Aldrich’s Summer Exhibition Comes With A Performing Series

RIDGEFIELD — A performance by the artistic collaborators Eiko and Koma at the Aldrich Museum will inaugural a summer performance art series called “Acts of Art.” The artists’ work also appears in “Speed Of Vision,” the museum’s major summer exhibition on view until September 6.

The performance, entitled “Caravan Project 2000,” will be a movement-based work using sets and dramatic lighting. The entire performance will take place in a custom-designed open trailer in the museum’s two-acre sculpture garden. The trailer will be completely open so that people may walk around and see the movement from various angles.

The performers pride themselves on their “theatrical work, in untheatrical settings” and their gradual and trance-like movements which some believe espouse a subtle moral character. The performance is scheduled for Friday, July 7, beginning at 8 pm, and will be free with regular museum admission. Reservations are required; call 203/438-4519.

Eiko and Koma began to work as independent artists in Tokyo in 1972 with the Kazuo Ohno, the central figure in Japanese avant-garde theatrical movement in the 1960s. They never formally studied dance, and such creative and pedagogical freedom has allowed them to explore their own style of movement and dance within their own works.

After the Japan Society sponsored the first American performance by Eiko & Koma, the team went on to perform their works at theaters, universities, museums, galleries and festivals across North America, Europe and Japan.

Eiko & Koma are permanent residents of the United States. They live in New York, where they perform regularly and offer occasional “Delicious Movement Workshops.”

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art is at 258 Main Street (Route 35) in Ridgefield.