ArtSocial and Pace London co-hosted an intimate soirée for friends and supporters: this special night, presented by Pace, included an interactive art performance by Abraham Brody alongside a video piece Panorama by Michal Rovner.
Abraham Brody is a performance and conceptual artist. He is also a classically trained violinist, and aims to explore in depth the participation of the audience in live performance by bringing the violin into the genre of performance art.
He has an upcoming residency at the Barbican Centre Art Gallery in July 2015, Venøgård Kunst Festival in Norway, Galerija Vartai in Vilnius, Sziget Festival Hungary, and the Freud Museum London among others. He has performed in venues across Europe, USA, and Canada. Most recently he was invited by Marina Abramovic to perform a 6-hour version of his piece The Violinist is Present at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, curated by Ms. Abramovic.
He has performed at the Royal Festival Hall London, The Moritzburg Festival Germany, where he received the audience prize; Kristupo Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania where he premiered a new work for the solo violin by Rūta Vitkauskaite; the Gewandhaus in Leipzig; Smetana Hall in Prague; Frauenkirche in Dresden; Haydnsaal in Vienna; the Royal Festival Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, the Barbican Centre, Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Spitalfields Festival, Shoreditch Church, St. John’s Smith Square and the Symphony Hall in Boston, among others.
Origins/Refuge
In all of his works, Abraham Brody seeks to find the origins and the essence of himself, the public, places, and phenomena. Origins/Refuge is a space where the public is invited to question and reflect on their origins: ancestral, spiritual, cultural.
Inspired by the video work of Michal Rovner, Brody creates an interactive performance involving the public directly in the creation of the work – they become part of the performance itself. He guides them through a series of rituals emphasising interpersonal connection and self-reflection: at times separate from the public, at other times looking into their eyes and attempting to portray their soul in sound.
Rovner's works, Brody's performance, and the public's experience will be united in the creation of several conceptual pieces co-created by the public. These works serve to preserve collective memory and tangibly illustrate the audience's emotional response to the performance.
*All music is created by Abraham Brody and is an improvisation inspired by Michal Rovner as well as by folk music of the artist's ancestral homelands*
