Absurdist Play to Shed Light on Artist’s Process at MASS MoCA

Guillaume Leblon

Guillaume Leblon

(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – The Interview, written by artist Guillaume Leblon with curator and critic Thomas Boutoux, will be given a staged reading in Club B-10 at MASS MoCA on Thursday, February 27, 2014, at 6pm. The short play takes the format of an interview, centering around Leblon’s desire to produce a non-traditional text on his work. The absurdist play ultimately becomes that text, offering insight into Leblon’s own practice. Attendees can meet the artist following the reading, which will feature two New York-based actors.

The six-scene play follows an ongoing conversation between an artist and a critic, starting when the artist commissions a text from the critic, who in turn attempts to understand what the former wants from the project. The subsequent misunderstandings, agreements, and dissents cover everything from writing, art-making, and publishing to artistic paranoia, drinking in the afternoon, and Egyptian funeral practices.

On display at MASS MoCA through April 6, 2014, Guillaume Leblon: Under My Shoe is the Paris-based sculptor’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. Leblon has choreographed powerful, discrete objects into a spatial narrative within the gallery space, which conjures images of ruin and the passage of time.

“Leblon’s work is unabashedly philosophical. It’s the kind you want to come back to,” says Sebastian Smee of the Boston Globe, calling the show “brilliant.” “His works get you thinking about the strange life, and afterlife, of objects; about the imprint we leave on them; the imprint they leave on the space around them; and the imprint of time itself.”

A full bar, and dinner and snacks from Lickety Split, are available before and during the show. Tickets are free for members and $7 for not-yet-members. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA box office, located on Marshall Street in North Adams, from 11am to 5pm (open every day except Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 x1 during box office hours or purchased online at MASS MoCA.

 

 

 

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