TOMPKINSVILLE — The fourth annual LUMEN video and performance arts festival will take local and international artists out of the gallery and into the pool — the empty Lyons Pool in Tompkinsville.
The festival, run by Staten Island Arts, will have video installations, projections, animations, light and sound art in the borough’s largest public pool on Saturday.
“Imagine an amusement park for art, that is how LUMEN 2013 video work has been envisioned,” curator David C. Terry said in a release.
“LUMEN 2013 will be a one-of-a-kind opportunity for visitors to experience the light, sound and vision of today’s emerging and established contemporary artists in a most unique and approachable setting.”
The pool, one of 11 built by the city in the summer of 1936, will be transformed into an art installation by 63 local and international artists, Staten Island Arts said.
Among the sights and sounds at the one-night festival are “Culte,” a stop-motion animation and time-lapse film by Rob Carter at the pool’s garden rooftop.
Other pieces will give the audience a chance to participate, like “The Cicada Machine” by Scott Van Campen and DB Lampman, where visitors can peddle a large wheeled-contraption shaped like the insect to power a Super 8 projector, Staten Island Arts said.
Several performance art pieces are also scheduled for the event, including “Sin Fronteras,” performed by Hector Canonge, about the displacement of people around the world.
On the lighter side, Matthew Silver the Great Performer will perform as a clown, trickster and village idiot that plays with taboos, social norms and rules to parody excessive seriousness, Staten Island Arts said.
“LUMEN supports the most innovative and powerful aspects of performance art practices in New York City, just as it gives public audiences an opportunity to experience performance work outside of galleries, museums and other designated arts spaces,” said curator Esther Neff.
Last year, over 3,000 people attended LUMEN, and Staten Island Arts expects a larger turn-out for its fourth festival.
The free festival will be on June 15 from 6 p.m. to midnight. For more information and a complete list of artists, visit LUMEN 2013’s website.
