AUDIO BALLERINAS

AUDIO BALLERINAS by Benoît Maubrey and Die Audio Gruppe at SITELINES 06, May 8 through 13, 2:30 pm; Venue: Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street, New York City; Admission: free.

Benoît Maubrey is the founder and director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based performance group that build and perform with electroacoustic ('sounding') clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes, costumes and uniforms (equipped with batteries, amplifiers and loudspeakers) that create sounds by interacting with their environment. The Audio Gruppe's work is essentially site-specific. Usually the electronics are adapted into entirely a new "audio uniform" or "sonic costume" that reflect a local theme (AUDIO HERD, AUDIO CYCLISTS, AUDIO STEELWORKER, VIDEO PEACOCKS, AUDIO VACUUM CLEANERS) or customs and traditions (AUDIO GEISHAS/Japan, AUDIO CYCLISTS/France, AUDIO HANBOK/Korea).

The AUDIO BALLERINAS, initially conceived in 1990 for the festival LES ARTS AU SOLEIL in France where they used solar cells to power their Audio Tutus, have since developed a variety of choreographies using electronic instruments (digital samplers, light sensors, contact microphones, music sticks, and radio receivers) that allow them to work with the sounds, surfaces, electro-magnetic waves and physical topography of the space around them. The AUDIO BALLERINAS will be presenting 3 site-specifically adapted choreographies: the LINE (contact microphones and music sticks), PEEPERS (light-to-frequency sensors), and YAMAHA (movement sensors that trigger digital sounds). Alternative: APPLE RADIOS (solar cells and white noise).

Benoît Maubrey was born of French parents in 1952 in Washington D.C. and graduated from Georgetown University in 1975. After working as a writer and painter and jobbing as hotel concierge in Bordeaux, Paris, New York and Washington DC, he moved to West Berlin in 1979 where he starting building Audio Clothes in 1982. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1992 he moved to the village of Baitz in former East Germany. His performance and sound art installations have been presented at many international festivals around the world.

The SiteLines performances are choreographed by Mimi Messner (Berlin). Local dancers and assistants: Faith Pilger, Andrea Lieske, Samantha Speis, Eline Tan, Violette Olympia, Mira Mutka, Anna Whaley, Micah Killion, Herb Hernandez

Contacts: Benoît Maubrey, Bahnhofstr. 47, 14806 Baitz Germany tel
+49-33841-8265 fax: +49-33841-33121 cell phone in USA 202 374 4614

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council: Nolini Barretto tel: 212-219 9401 X119

This work was made possible, in part, by Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, supported by Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable cultural contributions of artists to society.