MOCA's Engagement Party presents OJO

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 7–10pm
MOCA Grand Avenue, Ahmanson Auditorium

For the final event of their three-month Engagement Party residency, OJO, along with special guests as well as members of the audience, will create an abnormal lecture experience. This performance will consist of a series of lectures, each of which will act as a musical score, with the speaker, audience, space, and environment functioning as compositional elements. As talks are presented on various topics, members of OJO will take up position beside the lectern as the house band, using audio trickery to affect the audience's reception of live speech. Focusing on specific words and phrases in order to induce listeners to react in all sorts of ways, their interventions should lead to chaotic and memorable lectures.

Founded in 2005 by visual artists Joshua Aster, Justin Cole, Eamon Ore-Giron, Chris Avitabile, Moises Medina, and Brenna Youngblood, OJO is formed around a mutual interest in experimenting with acoustic guitars, electronics, musical spontaneity, freeform improvisation, and the boundaries between audience and performer. The group uses a wide range of instruments—drum machines, basses, guitars, synthesizers, salt, cars—as well as their own bodies and those of their audience, clapping, chanting, stomping, and singing to generate sprawling improvisations.

MOCA’s ENGAGEMENT PARTY PRESENTS NEW ARTWORKS IN THE FORM OF DYNAMIC SOCIAL EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES BY LA-BASED ARTIST COLLECTIVES

Launched in October 2008, Engagement Party offers emerging collectives three-month residencies to create works to be shown at MOCA Grand Avenue on the first Thursday of each month from 7 to 10pm. Collectives may employ any medium, discipline, or strategy, resulting in artworks that may incorporate performances, workshops, screenings, lectures, or any other activity emerging from the group’s particular focus. By providing a platform for artist collectives with multidisciplinary, non-object-based practices, MOCA acknowledges the significant role of these practices in the contemporary cultural landscape while challenging the conventions of the museum as a collecting institution.

An essential component of Engagement Party is its unique oversight committee, Think Tank. Comprising midlevel staff drawn from a broad spectrum of museum departments and led by Aandrea Stang on behalf of MOCA Education, Think Tank develops the parameters of the program and selects participating artist groups. The goals and achievements of Engagement Party evolve as Think Tank engages with collectives, their projects, and their audiences.