La Biennale de Montréal 2011 ~ May 29 Programming at Cinéma du Parc
At 5pm, BNL MTL 2011’s cinematic program will close with a screening of Nik Sheenan’s “Flicker”. The film tells the story of Brion Gysin, inventor of the “dream machine” and an attempt to end the internal dialogue to give access to inner silence. Its illustrious subjects include Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull and William S. Burroughs.
‘New Dream Machine Project’ – Shezad Dawood, with The Master Musicians of Jajouka Led by Bachir Attar & Duke Garwood
A Concert in Tangier February 12, 2011, at The Cinematheque Tangier Apartment 22 (Rabat) :
The New Dream Machine Project of Shezad Dawood with the “Master Musicians of Jajouka “led by Bachir Attar, and Duke Garwood, February 12, 2011 at 19:00.The artist Shezad Dawood creates a monumental version of the dream machine invented by Brion Gysin, which became an icon in capturing the interest of several artists and scientists. Dawood is looking through the ‘New Dream Machine Project’ to get closer to the action of the artist and writer Brion Gysin in Morocco 60 years ago , recreating his “Dream Machine”, influenced by Sufi philosophy and action hallucinatory light.
At the Cinematheque de Tanger, a single concert performance will resume the recording of 1968 from the legendary Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) and ‘Master Musicians of Jajouka’ (which played regularly at the “1001 Nights”, the famous Coffee Shop Brion Gysin in Tangiers). This is the new generation of “Master Musicians” and the famous British guitarist Duke Garwood will try to recreate that moment of legend around the giant dream machine that will be installed for the occasion. Shezad Dawood is also completing a documentary film in 16 mm around this event.
This Project is developped in Morocco by Shezad Dawood, in Collaboration with The Apartment 22 & the Cinematheque Tangier.
L’Institut d’Art Contemporain
As part of his Space Brain Laboratory, L’Institute will ride the first retrospective of Gysin in France, designed by the New Museum (New York).
Over 300 of his drawings, books, paintings, photocollages, films, slides and sound installations have been brought together from October 16th to november 28th.
Painter, poet and writer, Brion Gysin is famous for having developed the cut-up technique (1959) and ‘permutated poems’ – both in conjunction with William Burroughs. A sound poetry pioneer, in 1961 Gysin also wrote the poem I Am That I Am.
Brion Gysin created with mathematician Ian Sommerville on the invention of the Dreamachine (1961), a landmark in psychedelic experimentation. The focal point of this exhibition, the Dreamachine is a kinetic light-sculpture which, when revolving at a specific frequency, can induce visions in the subject, whose eyes are closed. At a time when only scientists were taking an interest in innovative tools, Gysin was experimenting with nascent computer technology and magnetic tape as he pressed further down the trail blazed by his Permutations.
Defying classification, he advocated a radically interdisciplinary approach, and was one of the earliest practitioners of multi-media performances. Brion Gysin’s works subvert reality with experiments combining the perceptual and the poetic. A true precursor, her continues to influence visual artists, musicians and writers today.
Exhibition: October 16 ~ November 28, 2010
More information available at: http://www.i-art-c.org
New Museum
“Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” will be the first US survey of the work of Brion Gysin (b. 1916, Taplow, UK; d. 1986, Paris), an irrepressible innovator, serial collaborator, and subversive spirit who continues to inspire artists today. The exhibition will include over 250 drawings, books, paintings, photo-collages, films, slide projections, and sound works, as well as the Dreamachine—a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the flicker effect to induce visions.
In 1959, Gysin created the Cut-Up Method, wherein words and phrases were randomly collaged to unlock unknown meanings, culminating in The Third Mind, a book-length collage created with his lifelong collaborator William S. Burroughs. Transferring the idea of the Cut-Up to magnetic tape, Gysin became the father of sound poetry. Throughout his life, Gysin was a collaborator and an inspiration to artists, poets, and musicians, such as John Giorno, Brian Jones, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis-P-Orridge, and Keith Haring.
More than two decades after his death, his work continues to attract the interest of a new generation of artists drawn to Gysin’s radical inderdisciplinarity, including Rirkrit Tiravanija, Cerith Wyn Evans, Trisha Donnelly, and Scott Treleaven. The exhibition is curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and will be on view in the New Museum’s second-floor gallery. It will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue co-published with Hugh Merrell, Ltd. which will include scholarly essays and appreciations by contemporary artists, musicians, and poets.
Exhibition: July 7 ~ October 3, 2010
More information available at: www.newmuseum.org
October Gallery
Gysin (1916-1986) had a lifelong fascination with the juncture of word and image. He studied Japanese and Arabic calligraphy, and evolved his own style of word/image glyphs, supple as flames or tendrils of smoke. A radical cultural visionary, visual artist, writer and performer, Gysin introduced his lifelong friend, writer William S. Burroughs, to the techniques of “cut-ups” and “permutation”. Together, they experimented in sound and image, using collage, tape recorder, light painting, writing and film. Their work has had a pervasive influence in the arts and on underground and popular culture, affecting figures such as David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P. Orridge, Keith Haring, Michael Stipe, and Bill Laswell.
In the ’60′s, Gysin created the Dreamachine, which he described as “the only work of art designed to be seen with closed eyes” and a “drugless psychedelic experience”. The Dreamachine rotates and through a flicker effect, evokes brainwaves which can produce spontaneous waking dreams. Gysin said, “…it gives an extended vision of one’s own interior capacities, which could also be overwhelming.” It was his point of view that those “interior capacities” are the next art form, superceding painting.
Gysin’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Centre George Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and numerous private collections. October Gallery first showed Gysin’s work in 1981.
Exhibition: December 2008
More information available at: www.octobergallery.co.uk
