SUMMARY

During the month of September, 2002, a series of live performances and installations will be presented in New York and London in commemoration of September 11th . The Art of Fugue/ A Celebration of Life - will run concurrently at the London Institute and at the Center for Advanced Technology’s Media Research Lab (CATLab) and performance venues of the Downtown campus of New York University.

Fourteen folded sculptures by artist, Elizabeth Harington, as well as 14 flat etchings will be on exhibit interpreting The Art of Fugue. A recital of the 14 compositions by J.S. Bach will be performed by The New Century Saxophone Quartet in New York, that dovetail with their upcoming release on Channel Classics of the complete Art of Fugue. Simultaneously, a dance choreography will take place in London, staged by the creative team of SMARTlab UK. These three elements will be mixed and streamed on the World Wide Web. This complete rendering of the Contrapuntus works on both sides of the Atlantic will include gallery exhibitions, concerts, dance choreographies, and a multi-media performance and projection of the first animation of Harington’s work. The animation has been commissioned by ACT, and will be executed by the noted Czech team of Misha Films, now resident in the United States.

An important dimension of this project is to create a dynamic relationship between the actual and virtual experience of these visual and performing arts elements. Our goal is to provide audiences at the live concerts and gallery installations in the US and UK, as well as those listening on the Internet, with a rich visual experience of a new cross disciplinary interpretation of Bach’s musical work. We hope to bring the folded sculptures to life as they open and close, transition and transform from one to another, and spiral in an animation of visual forms and musical notes that reflect the purity and complexity of The Art of Fugue.

Beginning July of 2002, ACT and the SMARTlabUK will work with their strategic partners at the Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) at NYU, Ms. Harington, the artist, and Barbara Siesel, an accomplished musician and Artistic Director of the Storm King Music Festival, and Misha Films to animate the complete edition of The Art of Fugue. This cross continental celebration will take full advantage of ACT and the SMARTlab UK’s experience in presenting cross disciplinary performance mediated by technology that is re-purposed in virtual space for audiences on the World Wide Web. We hope to focus global attention on the theme of The Art of Fugue/A Celebration of Life at a critical moment in our history, as this collaboration of noted artists illuminate our understanding of the compositions of one of the world’s greatest composers who understood the confrontation between the forces of darkness and those seeking to embrace the light.