Charlemagne Palestine Videoworks

A key figure in the history of Minimal music and video art, artist Charlemagne Palestine will present a selection of videos including his highly influential and visceral performance-based work from the mid-1970s. Born in Brooklyn, NY and currently based in Brussels, Belgium, Charlemagne Palestine has worked with artists including Simone Forti, Tony Conrad, Len Lye and Morton Subotnick. Known for his extended and physically demanding live performances, most notably 1974’s Strumming Music, Palestine created a body of ritualistic, performance-driven video works in the 1970s that investigate the performer’s body as a sonic instrument, movement and repetition, and the relationship between sound and psychological states of being.

Body Music I / Body Music II
 (1973-74, b/w, sound, 20 min)
Internal Tantrum  (1975, b/w, sound, 7 min)
Island Song 
(1976, b/w, sound, 16 min)
Sacré Asnieres  (2000/2013, color, sound, 10 min)
Ritual Dans le Vide (Ritual In The Emptiness, 2001/2013, color, sound, 12 min)

Palestine’s presentation is part of a series of events during a week-long visit to Chicago, organized by the Frequency Series. On Saturday, March 15, he will give a rare solo performance at Constellation. On Sunday, March 16 he’ll be present at the opening reception for an installation at Experimental Sound Studio’s Audible Gallery curated by Amelia Ishmael. And on Monday, March 17 he’ll perform his organ work Schlingen-Blängen at Rockefeller Chapel in a concert presented by the Renaissance Society.