Disband & Performing the Sentence
The Austrian Cultural Forum New York proudly presents a concert by the legendary DISBAND , followed by a book presentation of the brand-new anthology, Performing the Sentence: Research and Teaching in Performative Fine Arts (Sternberg Press, 2014) by editors Carola Dertnig and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and series editor Andrea B. Braidt, Vice President of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Performing the Sentence brings into dialogue the ways that "performative thinking" has developed in different national and institutional contexts, within different disciplines in the arts, and the conditions under which it has developed in experimental art schools.
ABOUT DISBAND
Active in Manhattan's downtown art scene from 1978-82, the members of DISBAND screamed, shouted, sang, and stomped through the heyday of New York City's new- and no-wave scenes, blurring the line between performance art and live music. A loft in the avant-garde space Franklin Furnace served as their workshop, hosting "wild and crazy rehearsals" for the band's rotating membership, which at one time included artist Barbara Kruger and then-Editor of ARTFORUM Ingrid Sischy. Mirroring the chaotic atmosphere of that time and also addressing their status as women, the band's songs - such as, "The End," "Iran-y," "DOW," "Girls' Bill of Rights," and "Look at my Dick" - have unmistakable relevance today.
Self-described as "the all-girl conceptual art punk band of women artists who can't play any instruments," the group developed new songs during the summer of 2011 during a MacDowell Colony residency in New Hampshire.
Four artists, Ilona Granet , Donna Henes , Diane Torr , and Martha Wilson , are performing as DISBAND at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Ilona Granet and Martha Wilson have distinctive solo performance and exhibition careers; Donna Henes, the Urban Shaman, is author of several books and columns; and a film about Diane Torr, "Man for a Day," will be screened at Anthology Film Archives on June 19 and 20.
For more information, please visit: http://disbandny.wordpress.com/