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PARADE OF ILLUMINATIONS: FESTIVAL OPENING on THE HIGH LINE: April 30, 2012
EX LIBRIS: ROVING TWILIGHT PERFORMANCES on THE HIGH LINE: May 3–5, 2012
PAW officially opened the 2012 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature on the High Line, with a procession of bibliomorphic puppets, performing objects, and projections. Evoking the fleeting omnipresence of text in an electronic age, the Parade of Illuminations invited participants to capture luminous strands of words, literally out of thin air. Created in local community “puppetraisings”, visual elements for the procession drew inspiration from the sensual anatomy of books and the history of print, from ancient tablets of clay to modern tablets of light. On subsequent PEN Festival evenings, May 3–5 PAW orchestrated Ex Libris, a roving performance installation of animate books along the Highline. Ex Libris marked the vanishing physicality of text and our anxious nostalgia for printed books. Bringing together volunteer makers and performers in community workshops, PAW translated the sensual anatomy of bindings, folios, paper and print into bibliomorphic puppets and performing objects that wander the Highline at dusk, leaving PEN-authored texts in the hands of passers-by. Did you receive a text from the Lions? Find the authors and full passages here... Listen to Alex Kahn's parade soundscape on PAW's Soundcloud, here.... Watch Patricio Huerta's video of the Parade of Illuminations below.....
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This event is part of the Eighth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (April 30-May 6, 2012) bringing to New York one hundred writers from twenty-five countries to celebrate the power of the written word in action. The festival features performances, discussions, one-on-one conversations, and readings at venues crisscrossing the city, from Harlem to Wall Street. www.pen.org/festival
The High Line, founded in 1999 by community residents, is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line.
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