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
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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 take place in the galleries and are FREE with museum admission (with the exception of Steffani Jemison’s performance at the Holiday Theater).
Brendan Fernandes: Within Seeing
When: 9/20/24 @ 6PM; 10/26/24 from 11AM–3PM; 10/27/24 from 11AM–3PM; 12/7/24 from 11AM–3PM; 12/8/24 from 11AM–3PM
Within Seeing, by Brendan Fernandes, are choreographed performances with local dancers that explores collective movement, dynamics of visibility and opacity through 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 @ 1PM & 1:30PM; 11/24/24 @ 1PM & 1:30PM
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 @ 3PM
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].
Presenting Denver Activation
When: 9/28/24 - ALL DAY
Presenting Denver will invite multiple local dance companies to respond to and activate the Movements exhibition.
Laura Shill: Working On Myself
When: 10/6/24 from NOON–4PM; 11/17/24 from NOON–4PM; 1/19/25 from NOON–4PM
Working on Myself, performed by exhibition artist Laura Shill and collaborator John Lake, brings forth the question, "How much will we contort ourselves to be part of the whole, despite a constructed system of alienation?" Activated throughout the day, Working on Myself presents a sort of loneliness gym, where a series of contraptions are outfitted with cast silicone hands and reimagined to apply various forms of touch.
Ronny Quevedo w/ Presenting Denver: At The Line
When: 12/7/24; 12/8/24
At the Line, is a floor installation made of reclaimed wood sourced from a professional basketball court. On December 7 and 8, the dance collective, Presenting Denver, will be performing on this floor.
Liz Magic Laser, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Ronny Quevedo, etc. | Workout Circuit - Activation of Contensiones, Exorcise 1-8, At the line
When: 1/8/25; 1/15/25; 1/22/25; 1/29/25
In a fitness-focused “workout circuit”, multiple works on the 2nd floor will be activated through a class-based format There will be breathwork exercises, a yoga class, and cardio-based exercises. Guests are encouraged to have happy hour on the roof following the class.
Steffani Jemison and Quincy Flowers | Flight Theater
When: 1/31/25; 2/1/25
Flight 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.