LEE SERLE AND BEN FROST

LIVE from the NYPL presents ROLEX ARTS WEEKEND

The culmination of the Rolex Arts Weekend is a two-part event featuring the work of Protégé in Dance Lee Serle and Protégé in Music Ben Frost, performing in two of the grandest spaces in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the New York Public Library’s main branch. Seating is limited for these one-time-only performances.

P.O.V, a site-specific dance developed by Lee Serle for Astor Hall, the soaring entrance to the New York Public Library, places the audience within the performance environment, inviting them to cross over from their role as spectator to participant in varying degrees. The stage is a grid of swivel stools, each one occupied by an audience member, between and through which Serle and three other dancers move. As the dance devolves into more personal interactions with the audience members, it demystifies the role of performer, and evolves the role of spectator to participant, playfully blurring the two. P.O.V was originally conceived while Serle was in New York for his mentorship year with Trisha Brown.

From Astor Hall the audience will move to the Rose Main Reading Room, where Ben Frost presents the U.S. premiere of his Music for 6 Guitars. Music for 6 Guitars features six guitars and brass sextet, whose sounds are processed and looped back through Frost’s computer. Frost has collaborated with the composer Nico Muhly on the arrangement of the piece for the Rose Main Reading Room.

Protégé in Visual Arts Nicholas Hlobo’s sculpture Counting Figure, from the installation Ndizi, seen at the Liverpool Biennial, will be displayed in the McGraw Rotunda. Like much of Hlobo’s work, Counting Figure takes its inspiration from the culture of his homeland, South Africa, and plays upon themes of sexuality and the intersection between the private and the political. The work can also be seen during the Friday and Saturday programs in the Celeste Bartos Forum.