FOREIGN PRESENCE: MARILYN ARSEM

artist talk and presentation

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

8 PM

In recent years, Marilyn Arsem has focused on site-specific performances, often in the context of performance festivals.She does not plan in advance what she will do, but chooses a location in which to create a new work once she has arrived. The sites have ranged from a former Cold War missile base in the United States, to a 15th century Turkish bath in Macedonia, to an aluminum factory in Argentina, to the site of a Spanish landing in the Philippines, to a fishing harbor in Taiwan. 

Arsem is curious about the layers of history that accumulate in a location. Many of her works examine hidden worlds that lie beneath the surface, ones that lurk underground, and those which eventually decay and dissolve back into the earth. Often they reference America’s political interventions in the country. Her process includes researching the history of the site, talking with people in the community, and then working directly with materials and  images found in the area, in order to create a response in the form of a performance or installation.

Marilyn Arsem has been creating live events since 1975, ranging from solo performances to large-scale site works.  She has presented work throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America.  In her recent performances, Arsem has focused on creating site-specific works that respond to the history or politics of the country, engaging with the immediate landscape and materiality of the location.  Arsem is the founder of Mobius, Inc., a Boston-based interdisciplinary collaborative of artists.  She is a full-time faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,  where she heads the Performance Area and is a Graduate Advisor.

Marilyn Arsem's website