DEFIBRILLATOR Performance Art Gallery is thrilled to announce the return of Estonian performance art collective, NON GRATA, in their presentation of Force Majeure as part of an event by the same name on Sunday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m. Co-hosted by NEW CAPITAL, the performance will center around the destruction of a car. Riveting and energetic, Force Majeure is a tribute to NON GRATA’s punk rock style that mixes social, political, and ethical messages with their characteristic sense of controlled anarchy. The group is made up of around 40 members mostly from Estonia, but also from Quebec, Finland, Sweden, Germany, USA, France, and Chile. The main characteristics of the members are anonymity in group work, and a purposeful ignorance of the local art world and mass media. NON GRATA rejects conventionalization, favoring instead images of primitivism, impersonality and experimental creativity.

The evening begins at DEFIBRILLATOR at 6:00 p.m., during which time Polish sound and video artist Marek Choloniewski will present a large scale interactive four channel video installation using GPS-trans technology. Incorporating images from the streets of Chicago from the perspective of a car, Choloniewski allows the audience to drive the virtual automobile by means of light sensors.  GPS-trans is an ongoing global interactive instrument project that has been realized in Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Berlin, Minsk, Luxembourg, and Chicago. The project is based on GPS-12 technology where transmitted data over the internet controls video screens and musical response. Improvised sound by Dan Dehaan, Katie Young, and Ryan Ingebritsen. For more, visit http://www.studiomch.art.pl/.

At 7:00 p.m. a school bus will arrive to transport people to the site of the performance, occurring at an undisclosed location. The event will take place outside, so spectators are encouraged to dress according to the weather. This piece has been adapted and taken to several countries, including Iceland, Korea, and most recently Britain, directly following the mass riots that happened there last summer. Defibrillator’s presentation of the work will take place on Sunday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m.

Around the name NON GRATA there have been different hushes and shushes for a long time. For those whose world of art starts from the point where the art world ends, NON GRATA has been a liberator; it is a cure from incest. The main point of the group is ethical. The performances of the group take place according to the logic of avoiding codes. NON GRATA focuses on “a perverted social ethos, which elevates personal freedom to an absolute, and denies the underclass the discipline – tough love – which alone might enable some of its members to escape from the swamp of dependency in which they live”. Aesthetical and provocative challenges are represented in places where the Art World doesn't work. To learn more please visit http://www.nongrata.ee/

This project is proudly co-hosted by New Capital, a project space run by Chelsea Culp & Ben Foch. A $10 requested donation at the door goes directly to the artists. The evening will culminate in a reception at Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery lasting until 10:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 2012

6:00 P.M. INSTALLATION at  DFB

7:OO P.M. BUS TO NON GRATA PERFORMANCE (location undisclosed)

8:30 P.M. RETURN TO DFB FOR RECEPTION