Look Inside - Art Since the Summer of '69 and Rhizome present Nils Bech with Bendik Giske and Sergei Tcherepnin at the New Museum and at Greene Naftali Gallery in New York, as part of Performa 11.
Singer Nils Bech works with voice, movement, music, and text, conceiving performances that are often staged or erupt spontaneously in galleries, bars, or public spaces. Bech describes his work as the “creation of rituals” through which he transforms and elevates emotional circumstances from his own life.
Look Inside is based on his upcoming album, which includes collaborations with Giske (saxophone and electronics) and Tcherepnin (piano and electronics). The songs chart a chronology of events that have transpired over the last six months for Bech. These include meeting and breaking up with his boyfriend, as well as figuring out how to continue doing what he always knew he loved: performing and making art.
Nils Bech has performed at a long list of exhibitions of contemporary art, among them ILLUMInations at the 54th Venice Biennial, Venice; ICA, London; the Frieze Foundation, London; Performa 09, New York; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Gavin Brown Gallery, New York; The Dark Fair at the Swiss Institute, New York; New Jerseyy, Basel; and Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. In recent years, Bech has performed at all the main venues and music festivals in his native Norway. In addition, he has worked closely with the artist Ida Ekblad, Swedish fashion house Acne, and Swiss artist Tobias Madison, among others.
Bendik Giske has become a renowned voice at the Norwegian music and art scene. He holds a Masters degree in Jazz saxophone and a curiosity and passion for contemporary and pop music, and he has successfully collaborated with many of today's most prominent artists, including Pat Metheny and Arve Henriksen. On top of touring in more than fifteen countries and performing on five studio albums, Giske has performed at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Opera House in Damascus, The Great Escape in Brighton, and the Ultima Festival for Contemporary Music and Øya Festivalen in Oslo, and other venues.
Sergei Tcherepnin is a Brooklyn-based artist who uses performance, composition, and installation to explore the materiality of sound and its physical and psychological effects on the listener. He has performed throughout NYC as an improviser with piano and modular synthesizer at venues such as Abrons Art Center, the Whitney Museum, the Tank, Paris London West Nile, and i-Beam Brooklyn. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as Transit, Da Capo Chamber Players, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, at spaces such as Merkin Hall, Cami Hall, Dia:Beacon, Chelsea Art Museum, National Youth Olympic Stadium (Tokyo), Moscow Composers Union Concert Hall, St. Petersburg Composers Union Concert Hall, and the Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College.
Organized by Art Since the Summer of ’69 and Rhizome, presented as part of Performa 11.
Performa, a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts organization established by RoseLee Goldberg in 2004, is dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. In 2005, Performa launched New York’s first performance biennial, Performa 05, followed by Performa 07 (2007), and Performa 09 (2009).
For more information, visit www.performa-arts.org.
Look Inside with Nils Bech, Bendik Giske and Sergei Tcherepnin:
Wednesday, November 9th at 6pm
Greene Naftali Gallery
508 West 26th street
8th floor
New York, NY 10001
Look Inside at Greene Naftali Gallery
Friday, November 11th at 6pm
New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
Look Inside at the New Museum