Psychic Youth, Inc. | Final Installment
De La Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space
Tri | Final Performance Includes: Aja Albertson , Rick Diaz, Ricardo Guerrero, Marcela Loayza, Ana Mendez, Federico Nessi, Alex Puentes, Sleeper, Richard Vergez, Agustina
Since March 13th, Psychic Youth, Inc. has been impulsively manipulating their installation at the de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space aiming to attain the ideal environment for the improvised performances they’ve been holding within this site-specific piece. Approached with no predetermined direction, TRI has developed through an instinctual set of movements and/or chapters, during which the dynamic of the space has changed drastically, thus affecting the intention of each individual performance.
So far the nine performances have varied in both mood and concept, the collective altering everything from the tone of the light to the source of the sound to the presentation of their assemblages of everyday materials to the focus of their actions. The one consistent factor within the performances has been the groups’ endurance-based practice, each installment averaging three to four hours. They’ve ranged from the introduction of masked characters slowly maneuvering the structures, to group meditation sessions, to the reinterpretation of a 3-minute song into a 4-hour set of musical arrangements.
For the final installment, Saturday, May 8th, 2010, from 7-10pm, ten performers will inhabit the space; the lineup includes previous collaborators and some new advocators who were drawn to the intuitive approach. The final installment will serve as both the beginning and the end of what the collective had initially set out to do – create an enhanced living ritual environment.
de la Cruz Contemporary Art Space: 23 NE 41 Street, Miami, Florida 33137
Psychic Youth, Inc. is an interdisciplinary performance collective with a heavy emphasis on musical collaboration. Inspired by Throbbing Gristleʼs psychic rallies, PYI develops happenings that serve as ritualistic experiences where intuition and improvisation lead the usually task-driven acts. As a reaction to these times of global uncertainty and over-saturation of media, the collective focuses on obsessively analyzing human behavior and the power of the individual. A heavy dramatic intention and an appreciation for the occult are some of the components that form part of their ceremonies, during which they aim to engender empathy and attention in the viewer. “We believe the general public is in a state of emotional dormancy. The intention of our work is to disrupt this notion by stressing the importance of the recognition of emotion.” Psychic Youth, Inc., was founded in 2008 by Ricardo Guerrero, Ana Mendez and Federico Nessi.
