Newspapers report that a fistfight erupted among Surrealists during a lecture in 1925, but what were the motives? Artist Shana Lutker reveals her theories in a performance with live acting, piano and 16mm film projection, with actors Jenny Greer, Bilal Mir and pianist Oscar Bustillo.
Based on Shana Lutker’s third chapter on the history of the fistfights of the Surrealists, this multi-media performance tells the story of a fight that broke out 90 years ago, on May 29, 1925, during a lecture about literature. Falling somewhere between a play and a lecture, the story follows the artist’s attempts to decode the motives of the Surrealists who disrupted the event and follows it’s ripples through history. Weaving together Surrealist artworks and writings related to the fistfight’s instigators and witnesses, Lutker’s play will incorporate scenes from Louis Aragon’s Au Pied du Mur (Backs to the Wall), excerpts from Germaine Dulac’s film La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman), and the music of Arthur Honegger performed live on piano.
This performance is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Project Gallery: Shana Lutker. Since 2012, Shana Lutker (b. 1978, Northport, New York) has been researching the Surrealist movement. Among the most important European avant-garde groups of the 20th century, the Surrealists explored the unconscious mind and creative expressions that were tied to the irrational. They were also, as revealed by Lutker’s research, prone to physical, public fights incited by intellectual arguments and personal slights. Lutker has identified seven fights that she is investigating through sculptural installations. She has realized two of these projects: the first one in three parts, including gallery presentations in Los Angeles and Zurich as well as a performance at Performa 13 in New York, and one as part of the 2014 Whitney Biennial. For Pérez Art Museum Miami, Lutker will realize the third work in her series. Her installation will respond to the architecture of PAMM’s unique auditorium space.
