Singer and performance artist Dorian Wood closes Park Avenue Armory Making Space Public Programming Series with Canto de Todes / Song for All, Octobe

12-hour durational composition and installation features chamber music, ambient sound, and aural installation inspired by the migrant experience of Central and Latin Americans 

Accompanied by film installation curated by Michael Gillespie, multi-channel poetry reading by Tierra Narrative, and panels in collaboration with the Association for the Study of Arts of the Present (ASAP)

New York, NY – Monday, September 23, 2024 – Park Avenue Armory is proud to close out its 2024 Public Programming series, Making Space at the Armory, with Canto de Todes / Song for All, a 12-hour composition and installation by singer and performance artist Dorian Wood (she/they) on Saturday, October 19 from 11am to 11pm. Inspired by a lyric written by the late Chilean singer and songwriter Violeta Parra, the work combines a genre-defying canon of folk, pop, and experimental music of Central and Latin America. Redeveloped and re-envisioned in harmony with the Armory’s historic period rooms and specifically honoring the craftspeople that constructed the building at its inception, this Armory commission spotlights timely issues of migration and emphasizes the urgency of folk music as a vessel for social change.

“Dorian Wood’s Canto de Todes is a resonant meditation on migration, a theme central to a nation like ours, built by generations of immigrants,” says Guggenheim fellow and Armory Curator of Public Programming Tavia Nyong’o. “At a time when our historic tradition of welcoming newcomers is being tested, Wood’s music honors the resilience and dignity of the sojourner. As a keynote for ASAP, an organization dedicated to uplifting the art of the present, I hope this performance inspires us all to bear witness to the urgent artistic voices calling out in the wilderness.”

Canto de Todes / Song for All is divided into three movements throughout the course of its 12 hours. The day begins with Movement 1, an hour of live chamber music performed by Dorian Wood with cellists Ethan Philbrick, Mizu Issei, Titilayo, and Adrián Gonzalez Cortes and guitarist Alexander Noice. Movement 2 begins at 12pm and runs until 10pm; audiences can experience a pre-recorded ambient, multi-channel sound installation. Wood has tapped New York-based interdisciplinary artist Riven Ratanavanh (they/them) to collaborate on this movement, providing pop-up performances in the installation space to further activate and interact with Wood’s composition. Finally, Movement 3 closes out the day’s festivities; Wood returns to the Veterans Room with their collaborating musicians and a chorus of around 20 for a final hour-long chamber piece. Canto de Todes was premiered at REDCAT in Los Angeles, California in February 2023; this presentation, which marks the piece’s East Coast premiere, has been adapted both to New York and Park Avenue Armory.

The performance will be accompanied by two installations on a loop from 12pm to 6:30pm in the Armory’s first floor historic rooms. These include: a film program about Audre Lorde curated by Michael Gillespie; and a multi-channel work featuring the contributions of 10 filmmakers, writers, and orators from throughout the Americas including Génesis Mancheren Ab’äj, Óscar Moisés Díaz, Kenia Guillen, Leslie Arely Martinez, Maryam Ivette Parhizkar, and Frisly Soberanis, curated by the Tierra Narrative poetry collective.

Canto de Todes / Song for All is a keynote performance of ASAP/15: Not a Luxury, an in-person conference from October 17 to 19 by the Association for the Study of Arts of the Present. In the Armory’s second floor company rooms, ASAP is presenting a series of conference panels to complement Dorian Wood’s piece. Panels include: “Catostrophic Forgetting” with Zeynep Abes, Chantal Eyong, and Luke Fischbeck; “with/hood: performing temporalities of luxury” with Maria Gaspar, Amina Ross, Anna Martine Whitehead, and Patricia Nguyen; “Break, rest, build – poetic measures of care and creation” with E.T. Russian, Ashleigh Allen, Sarah Joan MacLean, and Cathy de la Cruz; “Ecopoetics Workshop” with Simon Eales and Brooke Bastie; “Not a Luxury But Which Luxuriates: Experimental Translation De Luxe” with the Toronto Experimental Translation Collective; and “The Luxury of Painting the Archive?: Rascuache Artist Illustrating Deportation Stories at the US-Mexico Border” with Kevin Dutan, Ariel Morales, and Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. For more information on the conference, please visit artsofthepresent.org. 

Held in the Armory’s historic period rooms and spaces, Making Space at the Armory is an insightful series of cutting-edge conversations, performances, and activations curated by writer and scholar?Tavia Nyong’o that provides a unique forum for bridging art and culture. Previously this season, Making Space presented multidisciplinary artist Richard Kennedy’s latest commission Guttural (Conducted Contact) as a capstone performance for The Radical Practice of Black Curation: A Symposium in partnership with Princeton University, April 12; poet and scholar Claudia Rankine invited audiences and participants to interrogate the ways in we disagree through the symposium Antagonisms: A Gathering, featuring a performance of choreographer Shamel Pitts’ [Essence of] Touch of Red. On September 8, Day for Night: A Salon on Art and Nightlife, gathered nightlife celebrities and scholars for an afternoon of conversation on the role performance, music, and nightlife play in self-expression, individual identity, and society, presented in conjunction with R.O.S.E.

TICKETING

Tickets at $35 may be purchased by phone through the Armory Box Office at (212) 933-5812, Monday through Friday from 10am to 6pm; and online at armoryonpark.org.

For registration for the full ASAP/15: Not a Luxury conference, please visit the conference website here.

SPONSORSHIP

Citi and Bloomberg Philanthropies are the Armory’s 2024 Season Sponsors. 

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, Mary W. Harriman Foundation, the Reed Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Making Space at the Armory is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF). 

ABOUT DORIAN WOOD

Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in the US. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her artistic practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people. Wood has performed at institutions that include The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA; Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid, Spain; the City Hall of Madrid, Spain; Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris, Mexico City, Mexico; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, and at festivals that include Pacific Standard Time, Los Angeles, CA; Fusebox Festival, Austin, TX; Festival Cruilla, Barcelona, Spain; WorldPride Madrid, Spain; Moers Festival, Germany; and Cully Jazz Festival, Switzerland. 

From 2019 to 2020, Wood completed several successful international tours with their chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas, XAVELA LUX AETERNA. In 2022, Wood debuted their tribute to the singer Lhasa De Sela, entitled LHASA, at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Madrid, in collaboration with singer Carmina Escobar and composer Adrián Cortés. That same year, Wood presented Mares Ocultos, a multimedia chamber music project exploring the nature of male heterosexuality, at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In 2023, Wood premiered the 12-hour composition/installation Canto de Todes at REDCAT in Los Angeles.

As a visual artist, Wood has created illustrations and video installations that have been exhibited in galleries around the world, including Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles; La Carboneria, Huesca, Spain; Fierman Gallery, New York; and the Queer Biennial, Los Angeles. They have also directed several short films, among them The angel (2023), Low's Disappearing video (2021), American Savagery (2021), FAF (2021), The World’s Gone Beautiful (2020), PAISA (2019, co-directed with Graham Kolbeins), O (2014) and La Cara Infinita (2013).

Wood is a recipient of a Los Angeles County Performing Arts Recovery Grant, a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project Grant, a NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, a Creative Capital Award and an Art Matters Foundation grant, and a past artist-in-residence at MacDowell Residency, Loghaven Artist Residency, Building Bridges Art Exchange, Etopia, Centro de Arte y Tecnologia, under the FUGA program, and MASS Gallery.

Wood has released over a dozen recordings, most recently the albums You are clearly in perversion (with Thor Harris) (Astral Editions, 2023) and Excesiva (Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2023).

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF ARTS OF THE PRESENT

The Association for the Study of Arts of the Present (ASAP) celebrates the work of scholars and creative artists who speak to our moment. We investigate how the contemporary arts relate to past movements, and what legacy the contemporary arts will leave to the future. We believe in the power of the arts. We refuse the corporate division of the arts into disciplinary slivers: we create interdisciplinary dialogue. We reject the alienation of creative artists from the world of scholar-critics. We insist on poetic relation.

As part of its annual activities, ASAP hosts conferences and symposia that bring internationally recognized scholars and creative artists together to discuss and debate the latest developments in the literary, visual, and performing arts. We run an annual book prize and a prize for the outstanding graduate student scholarship. Our scholarly journal–ASAP/Journal–is hosted by the Johns Hopkins University Press and presents the best new writing on the international, post-1960s arts.

ABOUT PUBLIC PROGRAMMING AT THE ARMORY

Park Avenue Armory’s Public Programming series brings diverse artists and cultural thought-leaders together for discussion and performance around the important issues of our time viewed through an artistic lens. Launched in 2017, the series encompasses a variety of programs including large-scale community events; multi-day symposia; intimate salons featuring performances, panels, and discussions; Artist Talks in relation to the Armory’s Drill Hall programming; and other creative interventions. 

Highlights from the Public Programming series include: Carrie Mae Weems’ 2017 event The Shape of Things and 2021 convening and concert series Land of Broken Dreams, whose participants included Elizabeth Alexander, Nona Hendryx, Somi, and Spike Lee, among others; a daylong Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium held in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the first congregation of Lenape Elders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; “A New Vision for Justice in America” conversation series in collaboration with Common Justice, exploring new coalitions, insights, and ways of understanding question of justice and injustice in relation moderated by FLEXN Evolution creators Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and director Peter Sellars; Culture in a Changing America Symposia exploring the role of art, creativity, and imagination in the social and political issues in American society today; the 2019 Black Artists Retreat hosted by Theaster Gates; the multiorganization commissioning project 100 Years | 100 Women; a Queer Hip Hop Cypher, delving into the queer origins and aesthetics of hip hop with Astraea award-winning duo Krudxs Cubensi and author and scholar Dr. Shante Paradigm Smalls; the Archer Aymes Retrospective, exploring the legacy of emancipation through an immersive art installation curated by Carl Hancock Rux and featuring a concert performance by mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Aaron Diehl, presented as one component of a three-part series commemorating Juneteenth in collaboration with Harlem Stage and Lincoln Center as part of the Festival of New York; legendary artist Nao Bustamante’s BLOOM, a cross-disciplinary investigation centered around the design of the vaginal speculum and its use in the exploitative and patriarchal history of the pelvic examination; Art at Water’s Edge, a symposium inspired by the work of director and scholar May Joseph on artistic invention in the face of climate change, including participants such as Whitney Biennale curator Adrienne Edwards, artist Kiyan Williams, Little Island landscape architect Signe Nielsen, eco-systems artist Michael Wang, and others; Symposium: Sound & Color – The Future of Race in Design, an interdisciplinary forum exploring how race matters in creative design for live performance hosted by lighting designer Jane Cox, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman and featuring collaborations with Design Action and Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Juke Joint, a two-day event spotlighting the history of the juke joint in Black American social history and its legacy in music and culture, including performances by Pamela Sneed and Stew; Hapo Na Zamani, a 1960s-style happening curated by Carl Hancock Rux with music direction by Vernon Reid, and presented in collaboration with Harlem Stage; Hidden Conversations, a celebration of Dr. Barbara Ann Teer with National Black Theatre; and Corpus Delicti, a convening of artists, activists, and intellectuals imagineing and enacting transgender art and music as a vehicle for dialogue across differences presented in collaboration with the NYC Trans Oral History Project. 

Notable Public Programming salons include: the Literature Salon hosted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose participants included Lynn Nottage, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Jeremy O. Harris; a Spoken Word Salon co-hosted with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; a Film Salon featuring the works of immersive artist and film director Lynette Wallworth; “Museum as Sanctuary” led by installation artist and Artist-in-Residence Tania Bruguera, curated by Sonia Guiñansaca and CultureStrike, and featuring undocu-artists Julio Salgado and Emulsify; a Dance Salon presented in partnership with Dance Theater of Harlem, including New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and choreographer Francesca Harper, among others; Captcha: Dancing, Data, Liberation, a salon exploring Black visual complexity and spirit, led by visionary artist Rashaad Newsome and featuring Saidiya V. Hartman, Kiyan Williams, Dazié Rustin Grego-Sykes, Ms.Boogie, Puma Camillê, and others;  and Seasons of Dance, a contemporary dance salon featuring conversations with “mother of contemporary African dance” Germaine Acogny, Tanztheater Wuppertal dancer Malou Airaudo, and dancers from The Rite of Spring / common ground[s] at the Armory.

Artist Talks have featured esteemed artists, scholars, and thought leaders, such as: actor Bobby Cannavale; architects Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Elizabeth Diller; artist and composer Heiner Goebbels; choreographers Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray, Bill T. Jones, and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker; composers Philip Miller, Thuthuka Sibisi, Tyshawn Sorey, Samy Moussa, and Alexandra Gardner; composer and director Michel van der Aa; composer, vocalist, and scholar Gelsey Bell; conductors Amandine Beyer and Matthias Pintscher; designer Peter Nigrini; directors Claus Guth, Robert Icke, Richard Jones, Sam Mendez, Satoshi Miyagi, Ariane Mnouchkine, Ben Powers, Peter Sellars, Simon Stone, Ian Strasfogel, Ivo van Hove, and Alexander Zeldin; Juilliard president Damian Woetzel and Juilliard Provost and Dean Ara Guzelimian; musicians Helmut Deutsch, Nona Hendryx, Miah Persson, and Davóne Tines; New Yorker editor David Remnick; James Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theater Workshop; performance artists Marina Abramovic and Helga Davis; RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Chief Curator of Performa; playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, and Anne Washburn; Dr. Augustus Casely Hayford, Director of the Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art; visual artists Nick Cave, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Julian Rosefeldt, Hito Steyerl, and Ai Wei Wei; and writers and scholars Anne Bogart, Robert M. Dowling, Emily Greenwood, and Carol Martin.

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Media Contacts

For more information or to request images, please contact:
Tom Trayer, tomtrayer@armoryonpark.org or (212) 933-5801
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