Save the Date: M.A.R.S. Festival: Friday April 14th – Sunday April 23rd
Join us for Downtown Los Angeles’ inaugural M.A.R.S. FESTIVAL (Music & Arts ReSound) with its day-by-day line-up from Friday April 14th – Sunday April 23rd. Included as part of the festival will be eight-days of free events, titled Test Site Salons. Overall Festival Facebook Invite here and Test Site Salons Facebook Invite here.
Set for Friday, April 14 through Sunday, April 23 at Angel City Brewery and Art Share L.A., the 10-day festival will host M.A.R.S. Arts Week, in addition to their full musical line-up, featuring daily installations and activities curated by art critic Shana Nys Dambrot.
Says M.A.R.S.’ Artistic Curator Dambrot,
“The visual art programming reflects an aesthetic approach, in corollary to the musical spirit of the festival — one that is expressive of fast-paced and futuristic realities, while remaining tethered to shared, direct experience and place-making attentions. We’re calling it ‘analog science fiction,’ and ‘handmade futurism.’ A curated group of multimedia, video, installation and performance artists, as well as artists using new technologies within the bounds of conventional art-making, will create exhibitions, happenings and site-specific sculptural installations for the duration of the festival, activating both the Angel City Brewery and Art Share spaces (and sometimes the sidewalks in-between) in a series of performative, cross-platform events throughout the week.”
Day-by-day line-up for M.A.R.S. Arts Week:
Friday, April 14 through Sunday, April 23 at Angel City Brewery
On view daily throughout the festival and being unveiled at M.A.R.S.’ opening night party is a new painting and an augmented reality (AR) exhibition by visual artist Daniel Leighton; a sculptural installation by cardboard artists Dosshaus; and a photography installation and performance work by Amy Kaps. Plus, the opening concert M.A.R.S. Electric will feature an appearance by futuristic human-interface performance artist
Tiffany Trenda.
Dosshaus is dedicated to remaking the entire world in black and white cardboard, re-inventing experiences and objects from domestic to industrial and cultural spaces, turning the world into a stark, eccentric, fragile wonderland. Kaps will hang a series of original photographs in the intimate lounge area, which will form the site of her opening night performance, and the landing for her traveling work on the night of April 21. Leighton has invented a new way of embedding AR animation and video content into his original digital paintings. For optimum viewing of Leighton’s AR works on mobile devices and tablets, festival-goers will download his dedicated app for free (visit DanielLeighton.com for more info).
Wednesday, April 19 through Saturday, April 22 at Art Share L.A.
The gallery will feature a sprawling dimensional, interactive, and kinetic art installation throughout the first floor. Art Share’s two project rooms will house performances — one by Amy Kaps, the other, a collaboration between performance artist Victor Wilde and video artist Jesse Gilbert — that will unfold inside a pair of site-specific immersive installation environments.
Kaps will create her signature Striped World black-and-white op-art environment, and will screen a series of her original performance-based videos, as well as enacting a series of small-scale performances in the space throughout the week, including launching an outdoor performance into the neighborhood on Friday, April 21, and hosting a concert of her conceptual cover band on Saturday, April 22. Wilde and Gilbert will collaborate on an experimental “mixed reality” environment that contains elements of sculptural design and collage-based visual art, extricated VR footage, and live audio and video projection. Wilde will enact live-printing, internet streaming fashion content, and interactive performances throughout the week, culminating in the premiere of his label Bohemian Society’s debut of a new avant-garde fashion film conceived and produced with filmmaker and inventor Joe Rubinstein on Saturday, April 22 in the Art Share theater.
Visual artists Thomas Sturm and Samantha Calvetti, Bryan Jacobs and Jay Mark Johnson will install monumental works in open spaces throughout the first floor. The open lobby will host examples from Johnson’s politically charged, witty sculptural project “Someday, All This Will Be Yurts!”, which is soon to make its public art debut in Los Angeles and international civic spaces. Sturm and Calvetti brings you a newly developed artificial intelligence experience for single viewers, whose interactions teach an asthmatic artificial intelligence how to stay calm. Jacobs offers two site-specific sculptural installations in which automated analog machinery generates sights and sounds.
Throughout the week, Art Share’s Perimeter Gallery will feature a group show of walls works by all visual, performance and video artists on the M.A.R.S. lineup, with a VIP reception for all the artists on Saturday, April 22 at 6pm.
Additionally, throughout the week, six artists (divided into two groups) will each screen one-hour programs in daily rotations, projected on the large wall in the open lobby. Video Program Loop One (screening April 19, 21 and 22) consists of Jennifer Vanderpool (stop-motion), Kristine Schomaker (Second Life), and Kio Griffith (abstract collage) and Video Program Loop Two (screening April 20-22) consists of Ned & Shiva Productions (experimental mockumentary), Pearl C. Hsiung (cosmic performance-based), Osceola Refetoff (avant-garde dream cinema).
Friday, April 21 at Art Share to Angel City Brewery
Performance art by Amy Kaps, entitled “Unraveling,” from 7-8pm beginning in her room at Art Share and landing among her photographs at ACB’s lounge. Kaps will enact her wildly popular slow-motion unfurling in a siren-song manner, leaving a trail of tape behind her as she moves through the neighborhood between venues, slowly coming apart in real time.
Saturday, April 22 at Art Share L.A.
Amy Kaps and her as-yet untitled band project featuring singer/accordionist Mrs. Hobbs, poet/drummer Milo Martin, and multitalented instrumentalist Armando Briones will perform original interpretations of classic songs about black, white, and stripes, inside her Striped World installation.
VIP/Artist reception at Perimeter Gallery art show at 6pm
Victor Wilde and Joe Rubinstein “Miscreants” film premiere in theater at 7pm. An original 60-minute short feature fashion and performance film being produced in partnership with M.A.R.S., inspired by the fashion and design of Wilde and his Bohemian Society label, with cinematography by Rubinstein.
Sunday, April 23 at Angel City Brewery from 1-5pm
M.A.R.S. Festival Closing Party featuring a performance by Amy Kaps and the M.A.R.S. Super Sonic concert, offering an interactive exhibition of Ensemble Pamplemousse’s sonic art.
For tickets and more info, visit festivalmars.com and follow @festivalmars on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates and sneak peeks on the festival’s artists and individual projects.
Venues:
Angel City Brewery
216 Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Monday – Thursday, 4pm-1am
Friday, 4pm-2am
Saturday, 12pm-2am
Sunday, 12pm-1am
Art Share L.A.
801 E. 4th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Wednesday – Sunday, 1-6pm
For more info on M.A.R.S. FESTIVAL, visit:
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