Show 7

Saturday / 6-7:15p / Deep Creek Mine

For the first time, a wildly cool OT show will take place at the abandoned limestone mine above town. Starting with an otherworldly sensory display of light and sound, this artistic examination of creating culture will culminate in a dialogue between contemporary custodians of art in our society. This happening is the vision of Anton Viditz-Ward, the wizard of the mine, who has been building epic fire exhibits at Burning Man for more than a decade. 

The journey starts with a meditative, multi-sensory installation by the crew from Studio Chromasonic. They are creating a powerfully immersive experience that will feed into the larger conversation about perception and culture. Next, cultural instigator Nic Aziz is coming from the New Orleans Museum of Art to “perform”. He’s known for his unique, live performance: reinterpreting the famous Rodin sculpture, The Thinker, while perched on top of confederate statues.

The mine show continues into a conversation about art, culture and independent thought through an exchange between Rhea Combs, curator of film for the Smithsonian African-American Museum, Chris Taylor from the rock/electronic group Grizzly Bear, and singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman. They will address the many challenges and successes they’ve faced in their own uncharted and unorthodox work.

 

The Happening at the Deep Creek Mine.

Saturday October 5th 2019. Doors open 8pm.
Art Installations, live music, tea ceremonies, DJ set.

*This event is by invitation.

 

Speakers

Studio Chromasonic

Studio Chromasonic was founded by visual artist Johannes Girardoni and sound artists Orpheo McCord and Joel Shearer to create immersive, multi-disciplinary works that inspire deep mindfulness and real human connection. Girardoni’s work explores the limits of perception through material and light and has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the 54th Venice Biennale. McCord’s percussive interests have taken him around the world in search of the next beat, and Shearer has been pushing the creative envelope in ambient music. Both men also perform with the wildly dynamic band, Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. In Telluride, Chromasonic will present their important mind-bending new work at the Deep Creek mine, which will be an unforgettable experience.

The studio’s mission is to explore the future potential of art as a catalyst to harmonize cognitive and somatic states through digital and analog technology, and to create artworks and platforms that benefit the public at large.

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Johannes Girardoni

Johannes Girardoni is an Austrian-American sculptor and installation artist. Girardoni’s work is driven by his interest in perception, and how natural and artificial phenomena can be organized to create responsive environments that shift our experience and understanding of site and space. Girardoni’s art has been shown in galleries and museums worldwide, including in the 54th Venice Biennale, Italy, the Ludwig Museum, Germany, The Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, The Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, as well as at TED2014:The Next Chapter, Vancouver, British Columbia. 

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Orpheo McCord

From digging into desert grooves with Touaregs on the rooftops of Timbuktu to all-night trance sessions with Sufi masters in the mountains of Morocco, percussionist, composer and globetrotter Orpheo McCord has traversed a wide musical landscape over the past 20 years. McCord has been an active member of the Grammy award winning group Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (best known for their single “Home”, as well as their infamous high energy live shows) since the group’s inception over a decade ago. McCord’s ever evolving exploration in the integration of indigenous musics as well as his passionate curiosity to push sonic boundaries allow him to stand out both as a musician and composer.

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Joel Shearer

Joel Shearer is a musician, composer and producer who has been a creative force in the music industry for the past 25 years playing guitar, recording, and touring with the likes of Alanis Morissette, Dido, Annie Lennox, Joe Cocker, Damien Rice, Michael Buble, Sarah McLachlan, Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros and A.R. Rahman, to name a few. Shearer is currently pushing the creative envelope in ambient music, via the electric guitar and performing experimental live performances around the globe.

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Nic Aziz

Nic Brierre Aziz is an interdisciplinary artist and curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art, who performs his art live. He is one of our featured artists in Creating Culture, the show that will take place in the vast abandoned mine above Telluride. A wildly creative mind, Aziz uses his art to engage with community issues and traumas, most notably posing as Rodin’s The Thinker on top of confederate statues. He is an artist-activist changemaker that will show the OT audience how he utilizes our personal and collective histories to reimagine the future. 

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Rhea Combs 

Rhea Combs is a PhD who curates photography and film for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.. She just programmed the inaugural  Smithsonian African American Film Festival in 2018 and will contribute her expertise to Show 7, Unearthing Culture.

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Bhi Bhiman

If it wasn’t for an injury during a baseball game when he was 13, Bhi Bhiman might have had a very different life but during his convalescence, he discovered the guitar, which set him on a path to becoming a musician. With his latest album Peace of Mind, he set out to not only make music but make a statement with the work, recording it as a podcast and interviewing notable guests along the way, delving into the issues of our time in an entirely new way. He will speak - and perform - about that experience as part of the show, What Does Music Really Do to Us?

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Brandon Victor Dixon

Brandon Victor Dixon graduated from Columbia University and stayed on in New York City becoming a major presence on Broadway as an actor. He has had several star turns including Motown, the Musical, The Color Purple and Hamilton, in which he played Aaron Burr, and gave the cast response to Vice-President Elect Mike Pence when he attended the show. At Original Thinkers, he will contribute to a couple of shows including What Does Music Really Do to Us as well as closing out the weekend with a talk at Show 10 about his new initiative WeAre, which is designed to engage people in democracy in a new and compelling way.

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Taliesin Gilkes-Bower  

Taliesin is an interdisciplinary artist who works in video, photography, sculpture, and sound art bringing these elements together to explore how communities respond creatively to oppression. His artworks are challenging as he delves into the complicated intersection of African and Afro-Diasporic culture with state violence.

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Ramy Essam

Ramy Essam is a rocker, an agitator, and a force of nature live on stage. With a guitar in hand, Essam has been one of the loudest voices for Egypt’s struggle for a progressive society. He will sing and speak about using his talent to lead a revolution in our Change is Hard show, including his most notable song, Irhal. He performed it at the height of the Egyptian Revolution, demanding for the resignation of then-ruler Hosni Mubarak. Time Out has it listed as the #3 Song that changed history. “My cause is humanity and freedom and human rights. It’s very simple”. Essam experienced brutal torture and arrests intended to silence his voice because of his participation in the movement. His songs were banned and he was forbidden to perform publicly in Egypt. Undeterred, he eventually found safe haven in Sweden, and continues to perform today.


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