PROJECT

ARANTXA ARAUJO + MOTUS Empathés

LIVE PERFORMANCE: AUGUST 25, 2016 6-8PM

MOTUS Empathés by Arantxa Araujo
Choreographed by Arantxa Araujo in collaboration with performers.
Performed by Arantxa Araujo, Sylvie Mae Baldwin, Mario Galeano, Jenny Tibbels, Katiana Rangel, and Skye Van Rensselaer.
Music by Dan Zlotnik and Carina López
Presented at Garis & Hahn, 263 Bowery, New York NY 10002

Culturadora and AH Arts with Garis & Hahn are pleased to announce, MOTUS Empathés, a new interactive multidisciplinary performance by Arantxa Araujo that explores the human movement as essential for the development of empathy to be held on August 25, 2016 from 6-8PM at Garis & Hahn. Araujo applies Neuroscience principles and our understanding of movement to performance and art to allow audiences to access experiences and increase consciousness.

This project is based on Araujo’s previous research about Mirror Neurons (found in the motor cortex, which are activated with observation and visualization of biological movement without executing the action) and their affect one's ability to understand the experience of the other, erasing otherness barriers and creating emotional openness. In MOTUS Empathés, the figure is obscured with the background and it is only with 13-15 LED lights placed on the body at key joints that the human form is revealed. The viewer is meant to infer the entire body through the illumination, movement and placement of the LED lights during the performance, but the full outline of a form is actually never visible.
 
Araujo uses experimental methods to isolate the perception of movement of sociocultural prejudices in order to raise awareness of the universality of our body language and the importance of transcending barriers acquired through cultural codes and habits. During the showing, the artist plans to collect qualitative reactions of the public, becoming a vital part of the work. For this performance, she is joined by five dancers, and has partnered with Dan Zlotnik and Carina López, who created the accompanying music. 

The two site-specific installations by Gabrielle Duggan and Jillian Clark in Linear Tensions will serve as a set for Araujo's interactive performance, and in parallel, help to address issues of memory, of connectivity and displacement, and the ongoing formation of identity; one line in relation to another. 

Arantxa Araujo (b.1984) is a choreographer and multidisciplinary artist based in New York City as well as a practicing Neuroscientist with an MA in Motor Learning and Control from Columbia University. She was awarded a full scholarship from Mexican Government Institution CONACYT, and received her BA in Theater Studies Emerson College in Boston in 2007. Araujo is a certified yoga teacher under the instruction of Dharma Mittra (2010). She received maximum certification from London based¬ performer and yogi Edward Clark (Tripsichore) in 2012. 

Culturadora is a curatorial platform co founded by Tam Gryn and Alejandra Esayag with a mission is to activate the next generation of art lovers by showcasing emerging international artists in their right context. Culturadora has worked with organizations such as The Knight Foundation, No Longer Empty, TECHO, Art Miami, UNTITLED and The Bass Fisher Invitational and their work has been published in The Art Newspaper, Blouin ArtInfo, The Guggenheim, Museo del Barrio, Art Pulse, amongst others.