MOVE! Is On the Move

The first iteration of the art and fashion mash-up spectacular MOVE! in 2010—two days packed with spirited performances dreamed up by artist-designer duos at MoMA’s P.S. 1—was so successful that creators Cecilia Dean and David Colman have taken their show on the road. Tonight, the second MOVE! opens at the SESC Belenzhino cultural complex in São Paulo, Brazil. This time, the festivities have grown into a 10-day interactive festival. “We realized after P.S. 1 that the participatory events were the most successful,” says Dean, who has pushed for more engagement with the crowd this time around. “With Brazilians, it should be pretty fun.”

Locals can, for example, don a basic tunic designed by Cynthia Rowley while Swiss artist Olaf Breuning assails them with buckets of paint to create instant, take-home fashion. That particular “movement”—as Dean, a Visionaire co-founder, and Colman, an arts and fashion writer, calls each performance—is a beloved holdover from the original MOVE! in New York. But most of the other acts are new and tailored to the São Paulo scene, such as the alliance of artist Vik Muniz and Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa, two Brazilian powerhouses putting together a synchronized swimming performance that can be seen through the glass floor of the stupendously appointed SESC complex. “It’s this crazy place where you can hang out in pool or the cinema or the cafeteria, but where you can also go get your dental work done,” Dean says of the sleek government-funded space. “They’re all about bringing cultural programming to the people, and we want to make the intimidating worlds of art and fashion really accessible and fun.”

Photo: Veronica Campos