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Mobius moves
The artists’ group goes global with ‘Juliett 484’
BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

For 20 years, Mobius, Boston’s avant, savant artists group, was identified with the space it inhabited on Fort Point. The lease ended earlier this year, however, and the artists were ousted. Mobius has since found new digs; its administrative base is just a few doors down from its old home, but its nebulous events will be taking place in art spaces all over Boston.

According to Mobius co-director Jed Speare, the move was not necessarily a bad thing. "We knew the lease would expire, and that was a catalyst for change. Pragmatically and psychically, it was the right thing for us to do." In other words, Mobius’s new nomadic mode has opened doors. "We feel that it’s given us the flexibility we need and the creativity to imagine new possibilities that we couldn’t have before. Now that we don’t have a public space, we have more creativity in programming — now programming is much broader, both in Boston and well beyond."

Well beyond certainly applies to Mobius’s latest project. A cultural exchange involving 15 artists from Poland, Providence, and Boston, "Juliett 484" pivots on and is named after a decommissioned Russian submarine, a grim, Cold War–era vessel that’s now docked in Providence. "We framed the project as a response to the submarine and what it represents in terms of the Cold War," says Speare. "The submarine is also resonant in that it most likely docked in Gdansk, Poland. The shipyard there was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, and there’s an artists’ base there."

The Poland phase of the project, which included performance art, installation, and video, took place recently at the Castle of the Imagination International Performance Festival in Gdansk. This Saturday and Sunday in Providence, as part of the Convergence International Arts Festival, the artists will respond to the sub in its present site; Speare says, "Although a lot of work was presented in Poland, I believe there will be a lot of new work developed for the sub." On Wednesday, the Polish artists will give talks and performances at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston. "The Polish artists will be presenting a different style of work from what audiences are used to here," says Speare. "They come from more of a tradition of action art, of body art." Artur Grabowski’s "40’,1%" is about the widespread abuse of alcohol in Poland; it has Grabowski pinned underneath a door, shimmying his way across the floor, smoking a cigarette, and drinking a bottle of champagne. Aleksandra Kubiak’s piece in Gdansk entailed the artist’s piercing her flesh with push pins.

"Juliett 484" is Mobius’s fifth cultural exchange with Eastern Europe over the past eight years. And Speare believes that the parallels between Boston and Gdansk are particularly striking. The Gdansk shipyard is going to be the site of Europe’s largest redevelopment program, he explains, and artists there are in the process of working to forge a new presence. "Here in Boston, the use of post-industrial space for art is something we’re aware of vividly down in Fort Point." Exchanges like "Juliett 484" will allow for "the interplay of influence between West and East," Speare concludes. "It’s about getting new information and sharing experiences together."

"Juliett 484" takes place September 20 from 8 to 10 p.m. and September 21 from 3 to 7 p.m. at Collier Point Park in Providence. Tickets are $8. The Polish artists will also talk and perform September 24 at 6 p.m. at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 the Fenway; this event is free. For more information, call (617) 542-7416 or visit www.mobius.org.


Issue Date: September 19 - 25, 2003
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