ARCHIVE 2 Curated by Karl Cooney

AUG 257 PM - 12 AM

LE PETIT VERSAILLES COMMUNITY GARDEN346 E. Houston St. / 247 E. 2nd St.RAIN OR SHINEAt times, being a performance artist can feel more like being a failed librarian.This series is a small contribution to the historical record of performance art in New York City.Twelve artists total, four per night.Each performance will be lovingly documented and the video archived on YouTube.PERFORMERS:CoCo Cafe is a first-generation Chicanx interdisciplinary performance artist, cultural worker, curator, and organizer from the suburban “Bible Belt” of Dallas, Texas. As a person living within the diaspora, she practices performance as a decolonizing methodology, exploring indigeneity, queer identities, trauma, history, and memory through autobiography. Their practice is fueled by research in the U.S. and Mexico which traces the mass disappearances and forced displacement of people in her father’s home state of Guerrero. http://performanceco.tumblr.com/ Kledia Spiro (Tirana, Albania) creates videos, performances, installations, and paintings. She uses weightlifting as a symbol of survival, empowerment and celebration. Weightlifting becomes a vehicle for discussing women’s role in society, immigration and times of war. By experimenting with indeterminate methods, Spiro wants the viewer to access the otherwise inaccessible spaces. Her works are based on Freudian and Piagetian behavioral concepts: visions that reflect psycho-analysis, behavioral psychology, and a sensation of indisputability, combined with details of odd, eccentric, absurd, totemic and humoristic elements. By questioning where one is and the concept of movement, Spiro investigate the manipulation of lifting objects overhead and it's effects. http://www.klediaspiro.com Lorene Bouboushian is a performance artist who utilizes "self-exposure and vulnerability in real, risky ways" [CultureBot, 2011] and produces “thought-provoking commentary on social limits” [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2016]. She has spread her black magic from Seattle to Madison, Athens, Beirut, and Zagreb. Projects include punk-noise duo ::missdick vibrocis (with Forced into Femininity), Know What Smokes—a durational duet with closed eyes and objects (with Kaia Gilje), and extent of explosive lament, a solo on class and liminal Lebaneseness. She has traveled to sites including University of Kentucky, Lexington, and Universidad de Las Americas Puebla to teach interdisciplinary, accessible performance workshops. www.lorenebouboushian.org Shawn Escarciga (Brooklyn, NY, USA) is an experimental movement artist whose work is based in Butoh and the creation of new movement paradigms, particularly around the queer body. His work has been shown throughout New York City (Panoply Performance Lab, Glasshouse ArtLifeLab[Performeando], Queens Museum[LiveArt.us], MIX NYC, Triskelion, Chinatown Soup{Performance Anxiety], The Clemente), in other cities (Boston, Chicago, Lexington), and also in another country once (Month of Performance Art - Berlin). He has collaborated and performed with artists and collectives throughout New York City, including Butoh company, The Vangeline Theater/New York Butoh Institute, and the multidisciplinary social justice and performance group, Gender/Power, as well as teaching movement and Butoh workshops independently for Otion Front Studio and the University of Kenutcky. He thinks a lot about classism, queer visibility, subtlety, how to light patriarchal structures on fire effectively, and what it would be like to live in a country that supports non-commercial artists, which might look something like eating a 2000 calorie diet regularly and owning a Shiba Inu.