At Galapagos on Wednesday, May 9th Ant Hampton from rotozaza will be presenting a short work called “Bill & Bill & Tony” (part of his ongoing La Otra Gente project) as part of Blind Date Europe on Europe Day (May 9).  (8PM, $10)

May 9th is Europe Day – much like July 4th in the United States, this is the day on which Europeans celebrate Europe. May 9th is a European symbol and a great occasion for cultural festivities.
Blind Date Europe is a colourful, diversified and multidimensional event full of surprises. To celebrate Europe Day in New York, Jim Avignon, Katja Loher, and the Goethe-Institut New York will transform Galapagos with a sampler of European culture by New York-based European artists and special guests, who will fly in for the event directly from Europe. Blind Date Europe presents extraordinary concerts, theater, video screenings, multimedia shows, paintings and DJs.

The stage in the front room will feature concerts by special guests Felix Kubin, Neoangin, and Dorit Chrysler, and on the stage in the back room there will be the premiere of Katja Loher’s new short movie The Chess Field, several short films by Marie Losier, and a multimedia event by PotiPoti. Galapagos will be decorated with paintings by Jim Avignon. Later at night, DJs will spin while the audience can dance or digest all the delicious art they have seen.

Performers/Artists

Jim Avignon: Pop-artist and bohemian. Born in Munich the very day the Beatles conceived the song �Baby You Can Drive My Car,� the autodidact works as a painter, illustrator, and conceptual artist. He releases the journal Attack/Delay on a regular basis and masterminds the annual �Who is afraid of friendly capitalism� lounge in Berlin. As his one-man-lo-fi-electronic-band Neoangin, he enjoys performing unruly concerts in obscure locations all over the world.

Dorit Chrysler: This Austrian lady has been living in New York for the past twenty years�it�s the place she comes home to from her travels as the grande dame of the theremin. Her fascinating voice and her unique method of playing the theremin make her music sound like a message from another world.

Ant Hampton: A British artist who has never been to the United States. Once he arrives in New York, he will wander around looking for suitable people to invite to the Galapagos stage to perform their selves and to present their own worlds. These will not be �theater� people, but there will be theater in them. At the time of writing, he has no idea who they are yet, because he hasn’t yet arrived in the U.S. Who will they be? Bomb squads? Hairdressers?

Felix Kubin: His father is a nuclear physicist, his mother an interpreter with a knack for superstition. Felix was delivered into this world along with a keyboard, for the sole purpose of dedicating his life to the fusion of serious music and entertainment music. Be a witness to Felix mating ruthless experimentation with the gay science.

Katja Loher: �The Chess Field� is a game of chess that has somehow come to life. The pawns develop plans to strike, and the black and white pawns form a union to overthrow the government. The four rooks in the corner pass the time playing with a ball, which becomes a deadly weapon. The chessboard becomes a battle field. Katja Loher�s work has been shown at the Russian State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, at “Art Digital” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, at “DIVA, Digital & Video Art Fair 2006”, in New York City, at Dublin Fringe 2006, right now at the 708 Art Festival in Beijing, among other showings.

Marie Losier: Flying Saucey! (a battle for sauce and survival), Eat My Makeup! (five winsome damsels� picnic on a roof), and Manuelle Labor (Marie Losier gives birth to Guy Maddin�s hands) are the three shorts Marie Losier will present. The French-born artist has lived and worked as a filmmaker and curator in New York for many years. Her films have been presented at various international museums, galleries, and festivals, including the Berlin Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of Art (as part of the 2006 Whitney Biennial).�

PotiPoti: These two Spaniards-turned-Berliners are a ubiquitous creative duo roaming about Europe. The characters they design combine the styles of street art with the Spanish joie de vivre. Their animals, who can be na�ve and cheerful as well as gloomy and mysterious, make appearances at fashion shows as well as in video projections.

Goethe-Institut/Goethe-Institut New York:�
The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. It promotes knowledge of the German language abroad and fosters international cultural cooperation and conveys a comprehensive picture of Germany by providing information on Germany’s cultural, social, and political life.
The Goethe-Institut New York organizes and supports a broad spectrum of cultural events that present German culture and promote international cultural exchange.