PREVIEW // ARTLab: Mask-Making + Performance with Benjamin Sota!

Benjamin Sota, whose work is currently on display at the museum, will be leading a circus and physical theater workshop in his installation Damn everything but the circus from 1-2:30pm on Saturday, January 2. Learn how to use the circus equipment in his installation, some neat physical theater moves, and mask techniques. The workshop is $5 and you can RSVP by emailing education@matress.org.

In addition to the workshop, you can join us in the lobby and make your own mask at an ARTLab program from 1-4pm! We’ll have another performance at 4pm where you can learn and show off some more physical theater moves in your very own mask. Maybe you can try on a mask made by someone else, too!

You may find that you feel more free to do things you would otherwise not do when you have a mask on. Ben’s installation invites you to interact and perform in a space where, in any other normal situation, you’d be "breaking the rules" - to play, make loud noises and touch a piece of art in a museum. He calls the circus a Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ). Creating a TAZ is a socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control andhave been know to spark change throughout the world.

If you gave yourself permission to put on a fun mask, break some of your own internal rules of behavior, play and perform in a new way for a little while, perhaps you’ll discover something you could try differently in the way you move about the world.

Come play with us! ARTLab is free with your museum admission and is open to all ages.