at AS220, 95 Empire St., Providence, RI

Free Admission with registration.

Only 15 seats available. First come, first serve.

Contact: shey@as220.org

Taught by: Omni-Zonafranca is a multi-disciplinary artist collective from Cuba. Omni engages creation through several kinds of art genres: poetry, visual art, music performance, and sound experimentation. Documentation of the group’s public performances are turned into video-art, films, photography, design and experimental shows that have been celebrated by audiences around the world. In its 13th years of existence, Omni has shared its work with artists and groups in more than 20 countries. Amaury, David, and Luis are a performance threesome that mixes poetry, song, music, dance, performance, and video, to create collective and interactive art through their shows. Omni ZonaFranca are AS220’s Artists-in-Residence for October 2013.

Omni-Zonafranca is:
Amaury Pacheco (The republic meditator), David D Omni (The Freehoper), and Luis Eligio D Omni (President Eligio)

Through creative exercises, the workshop participants will put into play the ability to interpret and redefine personal and collective reality. The group will play live with motion in the street, transforming insignificant moments of everyday life in the city into moments of poetry and creative expression. They will be encouraged to go beyond the usual codes and explore new possibilities that lead up to challenging your perception of reality.

Methodology:

1) The introduction of new concepts accompanied by facts and data to help guide the group so they can venture into the use of poetry and image, not only as writing but as a tool to build future scenarios and expand creative possibilities of expression.

2) The approach to the workshop is motivational and participatory. Omni mixes techniques they have discovered through 17 years of artistic practice, and include elements discovered by other artists throughout history. This includes exercises for the body and mind and other tools that can assist in the discovery of inner reality and perception, interpretation, and action.

3) There is a period of experimentation and practice in the streets and public spaces. This will be essential for creating an environment that develops group collaboration and creative thinking. It will flex the muscles of originality, flexibility, fluency of ideas, and spontaneity. The possibility of failure is excluded; the emphasis is in the process.

Omni ZonaFranca are AS220’s Artists-in-Residence for October 13. This was made possible through support from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC), Brown University’s Third World Center and its Latino Heritage Series, and La Mama Experimental Theater. Click here for more information.