Pike & Rose To Host ‘Audio Visual Arts Festival’ In Empty Office Building

From Bethesda Now - By Aaron Kraut

Pike & Rose will continue its push to become the cultural anchor of the rebranded “Pike District” with a late-night audio-visual arts festival in a yet-to-be filled office building.

The free and first-ever Pike & Rose Audio Visual Arts Festival (or PRAVA) is set for 6 p.m.- 2 a.m. starting on Saturday, Feb. 7.

Pike & Rose developer Federal Realty teamed up with New York-based Nuit Blanche New York and Materials & Methods to curate and produce the show.

According to a press release, it will include a Dutch “sound, installation and performance artist” who will turn the office building’s sixth floor into a choreographed roller arena — with the help of Baltimore’s Charm City Roller Girls. A Baltimore based duo will sample “found” sounds “ranging from cards shuffling to a frozen stream thawing in the sun.”

A more traditional music act will perform with a sound-reactive light show. A D.C.-based artist will present a video that shows an elaborate Baroque sculpture exploding in slow motion.

Guests must be 18 and older to attend. Those interested in attending the event (11580 Old Georgetown Road) can register at the website.

AMP by Strathmore, the 250-seat music venue at Pike & Rose, will officially open for performances in March. At a ribbon cutting event for Pike & Rose last year, Strathmore CEO Eliot Pfanstiehl said he hoped AMP would be a way for Strathmore to connect to younger audiences.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to take over40,000 square feet of Pike & Rose’s 80,000-square-foot Class A office building, which was also part of Phase 1 of the project on the former site of the Mid-Pike Plaza Shopping Center.

A rundown of featured artists scheduled for the event is below:

Allard Van Hoorn, a Netherlands-based sound, installation and performance artist will collaborate with Baltimore’s Charm City Roller Girls to turn the 6th floor of the office building into a choreographed roller arena. Van Hoorn will create electronic music live by recording and remixing the sounds of the roller skates as they move around and through the audience.

Matmos, an experimental duo originally from San Francisco and now based in Baltimore, incorporates odd, unusual, and ‘found’ sounds into its rhythmic music, sampling sounds ranging from cards shuffling to a frozen stream thawing in the sun.

Mal Devisa will perform songs from her EP, For Daisy with Honey, and her most recent album, 4U. A solo artist based in Amherst, MA, whose music draws from indie favorites, jazz notes, and lo-fi rock, Mal Devisa plays the bass, keyboard, and drum. A sound-reactive light show will illuminate the audience with each kick she gives the bass drum on stage.

Johnathon Monaghan, a DC-based artist, will present his video, “Office,” which depicts a highly-realistic office space containing an elaborate Baroque sculpture framed with blue neon tubing. As the video continues, the sculpture of a long-dead aristocrat explodes in slow motion across the uninhabited office. Set to tinkling music, the video progresses with a hypnotic pace.

Brian Chase, the drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and Ursula Scherrer, a New York City-based video artist, will collaborate to create an improvised audio-visual piece. Responding to Chase’s performance, Scherrer will use multiple projectors to create a mesmerizing, visual landscape.

GEMS, DC’s dream-pop duo, will perform new songs and their debut EP, Medusa. The duo makes romantic, heartbreaking music: Clifford John’s supporting, low voice balances Lindsay Pitts’ haunting pitch as they effortlessly weave their voices with hazy guitar sounds and lush synthesizers, all punctuated by a strong, danceable beat.

Photo via Pike & Rose