Ei Arakawa | How to DISappear in America: The Musical (first performance)

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam proudly presents How To DISappear in America: The Musical, a performance based on the eponymous book by artist Seth Price, directed by artist Ei Arakawa in collaboration with writer Dan Poston and composer and artist Stefan Tcherepnin.  The work premiered in 2016 in New York and was performed the same year at the Berlin Biennale. During the opening weekend of Seth Price – Social Synthetic the musical will have its first performance in Amsterdam on Friday, April 14, and its second performance on Saturday, April 15.

The adaptation of the book How To Disappear in America, continues Arakawa’s practice of translating previous artistic works into musical form. Published in 2008, Price’s handbook alludes to 1960s counterculture guides but uses material taken almost entirely from the Internet, updating methods of disappearance for the current digital (and highly-surveilled) age. Featuring music by Stefan Tcherepnin, and lyrics co-written by Arakawa and Dan Poston, the musical forms a lip-sync performance using the pre-recorded voices of the performers, with monitors facing the audience displaying the entire script — showing how shifts in context can reframe previous artworks to produce radically augmented meaning.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ei Arakawa's performances are created through collaborations with various people and objects including artists, musician, art historians, paintings, and sculpture. His performances have been shown worldwide, including at, Sculpture Project Münster (2017), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2017), The 9th Berlin Biennale (2016), Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2015), Gwangju Biennial (2014), Whitney Biennial, New York (2014), la Biennale di Venezia (2013), Tate Modern, London (2012), 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012), and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012).

Dan Poston is an American writer and performer based in Tübingen, Germany. He is completing a PhD dissertation in theater on Enlightenment political repertoire at the CUNY Grad Center. His plays Antigone in Space and Betsy Paradise were performed at Transport Group, New York (2010) and Stanford University (2012). He has co-written the lyrics with Arakawa for three musicals performed at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); Dallas Museum of Art (2015); and the 9th Berlin Biennial (2016).

Stefan Tcherepnin is a visual artist and composer living and working in Brooklyn, NY. His work often employs music and performance in conjunction with sculptural elements to create installations that convey multiple narratives. Alongside Arakawa, he was a member/contributor of the art action group Grand Openings (2005-2011) and in 2013 he composed the score for Arakawa’s Paris And Wizard: The Musical. His work has been internationally presented in solo and group exhibitions at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich; Real Fine Arts, Brooklyn; Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles; Halle Fur Künst, Lüneburg; Künstlerhaus, Bremen; Künsthaus Glarus; and Kunsthalle Bern. Tcherepnin plays baritone guitar in the musical duo, Steit, with Veit Laurent Kurz on drums.

CAST AND CREDITS

Cast: Miho Hatori, Ben Morgan-Cleveland, Anne Fidler, Dan Poston, Kerstin Brätsch (April 13 and 14), Luna Schumacher, Stefan Tcherepnin, Ei Arakawa.
Music: Stefan Tcherepnin
Lyrics: Ei Arakawa & Dan Poston
Production: Henri Sandront and Roos Duijnstee (Stedelijk Museum)
Curated: in close collaboration with Seth Price and Beatrix Ruf, co-curated by Leontine Coelewij and assistant curator theory and interpretation Britte Sloothaak.

Ei Arakawa with Dan Poston and Stefan Tcherepnin | How to DISappear in America: The Musical is generously supported in part by the International Collector Circle in conjunction with the exhibition Seth Price: Social Synthetic