit nominerade i kategorin årets Slow Food vid Scenkonstgalan 2017 som går av stapeln nu på lördag den 17 februari i Göteborg!
We are happy and proud to have been nominated in the category Slow Food of the Year at the Performing Arts Gala 2017, which will be launched on Saturday, February 17th in Gothenburg!
We are so happy to announce that a Lilith Commission from 2017 – YOU ARE INVITED – Orient Express Yourself by Dafna Maimon is living on in new shapes and will open tomorrow with the title ”FAMILY BUSINESS” at SIC artists’ space in Helsinki, Finland.
”Family Business” is the third in a series of exhibitions and performances inspired by autobiographical and micro historical research into a family-owned business – Finland’s first kebab and falafel restaurant ”Orient Express”, opened by the artist’s Israeli father in 1985.Located in the ”Forum” shopping mall in Helsinki city centre, the restaurant introduced Finns to the delicacies of the Middle East.
Some years ago, Maimon found a rather strange high-budget video ad from 1986 that her father had produced, which used his own exoticness in a high-paced narrative to market kebabs in Finland.Starting from this video-relic and her childhood memories, the artist has now reworked the commercial and reimagined the restaurant.
Today, Orient Express exists in a world beyond capital. The restaurant was first reconstructed in Lilith Performance Studio as the performance Orient Express Yourself, where it was equipped with a functioning kitchen, complete with trained “restaurant workers” whose task was to sell falafel in exchange for the audience’s own words. The customers paid prices ranging from 15 to 299 words, and answered questions relating to memories of family and gender roles, as well as the effects of destructive patriarchal structures. Their amplified recollections enabled a semi-shared and intimate space between strangers.
A few months later, Orient Express expanded its operations to Galerie Wedding, where the installation functioned as a ghostly memory of the long-gone restaurant. There it sold falafels to the audience only on the opening, where the word-payment was recorded into an old tape recorder. For the finnissage the restaurant catered to people again with the performance After Hours. Maimon scripted an absurd movement score based on restaurant chores a worker performs when closing up for the night. One chore was to count the takings; the words collected at the opening were played back within the performance as further fragmented memories to a new audience.
Now Orient Express has finally returned to Finland, 33 years after its initial opening, as the exhibition Family Business. At the opening event at SIC Space, the new mutation of the restaurant will serve falafel cooked and sold by the artist’s actual family members – her siblings.
As its next stop, the restaurant will branch out to Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga, where it will open in yet a new mutation as a performative space where collected local memories have been transformed into a script. The idea of a family business could be an overarching way to describe the artist’s work; she creates temporary small-scale communities that challenge stereotypical constructions. Through these communities, Maimon studies the very same elements her work materializes through; affect based constructions and their economies.
The exhibition is co-produced by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Lilith Performance Studio, Galerie Wedding, SIC Space and is generously supported by Latvia’s centennial programme. Special thanks to Zane Onckule, Solvej Ovesen Helweg, Jonatan Habib Engqvist. Photo credit: Lilith Performance Studio, Orient Express Yourself performance by Dafna Maimon, 2017.
Art Radar brings you 7 highlights not to miss during Singapore Art Week 2018.Singapore Art Week 2018 runs from 17 to 28 January, concurrently with Art Stage Singapore, and presents a rich programme of events across the city.
Happy to announce that a Lilith Commission from 2016 – Transaction of Hollows by the Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo will be shown at ShanghArt Singapore next week!
The live performance, titled “Transaction of Hollows”, is a long durational performance piece that investigates mankind’s desire on love and war.
Melati evokes her desolation at the state of politics and society as she negotiates the nuances of such emotions through these circumstances by repetitively shooting hundreds of arrows without a specific target.
The audience is invited to be present in the same space while she shoots arrows across the room, allowing them to be immersed and drawn in, connecting with the artist and the atmosphere in their own unique way.
At the end of the performance, the venue, left untouched, will form an exhibition on its own.
This provides viewers an experience in a different circumstance from the live performance, much akin to witnessing of the aftermath of a war after its conclusion.
Transaction of Hollows was commissioned by and performed first time at Lilith Performance Studio, Malmo in 2016.
Photo by Petter Petterson, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö
Thank you all for a Glorious celebration and a MAGNIFICENT Final of our tenth anniversary series YOU ARE INVITED! Baby Shower for Mary by the two goddess Madams from Iceland ❤️?? Jóní Jónsdóttir & Eirún Sigurðardóttir = The Icelandic Love Corporation and our amazing participants and Dream TEAM was the best finishing EVER! Thank you dear audience for coming to all our performances during this fall. Great feeling to see you all there! And a BIG thank you all fantastic Artists ( Dafna Maimon, Myriam Laplante, Odun Orimolade & The Icelandic Love Corporation) that we have collaborated with during our jubilee celebration.❤️?
” YOU ARE MASTERPIECE,
A MASETRPIECE,
THAT WE ALL HAVE CREATED TOGETHER”
from Baby Shower for Mary
It has been a fantastic marvelous magical ride through this fall of out BIG celebtration of outr ten YEARS as a performance studio.
Tonight it will be the grand finale with our darlings – the wonderful art collective The Icelandic Love Corporation ( Madam Jóní Jónsdóttir and Madam Eirún Sigurdardóttir) <3 Fint skrivet om YOU ARE INVITED – Baby Shower for Mary av Clemens Altgård i Skånska Dagbladet i dag. ” Performancekonst kan vara otäck och oroande, men den kan också vara riktigt trevlig som denna kväll, om än inte utan spänningsmoment. En värdig avslutning på årets jubileumsaktiviteter.”
Very beautiful art review written by Clemens Altgård in today’s newspaper Skånska Dagbladet of, our last performance dinner by fab The Icelandic Love Corporation YOU ARE INVITED – Baby Shower for Mary
”Performance Art can be nasty and disturbing, but it can also be really nice like this evening, though not without tension torque. A worthy end to this year’s anniversary activities.”
Väldigt fin skrivet också av Anders E Larsson i Kristianstadsbladet:
” ILC:s uttryck hittas någonstans i skärningspunkten mellan (ett spelat) gravallvar och humorn som lurar i nästa andetag – kepsarna med en pärla längst fram på skärmkanten, som vi tar på oss för att hitta ”our inner pearl”, är ett exempel; detta paras med en samtidskommenterande attityd och en road nyfikenhet på hur vi som besökare hanterar de instruktioner vi får. Madamernas mjuka handlag och isländskt spirituella/ironiska mantran gör oss beredvilliga: ”The beginning and the end, the love and the drops, your rain of gold” – och så sprejas det polkagris(?)doftande vätska över våra huvuden.”
Also very well written art review by Anders E Larsson in in Kristianstadsbladet today:
”The ILC’s expression is found somewhere at in intersection (an acted) grave seriousness and humor lurking in the next breath – the caps with a pearl at the front of the cap edge, which we put on to find” our inner pearl”, is one example; this is paired with a contemporary commentary attitude and an amused curiosity about how we as visitors handles the instruction we receive. Madame soft touch and Icelandic spiritual / ironic mantras makes us entreated: ”the beginning and the end, the love and the drops, your rain of gold ”- and then a fragrance of mint scented liquid is sprayed over our heads.”
” Att sätta hushållsarbete eller det vardagliga i centrum är en inarbetad feministisk strategi inom konsten, men här görs det inte främst för att uppmärksamma värdesystem, utan för att betona idén om omsorg och det kollektiva. Performancekonst spelar mycket på publikens förväntningar och okunskap, vilket ofta bidrar till en spänning i rummet. Detta verks små gester av tacksamhet och respekt – vi får våra händer tvättade, görs delaktiga och uppmuntras – bidrar istället till en avväpnande trivsel. Det kan låta trivialt, men när vi står där och sjunger, en mörk decemberkväll 2017, välkomnar jag denna trivsel och uppfattar den som radikal.”
”To put household or everyday work in the center is an incorporated feminist strategy in the art, but this is not primarily aimed at paying attention to value systems, but to emphasize the idea of care and the collective. Performance art plays a lot about the audience’s expectations and ignorance, which often contributes to the excitement of the room, which makes little gestures of gratitude and respect – we get our hands washed, participated and encouraged – instead contributes to a disgusting well-being. It may sound trivial, but when we stand there and sing, a dark December evening 2017, I welcome this well-being and perceive it as radical. ”
