Saturday October 26, 2-5pm
“Singin’ Rain”: Ajax’s 2nd Birthday Party
live interactive performance event by Marni Kotak
w/ Ajax Kotak Bell & family
presented by Microscope Gallery
at Running Rebel Studios (6 Charles Place, Brooklyn NY 11221)
admission is free
Photo credit: Jason Robert Bell
Microscope is pleased to present “Singin’ Rain: Ajax’s 2nd Birthday Party” a new live interactive performance event by Marni Kotak along with her son Ajax, family and friends. The event, like many of the artist’s previous works, positions actual real life occasions – in this case the actual 2nd birthday of her son – as performances in which the public is invited to participate. Kotak gave birth to Ajax on October 25, 2011 at Microscope as part of her month-long performance exhibition “The Birth of Baby X”.
For “Singin’ Rain…”, Kotak debuts an interactive and immersive video and sound rainstorm installation (umbrellas provided). Videos from Kotak’s “Raising Baby X: Little Brother”, a collaboration with Ajax who wears the camera, will also be screened, including the premier of a 2-channel work of last year’s party.
The event also features live music by Niko van Egten, with jazz trio The Brooklyn Players, instruments for others to join in, a ball pit for toddlers, as well as pizza, cupcakes, drinks, and more.
With “Singin’ Rain: Ajax’s 2nd Birthday Party” Birthday”, Kotak continues to emphasize the performative nature involved in our everyday lives, blur the boundary between performer and audience member, and create a wider sense of community through interpersonal interaction. Kotak’s work also addresses a core premise behind the prevalence of our virtual sharing culture, the possibility that people we do not know are interested in our lives, by inviting strangers into her inner circle to experience face-to-face significant moments of her life.
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Marni Kotak is a performance artist who makes multimedia works in which she presents everyday life being lived. She is recognized for her “Found Performances”, or works based on daily activities, experiences, or accomplishments, such as the recent “Calorie Countdown” (2013), “Postpartum Depression” (2012), “Raising Baby X (2011-ongoing), “Birth of Baby X” (2011) and the staged re-enactments of her own birth, attending her grandfather’s funeral and losing her virginity in a blue Plymouth. Kotak has also exhibited and performed at Performa, Momenta Art, Radiator Arts, English Kills Art Gallery, The New York Center of Photography and The Moving Image, Alice Chilton Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, Thomas Robertello Gallery (Chicago), The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (Peekskill), Sama Tower, Abu Dabi, and Open Realization Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, among many others. In 2011, Kotak was named one of Blouin Artinfo’s “Women Who Shook Up The Art World.” She is a 2012-2013 Franklin Furnace Fund award and a Brooklyn Arts Council grant recipient. Kotak received a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Brooklyn College.
Program
2pm
Immersive rain installation w/ balloons and small umbrellas for kids
Projection of “Little Brother” videos
Children can play in ball pool
3:00
Band plays first set as pizza is served
3:30pm
“Singin’ in the rain” with Marni & Ajax
3:45pm
“Happy Birthday” plays
Cupcakes are served
4:15pm – 5pm
Band plays final set
instruments are available for kids and adults to play along
Running Rebel Studios is located at:
6 Charles Place
Brooklyn NY 11221
www.runningrebelstudios.com
