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 ARCOS

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Billings Gazette Friday, August 5, 2016, E4 It's time to feed Billings' hunger for inventive art by Jaci Webb 'In the Ever Now' is a social, connective place to start Photo by Eliot Gray Fisher: Erica Gionfriddo joins the performance art installation "In the Ever Now," for its condensed debut Friday at ArtWalk and full performance Aug. 12 at 2905 Montana Ave. Throw out those stuffy old rules like “Don’t use your cell phone” and “Don’t interact with other audience members.” That’s because the cast of the hybrid performance art installation, “In the Ever Now,” wants you to connect with the performance and your environment. So feel free to chat with your neighbor, send a text or take a video. The performance group includes two longtime members of the Billings arts community, Krista Leigh Pasini and Jayme Green, and Erica Gionfriddo and Eliot Gray Fisher, a married couple from Austin, Texas. They will debut the new work at ArtWalk on Friday night at four locations around the downtown area; the complete three-hour version will be performed at 7 p.m. on Aug. 12 at 2905 Montana Ave., a new venue. Admission is pay-what-you-will and the ArtWalk previews are free. An Indiegogo campaign will help fund the performances and you can find out where they are performing during ArtWalk by tracking them on Facebook. It's exciting to see these capable performers taking risks and finding inventive ways to express themselves and make us think. “We are trying to capitalize on the social aspect of performance. There was an NEA study that found 90 percent of people go out to see theater because of the social aspect,” Gionfriddo said. Her piece, “Domain,” will be performed while 360-degree video created by Fisher is projected. “We are trying to defy a traditional art opening,” Gionfriddo said. I'll say. This type of performance makes us work harder as audience members because we are tasked with engaging with each other to figure things out and move the ideas forward. Pasini believes Billings is hungry for different types of art and this will give people a new way to experience it. Pasini will perform part of a piece she has been working on, “Post It Notes,” that expresses the way we keep track of things in our lives. She started thinking of the way her father used Post-It notes to write down everything he had to do on a given day, like feed the dog or take out the trash. As he aged, the notes helped his failing memory keep up with life. Pasini expanded the idea into how we rely on technology to hold our memories. “I’m observing our minds and how we rely on technology to hold everything, but those systems are fallible. We are getting farther and farther away from ourselves,” Pasini said. Photo by Ted Kim: Krista Leigh Pasini is co-creator and a performer in the new hybrid performance art installation, "In the Ever Now." Gionfriddo and Fisher, a videographer and composer, met Rocky Mountain College theater director Jayme Green when Green and Fisher were in graduate school. After a residency in 2014 at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, the Texas couple visited Billings and they were impressed with the community’s excitement about art. Gionfriddo and Fisher are part of the Arcos Dance Company in Austin. “I thought it was a nice vibe to be around in Billings; people are eager and hungry to make art,” Gionfriddo said. She is teaching a workshop at the School of Classical Ballet next week and working with Pasini and Green on their project. Billings, it's time to feed our hunger for art. Instead of bombarding us with promises about how much we're going to like this performance, Gionfriddo is instead saying, “Come with no expectations. Whatever you get out of it is correct.” Photo by Eliot Gray Fisher: Erica Gionfriddo is a member of the Austin, Texas-based ARCOS dance company along with her husband, Eliot Gray Fisher, who also helped with the creation of "In the Ever Now."