hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Artists to celebrate world’s weirdest birthday
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Artists to celebrate world’s weirdest birthday
Archaeologists may roll their eyes at the mere mention of the theory, but a contingent of artists worldwide believe art is more than a million years old.
Regardless of the merits surrounding the discipline's origin, it's hard for creative minds to resist exploiting the notion's novelty, which is exactly what will happen Jan. 17. That's when a semi-clandestine, international movement plans to celebrate Art's Birthday. “It’s designed each year to showcase and highlight diverse artistic communities to the world,” says performance artist Philip Jagger, a distant cousin to the renowned Rolling Stones singer, and curator of an Art's Birthday event in Edmonton, Canada. “It’s a fusion of video, sound, and performance art into one triple-layered cake.” Most of the celebrations will take place in Europe, much of it broadcast live on the continent's Euroradio network, providing coverage of shows in at least 20 nations. Proceedings include a Theremin piece from composer Olesya Rostovskaya in Moscow, an electronics concert by Japan's Yoko Higashi from Paris, and an itinerary of sound poetry from the Miso Music Portugal in Cascais. Outside Europe, Canada appears to have embraced Art's Birthday the most with festivities thus far slated to take place in Winnipeg, Vancouver and Edmonton. At this writing, additional contributors include participants from New Zealand and the U.S. The idea was first proposed in 1963 by French artist Robert Filliou, who suggested art didn’t exist until more than a million years ago when a sponge was dropped into a pail of water. After using his own birthdate of Jan. 17 to mark the occasion, Filliou’s notion took a while to be adopted. In 1973, the first public celebration of Art’s Birthday took place in Germany and France. Before long, arts communities worldwide joined in the fray. Although much of the information is sketchy, at least 40 countries reportedly took part in the 50th anniversary of Art’s Birthday (or the 1,000,050th year of art’s presumed existence) in 2013. The biggest affair took place in Prague, where venues in up to four city blocks were dedicated to the milestone. And true to the requisite fare involved in such affairs, most of the events will serve birthday cake. However, it's a safe bet that coming up with 1,000,051 candles may pose a challenge.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com Artists to celebrate world’s weirdest birthday