Location One presents
XtraCurricular: Maria Jose Arjona in conversation with Jovana Stokic

WHAT REMAINS
Thursday, March 24, 7 pm
free and open for public

Maria Jose Arjona explores possibilities of documenting live acts.

The artist states:
As we become documenting entities of everything happening around us, memory should be discussed not only in terms of technological capability but also in terms of human dependence and in-ability to retain information as a bodily function. My personal concern as a performance artist is how to document, archive and store, beyond images, an experience. Within the specifics of this project, “ an experience in the form of a story” constitutes the main material, which was collected via digital and virtual channels/ networks to later be re-stored in three external memories. What would happen if I could not access my computer? Do I have the ability to remember all the information gathered throughout a year of work? Is there another record? How can I transmit this information and now that is going to remain somewhere that doesn’t depend solely on technology, electricity or another mechanism?
The answer is simple: HUMAN MEMORY

Maria José Arjona is a performance artist focused on affirming the body through long durational exercises addressing process, time, memory and power. Her performances have been exhibited in Museums and galleries in South America, Europe, China and the Unites States and have been reviewed by Art Nexus, Arte Al Dia, The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), Whitewall Magazine, The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and many others. She participated as a re-performer at Marina Abramovic’s retrospective at The Museum Of Modern Art in New York and started touring with her own work at The Madre Museum in Naples (Italy) as part of the program “Corpus, Arte In Azione”. The itineration of this project includes locations in Bologna (Italy), Bergen and Oslo (Norway), New York (US), Vienna (Austria) and will end in 2010 in Colombia as part of the National Salon sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia. VIRES, Arjona’s recent performance cycle will be exhibited for the first time in New York at LOCATION ONE. In 2010 Arjona performed VIRES, a long-durational performance, at Location One.