Alejandra Herrera “Sagrado y Profano” (2011) Photo credit: The Action Bureau

THE ACTION BUREAU is pleased to present FREE CLINIC #2, the second installment in an ongoing series of of action-based, body-centric performance events. FREE CLINIC #2 will take place on Thursday, October 13, 2011 from 6pm-9pm and is hosted by Human Resources, the performance-focused art collective in L.A.’s Chinatown gallery district.

The FREE CLINIC provides a platform for Los Angeles-based artists to connect with the larger international performance community. By pairing artists with intersecting methods and practices, The FREE CLINIC aims to engage the local public with the growing discourse surrounding the performance art medium. Each Clinic in the series will include a publication featuring photographs and writings on the artists’ work, to be distributed free-of-charge to attendees.

FREE CLINIC #2 will bring together Internationally renowned artists Marilyn Arsem (Boston, MA), Alejandra Herrera (Los Angeles, CA, b. Santiago, Chile), and Dawn Kasper (Los Angeles, CA) to present new performance work in Los Angeles. Unintentionally coinciding with the October full moon, the event on the 13th will feature three of today’s most exciting performance artists that all share a distinct investment in the unique properties and conditions of live performance. These include the fundamental centrality of the subjective body, the role an audience plays in relation to the performer, and the transformation of a material’s meaning through action.

There is no charge for admission, and complimentary refreshments will be provided.

Please help keep the Free Clinic FREE! This event is funded by donations, large and small, from generous individuals like yourself. Please show your support by donating now, and receive your choice of Action Bureau/Free Clinic gifts.

About the Artists

MARILYN ARSEM has been creating live events since 1975, ranging from solo performances to large-scale works incorporating installation and performance. She has presented work at festivals, alternative spaces, galleries, museums, conferences and universities throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America. In many of her recent performances, Arsem has focused on current political issues. Her site-specific performances respond to both the history of the site, as well as to the immediate landscape and materiality of the location. The events are designed to implicate the audience directly in the concerns of the work, to create an experience that is both visceral and intellectual. To accomplish this, she incorporates a broad range of media, and often engages all the senses. Sites have included a former Cold War missile base in the United States, a 15th century Turkish bath in Macedonia, an aluminum factory in Argentina, and the site of the Spanish landing in the Philippines. She is a full-time faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she teaches performance art, and is a graduate advisor.

ALEJANDRA HERRERA is a visual artist and performer from Santiago (Chile), currently living in Los Angeles (USA). She has presented her performances in numerous galleries and festivals in South and North America as well as Europe. She was Assistant Professor at the Performance Art Workshop of Alexander Del Re in Valparaíso. Her works usually include woman’s being as an object in and of itself, sometimes in contrast to the male being, exploring sensuality and materiality in relation to her body, both in digital pictures and in performance. She has produced and organized visual arts shows, such as the Annual Showcase of Students of the Arts Faculty of the University of Chile, exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Santiago, “Av-ant Perfo”, the first international performance art show in Valparaíso, and “Perfo Puerto”, the First Latin American festival of performance art in Chile.

DAWN KASPER is an active Los Angeles based performance artist. Kasper has performed and exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including the Migros Museum Für Genenwartskunst in Zurich, LISTE Basel, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Art Basel Art Positions Miami, LACMA, LACE, The Hammer Museum, MOCA, Newman Popiashvili Gallery New York, Anna Helwing Gallery, Circus Gallery, Leo Koenig Inc., Projekte New York, Art in General New York, Copy Gallery Philadelphia, and David Castillo Gallery Miami. Kasper is currently one of the acting co-directors of the performance and experimental art venue Human Resources in Los Angeles.

About the Organizers

THE ACTION BUREAU is a curatorial collective founded by artists Parker Davis and Paul Waddell, and now includes Catherine Taft. 
Please visit us online at http://actionbureau.tumblr.com/

Alejandra Herrera “Sagrado y Profano” (2011) Photo credit: The Action Bureau

Dawn Kaspar featuring Karen Adelman and Tara Jane O’Neil “Meditations in a Fucked Up Emergency” (2011)

Marilyn Arsem, “Dissolution”, (2011). photo credit: The Action Bureau