Artist Statement
This is a site specific dance/video for performance in Cipher: A Temporary Project by architect
Andrew Zago. Cipher is a three-dimensional grid occupying nearly the entire gallery void. Formed of dyed, construction grade studs, Cipher consists of narrow, closely packed corridors and stairways doubling back on themselves to form a single volume.
“I make a correlation between a cage built for confinement and a village square built to encourage communal gathering,” explains Anita Pace. Les Fenêtres (the windows) (1863) is a poem by Stephane Mallarme, whose poetry was a catalyst for Symbolist movement of the 19th century. The performers will be confined in the large architectural structure but have freedom to move in their defined areas, as in the poem, “Are there ways, O Self who know asperity to break the crystal outraged by this monster and to escape, on these wings without feathers- at risk of falling throughout eternity?”
The video projection turns the structure back on itself through representation of the documentation of building it as well as the use of other found structures that serve to juxtapose and complement the architecture. Social interaction between the audience and the performers will happen in the confined space in and around the architecture. Les Fenêtres explores the freedoms and limitations that can exist for the performers as well as the audience.

Biography
Anita Pace is a choreographer, videographer and performer.  Since 1989 she has created over 30 works, presented in Europe, Asia, Mexico and the U.S.  She has collaborated with numerous visual artists, composers and writers, including Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw, Christian Marclay, Tony Oursler, Stephen Prina, Carl Stone, Kevin Stultz, Mayo Thompson and Benjamin Weissman.
The work ranges from the examination of popular and counterculture, to closely focused dialogues with specific texts, drawings or other visual forms and deep engagement with different musical idioms to the use of the materials and forms of technologies as creative support.