ALEXIS DAHAN: P3STUDIO
Press Release
ALEXIS DAHAN
IF THE GAME IS THE ART, IS CHANCE THE ARTIST?
February 19 – March 16, 2014
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday | 6 – 11PM
P3Studio
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in partnership with Art Production Fund, is pleased to announce artist-in-residence Alexis Dahan. His site-specific installation, If the game is the art, is chance the artist? explores the concept of chance through various multi-media works created for the P3Studio residency.
The element of chance has been used in the creative process throughout art history, first in the Dada art movement with members like Jean Arp and later in the 20th century, visual artists like Marcel Duchamp and composer John Cage. Dahan pays homage to this tradition in his installation where guests are invited to sit down with him and play Lewitt Machine, a game that transforms their dice-generated chance into an abstract drawing similar in appearance to Sol Lewitt's work. At the end of the 15-20 minute participatory performance, a coin toss determines if the guest or artist keeps the signed drawing that was created. If the artist wins, the drawing is displayed in the studio.
In addition to Lewitt Machine, an audio installation featuring chance-generated original compositions by John Cage and Pierre Boulez played at random, creates a new six hour long aleatoric composition. A custom neon work whose color was selected by chance illuminates the space. Also, the Stephane Mallarme poem, A Throw of Dice Will Never Abolish Chance, that was first published 100 years ago is featured as a light installation on the studio windows, in which Dahan used chance to change the order of the poem's original 12 spreads.
Alexis Dahan is a New York-based French artist who specializes in site-specific conceptual art projects. In November 2013, Dahan created We serve selected texts, a public, participatory and non-profit installation that distributed philosophy texts to the public in the Chelsea art gallery district.
The artist-in-residence program at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas represents one component of its larger art program, in which artists create projects that are interactive and participatory, giving guests the opportunity to connect at an authentic and personal level. Developed and curated in partnership with Art Production Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to producing ambitious public art projects, it strives to reach new audiences and expand awareness through contemporary art.
