Over the past several years,
New Noveta have developed a series of kinetic performances where the two artists physically struggle, often frantically, to mutually accomplish an urgent yet Sisyphean task. Responding to what they perceive to be a pervasive atmosphere of conformity and control within high-pressure metropolitan society, everyday ‘task-fulfilling’ magnifies the dual poles of labor and estrangement within the now mandatory management and regulation of the self that place the body in capitalism under duress.
Following a debut performance at MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 on February 16, New Noveta extend their performative practice and ongoing collaborations into the exhibition space. Rather than documentation of the event itself, however, ‘live-ness’ is presented through a static display of remnants, a sound installation, and a photographic print. Props are left untouched – the floor is scattered with glitter, ink stains, and faux crystal shards while lengths of rope pulled taut across the space during the performance remain fixed to metal ring pulls.
Fitted and ornamented white leatherette jackets, designed and made in collaboration with fashion designer
Xenab Lone in the style of Prussian dress, have also been left discarded in the space. These costumes are typical of an informal practice of couture between New Noveta, friends, and colleagues. Another frequent collaborator, the musician
Vindicatrix, will live-mix fragments of the soundtrack produced for their performance into a new audio work during the opening, with portable radios and transmitters picking up and amplifying nearby frequencies in real time that will then play on loop throughout the show.
Installed at the far end of the space, a large commercially printed vinyl banner functions as a backdrop to both the performance and the exhibition. It depicts an enlarged low-grade photographic image of the artists in costume on a beach in Sopot, a coastal town on the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, directly on the other side of which is the Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian enclave and formerly East Prussia. Taken in January, the bodies of New Noveta merge with the white of the snow while their enervated demeanor could be seen in light of recent political upheaval; the combination of landscape and expression representing a discarnate sense of loss at a time when the fabric of a unified Europe is becoming undone and new empires are taking control.
New Noveta formed in 2011 by Ellen Freed and Kiera Fox and are based in London, UK. They recently performed
Ryzyk Fizyk at the Annual Bipolar Performers Meeting in Sopot, Poland (2017), and
Nxjerr Ate at Forde in Geneva, Switzerland (2016). They will perform as part of the Performance Project curated by Eva Birkenstock at this year’s LISTE – Art Fair Basel, and have an upcoming exhibition at Kunstverein Freiburg in 2018.
Curated by
Saim Demircan
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