Each summer, Ron Athey and Vaginal Davis organise
in Los Angeles the now legendary Visions of Excess, an all-night,
twelve-hour event featuring nearly twenty artistic interventions,
in a building rented especially for that purpose. Normally,
the building is not directly associated to art institutions,
since the event does not address only art audiences. During
the night, there is a series of performances by various artists
coming from the very heart of urban culture, who perform before
a not too large audience, which makes the happening more intimate
and the contact with artistic poetics softer. The event, whose
closest equivalent within European culture would be the cabaret,
will be presented on December 17, 2004 in Ljubljana at the Grad
Kodeljevo Castle, which will be entirely transformed in an all-night
cabaret loaded with glamour, libido and offbeat humour.
We have already met some of the artist that will perform on
that evening at the castle. Ron Athey appeared at the festival
"Lepota ekstrema/The Beauty of the Extreme" in Cankarjev
dom a few years ago, Marisa Carnesky, wrapped in a tattooed
dragon, made her first appearance at the City of Women festival,
and Kira O'Reilly performed with her precise scalpel at the
Break 21 festival in 2002. The Eclipse will give several repeats
of their latest performance entitled "Spectrum Magenta",
while the Collective BAST will be the main concert event, which
will be at the same time a historic opportunity, seeing that
their piece Ron's Story from their previous album will be performed
live for the first time by Ron Athey. Brane Zorman will be sounding
at the second floor, while the Slovenian representation and
the emphasis of the night will be spiced up by Peter Mlakar's
obligatory sermon. Seven other foreign artists will perform
on that night at Kodeljevo. Soprano Juliana Snapper will sing
in Ron's performance, while the notorious black transvestite
Vaginal Davis will be the MC of the night. Nicole Blackman will
hold an eight-hour intimate and silent audience for individuals,
Dominic Johnson will be hanging from the ceiling, while Velvet
Hammer Burlesque is a trio of offbeat cabaret artists featuring
group and solo performances. In the film room, which will have
the function of chill-out zone, will be presented videos by
Paula Cronan, Ema Kugler, Davide Grassi and Paul Amlehn. The
events will be presented on all three floors of the Grad Kodeljevo
Castle, which will also feature exhibitions by Rajko Bizjak,
Goran Bertok, Leonora Mark and some selected pieces by the duo
Eclipse.
At the ground floor bar and on central stage on the first floor,
a thematic musical backdrop with feverish beats will be provided
by the multifunctional co-operative Codeep.
In any case, the whole will be a red
sensual night such as Ljubljana has never seen before!
The dress code is black, gold and red, while latex and leather
are preferred. Stay tuned!