College Park, Md: Out of Place, a site-situated installation and contemporary dance performance conceived by Associate Professor of Architecture Ronit Eisenbach and Assistant Professor of Dance Sharon Mansur will debut this month at Lake Anne Plaza in Reston, VA. The two artists have developed a unique collaborative practice and intertwined approach. The installation, conceptualized and designed by Eisenbach with the assistance of UMD architecture alum Michael Fischer, will be on view April 23rd- May 13th. A dance performance to coincide with the installation, directed by Sharon Mansur and performed by Mansur and Daniel Burkholder, will take place Saturday, April 28th at 7:30 pm, immediately followed by a talk back reception at the Reston Museum. POSTPONED to May 6th, at 7:30 pm due to weather.

Presented by the Reston Community Center, the Initiative for Public Art – Reston, Friends of Lake Anne and the Reston Museum, Out of Place reinterprets to the history of the planned community of 1960s New Town of Reston, Virginia and the sculpture and architecture of Lake Anne Plaza. The work builds on the productive tensions in Mansur and Eisenbach’s collaborative practice and their shared commitment to inquiry through making. Inspired by individual and collective acts of building and un-building, measuring and marking space, and the fluidity and mutability of both water and bodies, Eisenbach and Mansur examine the ways we perceive, shape and inhabit our world--inviting others to consider the same.

The performance, a duet featuring Mansur and longtime collaborator Daniel Burkholder, will take place in Lake Anne Plaza and will last for a half hour as daylight fades, activating the plaza through human actions and interactions, and drawing Eisenbach’s constellation of floating frames and tensile lines across the water. At night, the sun’s harnessed energy will transform these elements to create a landscape of luminous, hovering color in the lake. The installation will linger in the quay until May 13th delighting viewers with the memory of the duet--an architecture of situation marking temporal rhythms and reframing place.

Out of Place marks the continuation of a creative dialogue for Eisenbach and Mansur. Their first Reston-inspired work, Underneath, debuted last year. Out of Place represents a bridge between Underneath and an upcoming event on September 15th, demonstrating the progression of the exploration and examination of place.

“This is an evolving research and creative process. Out of Place builds upon Underneath, our 2011 installation and performance inspired by the walking paths and streams of Reston,” explains Eisenbach. “In a similar way, we hope to use what we learn from our event this month, as well as our interaction with the community, to continue the dialogue and extend our creative vision to September’s installation and performance.”

September’s event represents the culminating work in Mansur and Eisenbach’s series. Building on both Out of Place and Underneath, their final piece for Reston will embody their shared response to Lake Anne Plaza’s striking character, architecture, sculpture and history. Joining the team in September are sound designer Rebecca Adams and an ensemble comprised of professional dancers and undergraduate dance majors from the University of Maryland. This visual and kinetic event inspired by current and past images, voices, shapes and textures offers a rare opportunity for viewers to perceive subtly shifting dynamics of space and motion and meditate upon the multi-sensory experience of inhabiting a place.

Reston has been integrating public art since its inception as a planned community in the mid-1960s. It has been recognized as one of the nation’s hubs for the creation and exhibition of public art.

“Our work in the Lake Anne area provides a special opportunity for us to create something new for such an important place,” says Mansur. “It is a privilege to have so much time to do so.”

Mansur and Eisenbach have successfully collaborated on several projects, integrating the aesthetic philosophies of dance and architecture as they explore the shared territory of the two disciplines. Their first project- Memory House/Desire House, a bamboo structure and processional installed and performed at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, explored themes of loss, inhabitation and shelter across cultures at the start of the foreclosure crisis and on the heels of the Haiti earthquake.  In June 2011, Underneath, their first Reston-inspired work, was presented at Dance Place to critical acclaim. 

Out of Place is conceived by Ronit Eisenbach and Sharon Mansur, with installation design by Ronit Eisenbach, performance direction by Sharon Mansur and design and fabrication assistance by Michael Fischer. A commissioned site-specific performance/installation in Reston, Virginia provides an ideal backdrop for Eisenbach and Mansur to explore relationships between action and place, space and gesture, image and memory. Reston has integrated public art since its inception as a planned community in the mid-1960s and this work builds on that tradition.

As they embarked on this new work over a year ago, Eisenbach and Mansur were enthusiastic. “We are delighted to be working on this project for Reston,” said Ronit Eisenbach. “The community’s continued support of the arts and their integration of public art, urban design, and architecture makes it an inspiring location.”

Adds Mansur, “It’s a pleasure to collaborate with Ronit again. We are looking forward to developing this creative work together and expanding our exploration of the dynamic relationships between the human body and the environment we build for ourselves.”

The development of Out of Place is supported by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies; Department of Art; Creative and Performing Arts Award; and the Center for Undergraduate Research.

To learn more about the installation and performance, visit www.restoncommunitycenter.com.