Chico MacMurtrie
Amorphic Robot Works (NYC)
Procession
and Activation of the Euro Border Crosser on Friday, June 21, 2019
at the MuseumsQuartier from 16h–22h
The
Euro Border Crosser is the result of a cross-departmental project at the University of Applied Arts Vienna dealing with the
development of robotic sculptures (Border Crossers) in a course the artist held.
Artistic
team:
Chico MacMurtrie with Sara Bissen, Ferdinand Doblhammer, Moritz
Durauer, Maximilian Fink, Georg Holzmann,
Gea Kalkhof, Maximilian
Köb, Johannes Krumböck, Anetta Luberda, Jakob Steixner, Lola Verger
“Border Crossers”
is a large-scale performance and participatory procession involving a series of lightweight robotic sculptures that poetically
explore the notion of borders. The “Border Crossers” performance series stages a peaceful, symbolic, “crossing” of borders
around the world using the combined power of art, technology and community.
When the Border Crossers reach their
maximum height (approximately 10 meters), a coiled fabric tendril gradually unfurls into an arch-like shoot that “grows” over
the border and touches down on the other side. The project treats the border as a physical condition that can be temporarily
transcended by technological proxies. It offers a critique of militarized geopolitical borders, and a metaphorical suspension
of those borders.
The New York based artist Chico MacMurtrie was resident in the Angewandte Residency Program and
visiting professor at the Department Art and Communication Practices (kkp) in 2018. The lecture series accompanies a cross-departmental
project dealing with the development of robotic sculptures (Border Crossers).