Holoscenes

Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera

Wednesday, May 13 @ 9:30pm - 2am | Global start times: 6:30pm London - 1:30pm Miami - 10:30am LA - 3:30am Brisbane (May 14)

Past Event

Revisit Lars Jan’s Holoscenes, a beautifully captivating durational performance-installation that embodies the impact of climate change.

Presented in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development and Al Burda, a platform for Islamic arts and culture

Were you there? Holoscenes It is a visceral, cross-disciplinary project born out of the widely-shared concern that our troubled relationship to water will become a central issue of the 21st century. The project directly connects the everyday actions of individuals to global climate change, while contemplating the evolution of our capacities for empathy and long-term thinking. In the present day, it takes on new and unexpected metaphorical power. Midway through the durational 4 ½ performance installation, join director Lars Jan and members of the company for a live online Q&A.

Revisit this highlight from The Arts Center’s archives, filmed at NYU Abu Dhabi in its Middle East Premiere on November 16, 2016. Bridge the social distance, join the community online.

See the time-lapse of the performance

About the Artists

Lars Jan is a director, writer, visual artist, and the founding artistic director of Early Morning Opera (EMO), a genre-bending performance + art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience.

While living in Kyoto, Jan trained and performed as a Bunraku puppeteer under Abe Hidehiko, designated an “Intangible Cultural Treasure” by the Japanese government. He has since developed projects in Afghanistan, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Haiti, Canada and the US.

Jan’s multi-disciplinary original works — including ABACUS, HOLOSCENES, and TIMe — have been presented and exhibited by The Whitney Museum, BAM Next Wave Festival, Under the Radar Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Ringling Museum of Art, Toronto Nuit Blanche Festival, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival, and the Istanbul Modern.

His work has been supported by multiple awards from the NEA and Center for Cultural Innovation; MAP Fund; Rauschenberg Foundation; Adam Mickiewicz Institute; Surdna Foundation; NEFA’s National Theatre Project; NPN’s Creation Fund; New York State Council on the Arts; and the Sherwood Award. He has spoken at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Performa, and the 92nd St. Y, and held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Princeton Atelier, CalArts, Headlands Center for the Arts and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, where he was an inaugural artist-in-residence.

His performance installation HOLOSCENES — a triptych of massive aquariums inhabited by performers — explores the evolution of human endurance and habitual behavior in the context of natural catastrophe, particularly through the lens of mythic, contemporary and coming deluge.

He is the son of émigrés from Afghanistan and Poland, and is a TED Senior Fellow.