David Levine
Habit
The Real World meets No Exit: audiences circulate around the exterior of a fully functional house, watching the ever-changing action through the windows, and coming and going as they please.
Habit is a durational installation created by provocateur David Levine (previously at PS122: Anger at the Movies, Venice Saved), with a commissioned text by playwright Jason Grote (Smash, Mad Men) and environment by Marsha Ginsberg (Telephone, Map of Virtue). All day long, within the four walls, actors re-complete the drama, on an endless loop, making up staging to suit their needs. When they’re hungry, they eat; when they’re dirty, they wash.
“Enraging, engaging.. Levine a savvy rascal who makes theater pieces that bleed into Conceptual art” – Time Out
Co-presented by Performance Space 122 & FIAF’s Crossing the Line
Sept 21 – 30 / 1 – 9pm daily
at Essex Street Market, Building B; 130-144 Essex Street (btw. Rivington & Stanton Streets)
Free and open to the public. No reservations required.
@alldayhabit #CTL12
“After the fourth iteration of the day – I’d been running around the house, chasing the meaning I was helping to create, for seven hours, constantly afraid I’d miss something, exhilarated by the prospect of being surprised by the next turn…”
-Read Gideon Lewis-Kraus’ essay ‘Over and Over’ (The Threepenny Review, 2012) on his experience with Habit at the Luminato Festival in Toronto
David Levine has successfully bridged the worlds of contemporary theater and visual art with a body of work that examines the conditions of spectacle and spectatorship across a range of media. His work has been performed and/or exhibited internationally at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Documenta XII, the Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), HAU 2 (Berlin), Matadero Madrid, and Blum & Poe (Los Angeles). He has directed theatrical premieres at the Vineyard Theatre, Primary Stages, and the Atlantic Theater, alongside workshops at The Public Theater and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab.
Read an interview excerpt with Levine in The Believer
Habit takes place in a disused building, once a bustling part of The Essex Street Market. This magnificently decayed warehouse has been closed to the public since 1994. The market complex turned 70 this year; it was created by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and has a rich history on the Lower East Side. Learn more about Essex Street Market’s History
PS122 has partnered with Crossing the Line since the festival’s inception in 2007.
Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s annual fall festival presenting interdisciplinary works and performances created by artists from around the world in New York. The festival provides opportunities for New Yorkers to explore the dialogue between artist and participant, examine how artists help re-imagine the world, and engage in the vital role artists play as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions and takes place this year from September 14 – October 14, 2012.
Conversation with David Levine
David Levine (Habit creator/director), Eliza Baldi and Brian Bickerstaff (Habit performers) in conversation with Gideon Lester, co-curator of Crossing the Line.
Saturday, September 29 12pm immediately preceding Habit
Essex Street Market, Building B; 130-144 Essex Street, btw. Rivington & Stanton Streets
Free – Reservations suggested
Created & directed David Levine
Environment & clothes Marsha Ginsberg
Text Jason Grote
Produced Maria Luisa Gambale
Production Manager Chris Batstone
Assistant Directors David Conison & Kristin Meyer
Dedicated to Tom Murrin, friend
Co-commissioned by Luminato Festival in Toronto, and Mass MoCA, with support from The Watermill Center.