When William Basinski opened his nightclub Arcadia in 1992, Williamsburg had more than a decade of history as an outerborough artists’ colony. Arcadia and a handful of other entities such as The Lizard’s Tail, Lalalandia, Test-Site gallery, Nerve Circle Studios, Mustard and Galapagos transformed the artists’ colony into a full blown urban subculture. No neighborhood in Brooklyn compares to Williamsburg for the shrillness of her declaration of artistic autonomy in the closing years of the last century. This neighborhood is the heart of the Brooklyn Renaissance. And at the heart of Williamsburg, in the pivotal years, was Arcadia. Join us on November 2nd, as we pay tribute to William Basinski and create the distinctive environment and spirited performances of Arcadia at 110 Livingston Street, our future home.

About the Artists:

William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 25 years in NYC. His haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life, resounding with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic 4-disc masterwork, The Disintegration Loops, received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media. Art Forum selected The River, his transcendental 2-disc shortwave music experiment on Raster-Noton.de, Germany as one of the top ten albums of 2003. His concerts and installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented internationally, most recently at The Venice Biennale of Music, Venice, Italy, Happy New Ears Festival, Belgium, FOCUS ONE Festival, Poland, Filosophia Festival, Carpi, Italy, and Cite de la Musique, Paris, among others. Basinski’s latest albums, 92982 and Vivian & Ondine were released in 2009 on 2062/USA and distributed internationally. The Wire magazine selected 92982 as one of the top 50 releases of 2009. His entire catalog is available for digital download through iTunes, Amazon.con, and numerous legitimate digital retailers worldwide.

Marina Abramović was born in 1946 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since the beginning of her career, during the early 1970s where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Abramović has pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form. The body has been both her subject and medium. Exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in the quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. As a vital member of the generation of pioneering performance artists that includes Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci and Chris Burden, Abramović created some of the most historic early performance pieces and continues to make important durational works.

Abramović has presented her work with performances, sound, photography, video, sculpture and Transitory Objects for Human and Non Human Use in solo exhibitions at major institutions in the U.S. and Europe. Her work has also been included in many large-scale international exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (1976 and 1997) and Documenta VI, VII and IX, Kassel, Germany (1977, 1982 and 1992). In 1998, the exhibition Artist Body – Public Body toured extensively, including stops at Kunstmuseum and Grosse Halle, Bern and La Gallera, Valencia. In 2004, Abramović also exhibited at the Whitney Biennial in New York and had a significant solo show, The Star, at the Maruame Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kumamoto Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan.

Growing up in California, Antony felt himself to be the consummate outsider until he came face to face with the image of boy george on the cover of the culture club’s 1982 debut album, kissing to be clever. He relocated to new york city in 1990, where he found a world more accepting of his avant-garde sensibilities and sexually ambiguous nature. He created the cabaret ensemble Blacklips and modeled himself after blue velvet-era Isabella Rossellini and the drag queen that graced the cover of Soft Cell’s 1982 single “torch.” He formed Antony and the Johnsons and released their self-titled debut on David Tibet’s Durtro label in 2000, followed by an appearance on the Lou Reed albums The Raven and Animal Serenade — he toured with Reed as well throughout 2003. He has also appeared in the Steve Buscemi film Animal Factory as an androgynous convict. Antony and the Johnsons released a series of EPs in 2004, followed by the band’s second full-length, I am a Bird Now, in February of 2005.

Svetlana Spajic started to perform publicly in 1993. with Paganke, as its youngest member. Paganke (The Pagan Women), was a pioneer Belgrade group formed in the 80ies which cherished ancient Serbian a cappela village singing. Later, with three other girls Svetlana formed in Belgrade the young group Moba (Harvest Helpers). The group was helped and taught by the famous Balkan multi-instrumentalist and keeper of the living tradition, Darko Macura.

About “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic”

The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic is a biography of the godmother of performance art, re-imagined by visionary director Robert Wilson. The show features scenes from Abramovic’s life and career, from her Serbian childhood to her work as a performance artist. With original and traditional music, including songs written by composers Antony and William Basinski, this ground-breaking show brings together the worlds of theater, art and music to thrilling effect. The work premiered in July 2011 at the Manchester International Festival.

About 110 Livingston

Founded in 2003, ISSUE Project Room is a nonprofit arts organization providing hundreds of artists each year with a dynamic environment in which to create, exhibit, and perform innovative, site-specific, and interdisciplinary work.

ISSUE is in the final phase of fund raising for its capital project to renovate 110 Livingston. We are currently working to raise $400,000 by December 31 to support design fees. If we are successful, we will open in Fall of 2013.