THE PROCESS IS THE ROMANCE: THE MABOU MINES ARCHIVE |
JUNE 10 – JUNE 26, 2022 |
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Opening Reception Saturday, June 11, 4 – 6 pm |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—In partnership with Mabou Mines and the NYU Fales Library Downtown Collection, PS122 Gallery is pleased to present The Process is the Romance: The Mabou Mines Archive, an exhibition collaboratively curated with Nicholas Martin (NYU Fales Library), Sharon Fogarty (MABOU MINES), Karen Kandel (MABOU MINES), and Ian Cofre (PS122 Gallery). in conjunction with “A Celebration of Work,” honoring the 50th anniversary of Mabou Mines, The exhibition is on view from JUNE 10 – JUNE 26, 2022.
In the summer of 1970, a group of artists—David Warrilow, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass—retreated to Philip and JoAnne’s house near Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia to create their first theater piece, Red Horse Animation. The company took the name “Mabou Mines,” and has since become not only a collective of artists, but of ideas and approaches.
In her book, Mabou Mines: Making Avant-garde Theater in the 1970s, Iris Smith Fischer describes how, in the group’s early years, Mabou Mines’ founders “came together and discovered the work in the process of its making.” This exhibition examines that process via documents, photographs, videos, and objects from the Mabou Mines Archive. Housed in the Downtown Collection at New York University Libraries, the Mabou Mines Archive contains a diverse array of materials that comprehensively document the first 40 years of Mabou Mines. The Process is the Romance: The Mabou Mines Archive, is curated by Nicholas Martin, Sharon Fogarty, Karen Kandel and Ian Cofre
The Process Is The Romance: The Mabou Mines Archive
From the NYU Fales Library Downtown Collection
June 10 – 26, 2022
PS122 Gallery
150 First Avenue
New York, NY 10009
Free and Open to the Public, Friday – Sunday, 1–6pm
Masking and Vaccination Proof Required for Entry
For more information about associated programs and performances, visit www.maboumines.org
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Mabou Mines was born out of the influences and inspirations of Europe’s seminal avant-garde theater collectives. Before arriving in New York in 1970, the would-be ensemble of Mabou Mines spent five years in Europe observing and studying the working methods of the Berliner Ensemble, the politics of the exiled Living Theater and the demands of physical training with Jerzy Grotowski. Since that time, Mabou Mines has created more than 120 works, and has been honored with more than 100 major awards.
Founding Company Members: JoAnne Akalaitis, Lee Breuer (1937-2021), Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech (1939-2013), and David Warrilow (1934-1995).
Former Company members: Fred Neumann (1926-2012), Ellen McElduff, L.B. Dallas, B-St. John Schofield (1952–2013), Greg Mehrten, Dawn Gray, Julie Archer, Honora Fergusson (1936-2012). The Company’s leadership has evolved over the years to include seventeen members in its fifty-year history.
Current Company: Co-Artistic Directors Mallory Catlett, Sharon Ann Fogarty, Karen Kandel, and Carl Hancock Rux; Associate Artists Tei Blow, Perel, David Thomson and Carrie Mae Weems; Senior Associate Artists JoAnne Akalaitis, Clove Galilee, Philip Glass, Greg Mehrten, Maude Mitchell, David Neumann, and Bill Raymond. Writer-in-residence/co-Artistic Director Emeritus Terry O’Reilly
The Mabou Mines Archive contains a diverse array of materials that comprehensively document the first 40 years of Mabou Mines. The collection includes materials that document the innovative methods used by Mabou Mines to create unique theatrical adaptations from existing, often classical texts.
The collection contains a wealth of production materials that document all aspects of theatrical production. It includes invaluable administrative records that reflect how the organization sustained, promoted, and financially supported its mission. Also included are scripts, programs, photographic documentation, production books and touring files, and extensive video documentation of most productions. The Mabou Mines Archive contains, in total, more than 300 linear feet of material.
The Downtown Collection, which was founded in 1994 at NYU’s Fales Library and Special Collections, documents the downtown arts scene that evolved in SoHo and the Lower East Side during the 1970s and through the early 1990s.
During this time, an explosion of artistic creativity radically challenged and changed traditional literature, music, theater, performance, film, activism, dance, photography, video, and other art practices.
The Downtown Collection includes the personal papers of artists, filmmakers, writers, and performers; archives of art galleries, theater groups and art collectives; and collections relating to AIDS activism, music, and off-off Broadway theater. The Collection also includes a significant amount of printed, published materials either by or related to people associated with the scene and the events of the period, and its effect on wider social and cultural movements.
