Join Us during the conjunction of the Autumnal Equinox & New Moon as Maya Gurantz shares her research at the ICI
Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 6-8 pm
(in)formal program begins at 7:00 pm
The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) is pleased to present an evening with Maya Gurantz, the current resident in our Visualist-in-Residence (VIR) project. Beginning at 7pm and with a ritual acknowledgement of the new moon, Gurantz will lead visitors through elements of her practice-based research in a form that reflects her interest in accessing immanence.
Gurantz applied to the VIR project hoping to take advantage of ICI’s extensive collection of esoteric, spiritual, and philosophical literature for her ongoing research on the history of spirituality, mysticism and gurus in early Los Angeles. In an act of fortuitous synchronicity, which is central to the ICI process, a collection of books connected to the history of women’s magic and witchcraft were donated to the organization just as Gurantz started her residency. After delving into this treasure trove, she quickly shifted the focus of her residency to vanished archetypes of the female storyteller and ways of inventing ritual forms as a means of accessing immanence.
The ICI’s “Visualist-in-Residence” (VIR) project offers artists, art theorists, writers, and other visual researchers and culture producers a chance to participate in studio-based visual research in a richly layered and mutable environment. The VIR ‘laboratory’ may function as an artist’s studio, a writing room, a space for gathering data or a quiet space for evaluation and contemplation depending on the needs of each individual project. At the Institute, VIRs are actively encouraged to expand current definitions of visual research. At the end of each residency, the VIRs are invited to discuss their newly found ‘research methods’ in a public event/forum.
Maya Gurantz is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. She interrogates how constructions of gender, race, class and progress operate in American communities, shared myths, public rituals and private desires, drawing formally on her years in dance and experimental theater, as well as a deep knowledge of American vernacular forms of manipulating sensation. Her projects often emerge through the process of excavating and recasting historical material in new and unsettling conceptual frameworks.
Maya Gurantz’s residency at the ICI will continue through September 28, 2014. For questions regarding this or other ICI events, please contact info@culturalinquiry.org.
All ICI events are free to the public.
