The Traders’ Ball: An Installation, June 11 – July 2, 2010

Posted on 28. May, 2010 by Editor in Arts, Hotel, LAB Gallery, the LAB

The LAB (for installation + performance art) is pleased to announce ‘The Trader’s Ball’, an installation by French artist Fred Forest. With his trademark over the top irony, Forest rubs salt in the wounds of the free market banking industry , mocking their response to the financial crisis that has shaken the world. The installation will include corporate mannequins dancing the night away in The LAB and parallel scenes of jovial ignorance taking place via Second Life on large screens in the gallery. The action will take place to music by New York rapper Jamalski, who will orchestrate the movements of the dancers to a syncopated beat based on the real time fluctuation of the financial markets. To see the project’s website go to: www.thetradersball.com/

This piece will be in conjunction with a piece based around Forest’s Second Life avatar, Ego Cyberstar, that will be showing at The Science Fair at Flux Factory, June 5^th- 13^th.

Photos: Adam Wallace

Fred Forest is a French new media artist. He is the holder of a state doctorate in the humanities from the Sorbonne and has also taught on the faculty of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art, Cergy-Pontoise and University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. Forest has taken part in the Biennale of Venice (1976) and the Documenta of Kassel (1977, 1987) and his work has won awards at the Bienal do São Paulo (1973) and the Festival of Electronic Arts of Locarno (1995). In 2004, Forest’s archives, including his video works, were added to the collection of the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel of France and a retrospective of his work was held at the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia in 2007. Beginning in 2008, Forest launched a new series of performances in the environment of Second Life.

For more information please contact Danika Druttman on 212.339.2092 or email rogersmitharts@rogersmith.com

The LAB (for installation + performance art) is a New York based, converted storefront turned fishbowl producing 30+ fast paced performance art and installation exhibitions annually. Aimed at furious midtown foot traffic, The LAB’s programming is designed to confront modern relationships between art and audience and seeks to force interaction between high energy, “outrospective” exhibitions and nearly 25,000 daily passersby. THE LAB is located on the North East corner of 47th and Lex and is a Roger Smith Collaboration in Art. www.thelabgallery.com

The Traders’ Ball Second Life Video

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Tags: an installation, Arts, ego cyberstar, event, exhibition, FRED FOREST, gallery, installation art, jamalski, New York, roger smith art, Roger Smith Arts, Roger Smith Hotel, the LAB, trademark, trader's ball