Spatial Body includes work that explores the relationship between the body and environment, both natural and constructed. The performance videos can be seen as a direct response to the artists’ surroundings; the site ignites an action that creates an instant dialog between the body and space. Spatial Body features work by Michael & Alan Fleming, Synchrodogs, Nabi Nara, and Lionel Cruet.

The project, “Animalism, Naturalism” is an attempt to keep in mind all the basic instincts while crossing the border between human and animal, reaching for a raw sense of self, and finding an intimate relation to the surrounding environment and nature. Nudity, self-excruciation, surreal foreplay, human nature, primitivism, symbolism, eccentricity, animalism and intuition are among the themes communicated by the presented artworks.

Bio

We are two photographers from Ukraine – Tania Shcheglova and Roman Noven (Ukraine) (Tetiana Shcheglova and Roman Protsyuk by passport), shooting together under the name Synchrodogs since 2008. We are 23 and 28, both born in Ukraine though in different cities 8 hours by train from each other. Willing to live and work together makes us travel all the time so that we are in constant search of our own home. We are mostly engaged with photo and video art, and are currently preparing for solo exhibitions in Krakow and Berlin.

“Fit In” was performed in the ordinary yet uncertain spaces of Sierre, Valais during Nabi Nara’s residency at Villa Ruffieux, Switzerland.

Bio

Nabi Nara (South Korea/Germany) is a multi-disciplinary artist who works nomadically but has chosen Berlin as her base. Her videos and interactive performances offer a provocative exploration of their immediate environment and sense of identity. She often works with fashion-related materials and themes, using lo-fi tactics to interrogate representation. She has presented her works in Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Freies Museum, and Kunstraum Bethanien in Berlin. She has also exhibited at the Frauen Museum in Bonn, Instants Video Poetiques, France, The Firehouse Gallery of New York, Wolstenholme Creative Space in Liverpool and the Forumschloss platz, Switzerland. She has received grants from DAAD Germany, and the Chateau Mercier Foundation, Switzerland.

The video is part of Cruet’s body of work that explores the relationship between humans and the natural rhythm of the species.

Bio

Lionel Cruet (Puerto Rico/US) (born 1989, San Juan, Puerto Rico; lives and works in New York)
Cruet began to make art in a summer workshop at the University of Puerto Rico in 1997. He later studied visual art in an interdisciplinary program at the Fine Arts High School of Humacao, Puerto Rico and in 2011 graduated with a BFA in Image and Design from Escuela Artes Plasticas, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is a current MFA candidate in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from the City College of New York.

Cruet’s work was part of a group exhibition at El Museo del Barrio in New York entitled, Superreal: Alternative Realities in Photography and Video which included seminal works by Andres Serrano, in addition to works by Tania Bruguera, Abelardo Morell, and Vik Muiz. In 2012, Cruet’s work was shown at the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, Bronx, New York as part of an exhibition that was made possible by the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

The piece was made for the alternative art fair Alt_Cph 2011: Encounters with the support of the Fabrikken for Kunst og Design in Copenhagen, Denmark.”

Bio

Alan & Michael Fleming (US) are twin brothers who have been working together since 2005 creating collaborative sculpture, performance and video work. They recently presented a solo exhibition of their work at Cindy Rucker gallery in New York. Their solo exhibition GAME ON was presented in 2012 at Chicago’s threewalls gallery and the Active Space in Brooklyn. They are current fellows in the AIM (Artist in the Marketplace) Program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and recently finished an International Artist Residency at the NARS (New York Art Residency & Studios) Foundation. As a result of their participation in the AIM Program their artwork will be exhibited at the Bronx Museum in the Summer of 2013 for Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial. They have performed at the New Museum IDEAS CITY Festival in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, and the Factory for Art and Design in Copenhagen. The Fleming brothers received their MFA in 2010 from the Performance Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which they attended as a collaborative. As of 2012, they are both based in Brooklyn.