Media-Move: A Bridge Benefit [early media art]

New York: Judson Dance Theatre, 1966. Mimeograph. 8 ½ x 11 in. Very good, with closed 1 in. tear on bottom left corner, slight soiling on right margin, and yellowing commensurate with age. Penciled inscriptions on verso. . Item #6710

Handbill for an experimental media and performance show held at The Bridge featuring a lecture by Yvonne Rainer, performances by Carol Marcy, Malcolm Goldstein, Beverly Schmidt, Aldo Tambellini, Laurence Cook, Roberts Blossom, and Gretchen MacLane, scanning by Elizabeth Keen, and lights by Jack Milton. 

The Bridge was a small, short-lived experimental performance and theater venue on St. Marks from 1965-1966. Lamentably under-documented, the venue was an important node in the 1960s downtown avant-garde, serving as something of a more boisterous venue for the Judson Dance Theatre set. The Bridge hosted respective midnight performances by Yoko Ono and The Fugs, screenings under the auspices of the Film-makers’ Cinematheque, and performances by Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Meredith Monk, and Lucinda Childs. The venue also become embroiled in the censorship battles that afflicted New York’s mid-60s artistic community: after hosting an anti-war skit titled “LBJ” in 1966 that featured an American flag burning, the police brought indecency charges; while they were ultimately dropped, The Bridge ceased operations shortly after the ordeal.

A scarce document of an under-recorded venue of New York’s 1960s downtown avant-garde and early works mixing experimental media art, dance, and music.

Price: $250.00