Performance art group Mobius has announced an open call for public participation as part of its spring exhibition at the Tufts University Art Galleries, “an archive and/or a repertoire,” opening Jan. 29 at the galleries’ SMFA location. The exhibition juxtaposes Mobius administrative records with live performances, exploring what happens when we save art in different ways – through physical objects we can keep and through memories and performances that exist only in the moment.
The open call is an exciting and rare opportunity to get weird with performance artists who have been getting weird since the 1970s.
Participants are instructed to “write, draw or provide directions for a performance action” on a piece of paper no bigger than 8.5 by 11 inches, then mail their papers to Mobius artist Jimena Bermejo at her P.O. box in Cambridge. It’s a low-stakes writing prompt, an act of play.
At a Mobius x Tufts event called “Undoing the Archive” on Jan. 31, artists will interpret those instructions into performances. The written submissions will be shown on the gallery walls as part of the exhibition.
Participants should feel free to take an innovative approach with their ideas. After all, Mobius tends to keep things strange. At its latest event Nov. 16, Bermejo unspooled thread between two columns, confining herself in the material; Jeff Huckleberry twirled microphones around two bottles of liquor and painted the floor black.
At its worst, performance art is self-indulgent: therapeutic for the artist, but unbearable for the viewer. At its best, it’s an invitation to think and to feel with others – something that might be hard to watch, but that sparks new thoughts and inexplicable emotions. Mobius’ work has tended toward the latter, producing some of the only work in Boston that can truly still be called “avant garde.”
Mobius’ next performance, part of its “MobiusLive!” series, is Dec. 7 at Vivid Oblivion, 288 Norfolk St., in Wellington-Harrington near Inman Square. Open call participants’ ideas will be performed Jan. 31 at Tufts University Art Galleries. For information about the open call, contact Bermejo at jimenabermejo@gmail.com.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
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