Seven

For Performa 11, Artists Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler collaborated to present SEVEN, a performance and installation that stretches from the urban landscape of New York to the savannahs of Africa. Mixing Kessler’s kinetic sculptures with Rottenberg’s absurdist videos, SEVEN will collapse film time and real time to create an intricate laboratory that channels body fluids and colors into a spectacle on the African savannah. In New York, a “Chakra Juicer” will capture sweat from seven performers engaging in ritualistic athletic activity.

The result is “Seven,” a 37-minute piece involving seven live performers in an installation that includes video. The action centers on the transcontinental production of “chakra juice,” a magic elixir, one assumes, distilled from human sweat. It comes in the seven colors ascribed in Indian medicine to the body’s seven force centers, located at intervals from the bottom of the spine to the crown of the head.

Cinematography: Mahyad Tousi; Technical Consultant: Steve Hamilton; Special Effects: Alex Lemke; 2D Animation: Erik Mitgartz; 3D Animation: Mickey Roth; Sound Designer: Nati Taub; Re-recording Mixer: Ronen Nagel; Camera Assistant: Richard Uren, AfriScreen Films. Performers: Empress Asia, Marshall Factora, Esteban Jefferson, Jason Liles, Chris McGinn, Cecil Parker, Sunita Sharma, Juan Valanzuela, Alex Wynne.

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