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Event Info:

Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity, is a major group exhibition in which contemporary artists explore—and on occasion recreate—the condition of weightlessness on earth. The exhibition will present the work of multiple national and international artists, including three newly commissioned pieces for the exhibition. Distributed throughout the public spaces in the building the exhibition is itself un-tethered from the confines of the traditional gallery exhibition paradigm.

• Arts Catalyst • Benjamin Bergmann • Denis Darzacq • Edith Dekyndt • Chris Doyle • William Forsythe • Julia Fullerton-Batten • Thom Kubli • Tomás Saraceno • Jane & Louise Wilson • Xu Zhen

» ONLINE EXHIBITION CATALOG «

Dancing on the Ceiling will bring together artworks that use the metaphor of floating or weightlessness as an expression of the relationship of the individual to social, political or personal contexts. In addition, several of the pieces relate to lightness as akin to an agility of mind, freed of entrenched perspectives.

Occupying EMPAC’s Studio 2, Jane and Louise Wilson’s four-channel video installation Stasi City is a psychological investigation of the former headquarters of the East German secret police, culminating in a moment of escape. Xu Zhen’s In Just a Blink of the Eye poses individual actors as if caught in a moment, defying gravity and time. The two video works that comprise William Forsythe's Antipodes I/II constitute a study of destabilizing habits of bodily movement in relation to gravity.

The artworks in the exhibition deploy helium, parabolic flight, rigging, and digital effects. They feature floating performers, an upside-down kitchen, an isolation tank and skateboarders freed from physical laws. They evoke the golden age of space exploration and the dreams of the counter-culture. Dancing on the Ceiling is a provocative convergence of time-based photography, sculpture, installation, and video.

Curated by Kathleen Forde, Curator of Time-Based Arts, the exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalog including essays by Italo Calvino as well as interviews with commissioned artists Chris Doyle and Thom Kubli.

The exhibition is also contextualized by a series of related performances, talks, films, and events; see the schedule for complete information.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE & RELATED EVENTS:

Thursday March 18 – Saturday April 10, 2010
MONDAY – SATURDAY 12:00 – 6:00 PM
Exhibition open to the public	Building-wide
Thursday March 18, 2010
EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION
6:00 PM – Opening Reception with artists Chris Doyle, Tom Kubli and curator Kathleen Forde	Evelyn’s Café
TALK + SCREENING
7:00 PM – Talk with special effects legend Douglas Trumbull followed by a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey	Concert Hall
Thursday March 25, 2010
TALK
6:00 PM — Armstrong, DeBlock, Krueger and Vashishth: Inhabiting Other Worlds: Micro Gravity, Perception, Physiology & Design	TBA
Thursday April 8, 2010
TOUR
6:30 PM — Exhibition tour with curator Kathleen Forde
SCREENING
7:30 PM — Unfiction: Man on Wire	Theater
March 18 – April 10, 2010
INSTALLATIONS
Monday thru Saturday 12:00 – 6:00 PM
FLOAT!: Think Tank 21 In conjunction with Thom Kubli’s newly commissioned installation for the exhibition, visitors can request up to a 45 minute session in the custom designed flotation tank. Please call 518.276.3921 to make an appointment. Space is limited.	5000 Level Bridge
Epicurean @ Evelyn's Café
As you wander in and out of exhibitions at the opening, grab a snack, a glass of wine, and a cup of coffee brought to you by our good friends Sandy, Claire and Dominique from the Epicurean Café in Troy.
Thursday March 18 — 6:00 – 10:00 PM — Food and drink available in Evelyn's Café