Mass MoCA Adds to Wilco Festival
Mega Event Planned August 13-15
By: Bob Fowler - May 12, 2010
A diverse array of musical guests have been added to the line up of Wilco's first SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL, a three-day festival of music, art, comedy, film and interactivity which takes place at MASS MoCA on August 13 - 15. Joining the Chicago band are Sub Pop's Avi Buffalo and Vetiver; guitarist Sir Richard Bishop; Bennington, VT trio Mountain Man; Portland, ME indie-rockers Brenda; North Adams, MA duo The Books; and Chicago's jazz combo the Deep Blue Organ Trio.
SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL will feature a performance by the legendary Vermont- based puppet theater company Bread and Puppet. The troupe's show incorporates political themes, huge papier-mache puppets, a brass band and more. "If Jim Henson was the Beatles of puppetry....then (Artistic Director) Peter Schumann and Bread & Puppet is the edgier, more provocative cousin," said a recent article in the Chicago Tribune.
Story Pirates, a nationally respected arts and creative writing organization which promotes literacy for kids and adults through creative writing, drama workshops and sketch comedy, will be on hand for multiple performances throughout the weekend.
Glenn Kotche's newly announced (and as-yet -untitled) interactive drum head installation will live within MASS MoCA's acclaimed exhibition Sol Lewitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective. Kotche will demonstrate and visitors will sample Kotche prepared drum heads to create different sounds throughout the multi-roomed, vibrantly painted, large-scale wall drawing exhibit, which Time Magazinenamed the #1 exhibition of the year.
The previously announced Solid Sound Stompbox Station, an interactive guitar pedal exhibit created and demonstrated by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline will be featured
in the gallery where Tobias Putrih's Reprojection: Hoosac is installed as part of MASS MoCA's Material World exhibition. Material World: Sculpture to Environment is a series of site specific installations now on display throughout MASS MoCA's second and third floor galleries, offering visitors an unexpected visual and spatial (and now auditory) experience.
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Wilco will headline the SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL in their only East Coast performance of the summer. This new festival also presents individual performances by all the Wilco members' side projects including Glenn Kotche's On Fillmore, The Nels Cline Singers, The Autumn Defense featuring John Stirratt and Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen's Pronto.
As part of SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL, MASS MoCA will display an extensive collection of past and present Wilco concert posters. A poster screening demonstration by long time Wilco poster collaborator Ghost-Town Design will also be presented.
Additional art on display in the galleries during the festival includes Inigo Manglano Ovalle?s Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned with, a major exhibition of work by Petah Coyne, Leonard Nimoy?s Secret Selvesand a new installation by Michael Oatman.
Kidspace at MASS MoCA, a gallery and art-making space for children and families, features You Art What You Eat. This is Kidspace's largest group show to date and involves five artists whose primary art material is food.
Festival attendees will have full access to the entire MASS MoCA campus, which incorporates 150,000 square feet of galleries. MASS MoCA, a renovated 19th century textile mill, is the largest center for contemporary, visual and performing arts in the U.S.
Additional information will be announced in coming weeks about SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL'S comedy program, featured films, additional musical performances and more.
Tickets for SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL are on sale now through the band's official website wilcoworld.net
and through solidsoundfestival.com
. Through May 31 tickets for the three-day event are available for $86.50 (including gallery admission plus all fees and parking) and after June 1 for $99.50 (including gallery admission, fees, and parking).