Elena Dahn, Pendiente, 2024. Performance at PROA21, 2022. Courtesy the artist.
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About the exhibition
Movements Toward Freedom, on view at MCA Denver September 20, 2024-February 2, 2025, will explore the power, possibility, and vulnerability of bodily movement in contemporary life.
Linking physical and social definitions of movement, Movements Toward Freedom examines how the articulation of our bodies, collectively and singularly, informs and shapes a vital society. Showcasing recent work and new commissions that span genres of performance, sculpture, video, painting and installation, the exhibition considers the ways that physical movement plays an integral role in exercising personal and collective agency, as a means for community-building, civic change and liberation, as well as serving as an antidote to strife and a vehicle for healing and care.
Exhibiting artists: Sadie Barnette, Ben Coleman, Elena Dahn, Karon Davis, Brendan Fernandes, GeoVanna Gonzalez, EJ Hill, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, tara jae, Steffani Jemison, Liz Magic Laser, Carolyn Lazard, Francisco Masó, Senga Nengudi, Kambui Olujimi, Ronny Quevedo, Eric-Paul Riege, Davina Semo, Laura Shill, Naama Tsabar and Cosmo Whyte.
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Curated by
Leilani Lynch, MCA Denver's Associate Curator
Leilani Lynch, MCA Denver's Associate Curator
On view from
to
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Major funding for Movements is generously provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Support for Movements is provided by the Hollingsworth Foundation. MCA Denver also thanks the citizens of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) for their support of the exhibition.
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Movements Performances
Time-based programming is core to the framework of the Movements exhibition. Many of the artists in the show expand on their installations and sculptures through performances. Over half of the works on view will be activated during monthly programming of activations by the artists, performances with local dancers, and participatory events. This exhibition will host the most accompanying programs of any project MCA Denver has organized to-date.
Performances are FREE with museum admission (with the exception of Exercising Freedom: Art-Inspired Circuit Training and Steffani Jemison’s performance at the Holiday Theater).
Upcoming Performances:
Laura Shill: Working On Myself
When: 10/6/24 from NOON–4PM; 1/5/25 from NOON–4PM; 1/19/25 from NOON–4PM
1/5/25: Catch performers Laura Shill and John Lake as they Work on Themselves, exercising various forms of interaction between the objects in Shill’s ‘loneliness gym,’ throughout MCA Denver. The performers roaming sounds and movements will engage multiple parts of the building, moving from elevator to rooftop to hallway, and landing for prolonged stretches in the second-floor gallery that houses Shill’s makeshift gym.
1/19/25: Performers Laura Shill, John Lake, and invited artists will go through the motions, repeating circuits and exercising with objects that apply varying forms of touch in Laura Shill’s Loneliness Gym, persisting indefinitely. At the same time, a live soundtrack, a motivational dirge, responds and adapts to performers enduring bodies as they approach exhaustion.
Exercising Freedom: Art-Inspired Circuit Training
When: 1/8/25; 1/15/25; 1/22/25; 1/29/25
Exercising Freedom: Art-Inspired Circuit Training invites participants to engage in a series of exercises inspired by three thought-provoking works in the Movements Toward Freedom exhibition: Liz Magic Laser’s Exorcise 1–8 (2023), Karl Andrei Ibarra’s Contensiones (2023), and Ronny Quevedo’s at the line (2021). Get tickets here!
Cleo Parker Robinson Rehearsal | Brendan Fernandes We Came to Dance
When: 1/17/25
Come peek at Cleo II (Cleo Parker Robinsons’ second company) as they rehearse a selection of works from their upcoming performance of DREAMCATCHERS - The Untold Stories of the Americas. Rehearsals take place on Thursday, January 9, and Friday, January 17, 1:30–4PM, on Brendan Fernandes’ We came to dance installation in the current exhibition.
Naama Tsabar: Transition
When: 1/19/25
Transition is a series from Naama Tsabar that transforms functional amplifiers and speakers into visual compositions and sonic platforms.
Steffani Jemison and Quincy Flowers | Flight Theater
When: 1/31/25; 2/1/25
Flight Theater—a performance at the Holiday Theater—is an interdisciplinary meditation on the fantasy of a God’s-eye-view, the possibility of escape, and the enduring seduction of untethering ourselves from earth.
Past Performances:
Brendan Fernandes: Within Seeing
When: 9/20/24 @ 6PM; 10/26/24 from NOON–4PM; 10/27/24 from NOON–4PM; 12/7/24 from 2:45–4PM; 12/8/24 from 2:45–4PM
Within Seeing, by Brendan Fernandes, are choreographed performances with local dancers that explore collective movement and dynamics of visibility and opacity through the activation of Fernandes’ We came to dance hybrid installation as part of the Movements Toward Freedom exhibition.
GeoVanna Gonzalez: PLAY, LAY, AYE ACT: 7
When: 9/21/24 @ 1PM & 1:30PM; 11/23/24 @ 2PM & 2:30PM; 11/24/24 @ 2PM & 2:30PM
PLAY, LAY, AYE ACT: 7 explores the paradox of being both unseen and visible, navigating spaces where recognition and acknowledgment intersect with the freedom to redirect oneself. Each "Act" presents a new configuration and performance, transforming the installation into a continually reinvented work. The structure is built, dismantled, and reimagined each time, offering a new exploration of connection and interaction.
Elena Dahn: Delta
When: 9/21/24 from 3–3:30PM
Elena Dahn will perform within her latex-based painting, stretching the material almost to the point of breaking.
Eric-Paul Riege: Jaatloh4Ye’iitsoh [15-16]
When: 9/21/24 from NOON–1PM & 2–3:45PM
The artist will perform a durational ‘weaving dance’ in and around with his soft sculpture work Jaatloh4Ye’iitsoh [15-16].
Ronny Quevedo: at the line, performed by HOLDTIGHT performance art company presented by Presenting Denver
When: 9/28/24 from 1–2:30PM
Presenting Denver will invite HOLDTIGHT, an interdisciplinary performance art company based between Denver and NYC, to perform on exhibiting artist Ronny Quevedo’s floor installation, at the line.
Ronny Quevedo: at the line, performed by HOLDTIGHT performance art company presented by Presenting Denver
When: 12/7/24 from 1–2:30PM; 12/8/24 from 1–2:30PM
Presenting Denver will invite HOLDTIGHT, an interdisciplinary performance art company based between Denver and NYC, to perform on exhibiting artist Ronny Quevedo’s floor installation, at the line.
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Movements Youth Performances
During the month of January, MCA Denver will host youth dance activations—including performances and classes—on at the line, a reimagined professional basketball floor by exhibiting artist Ronny Quevedo. The activations seek to honor and create space for youth dance and sports groups in the city of Denver, while also encouraging youth in the community to partake in the movement. We encourage teens 13 – 18 to attend.
Adult admission is $5 after 5PM. No need to RSVP.
KonnectPop
When: 01/07/25 @ 5PM
KonnectPop will convene Kpop enthusiasts from the Denver Area and host a Kpop dance class and team/crew dance event on at the line.
North High School Cheer Team
When: 01/14/25 @ 5PM
From 5–6PM, the North High School Cheerleading Program will have cheer practice (including stunt practice), and then from 6–6:30PM there will be a performance, all of which will take place on at the line.
School of Breaking
When: 01/28/25 @ 5PM
The School of Breaking will first take part in a cypher and then a performance. Afterwards, youth and adult visitors are invited to partake in a workshop and a dance circle guided by the School of Breaking.