Collaboration or Improvisation: A Fine Line?

  • Collaboration or Improvisation: A Fine Line?

    Babette Mangolte, Yvonne Rainer "Boxes", 1973 Dzięki uprzejmości Babette Mangolte i Galerii Broadway 1602, New York

In the lecture that goes hand in hand with the exhibition „Accomplices. The photographer and the artist around 1970.”, Babette Mangolte, a photographer and film director will talk about her experience of cooperation with artists (Yvonne Rainer, Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown and Richard Foreman) that created choreography, theater and perfomances in New York City in the 70s.

Cooperation played a huge role for these artists, who were raised on the ideas of John Cage, and developed his method of improvisation. Mongolte documented their works, using, in a very conscious manner, photography and film, in a way that showed the innovatory language of these choreographies and performances.
A relationship with Yvonne Rainer, a choreographer, artist and director, was especially relevant – Mangolte did not only document her performances, but also played an important role Rainer’s transfer from photography to film. This was a two sided relationship. Rainer performed in the first films directed by Mangolte, using the method of improvisation.

The lecture will be devoted to how these cooperations formed and what was traded between the artists.

Babette Mangolte graduated form the film school in Paris. In the years 1968-1970 she was a camera assistant in films by Marcel Hanouna. In 1970 she came to New York, where she discovered an extraordinarily live dance and avant-garde theater scene . She documented breakthrough performances of artists such as Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Robert Whitman, Robert Morris, and Richard Foreman. Camera operator in films by Chantal Akerman, Yvonne Rainer (Lives of Performers, 1972; Film About a Woman Who…, 1973). Director of films such as: What Maisie Knew (1975), The Camera: Je or La Camera: I (1977), The Sky on Location (1982), Four Pieces by Morris (1993), Les Modèles de Pickpocket (2003). Creates works and installations, in which the exit point is her archive and work experience with other artists.

See also:

Exhibition and other events connected: