Marilyn Arsem

PERFORMANCES

Marilyn Arsem has created more than 200 live events since 1975, ranging from solo performances to large scale, site-specific works incorporating installation and performance.  Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Arsem has presented work in 30 countries, at festivals, alternative spaces, galleries, museums, universities and conferences in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and Asia.

TEACHING

Arsem established one of the most extensive programs internationally in visually based performance art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), where she taught for 27 years.  Arsem’s courses focused on such topics as site-specific work, durational performance, personae in performance, documenting the ephemeral, Fluxus and Dada, performance in conceptual art, street performances and interventions, scores and systems, collaborative work, and more.  Since leaving SMFA in 2014, she has increased her teaching of performance workshops internationally.

EDUCATION AND AFFILIATION

Arsem received her BFA from Boston University in 1973.  She went on to establish Mobius Artists Group, an interdisciplinary collaborative of artists which she founded in 1975, and incorporated in 1980 as Mobius, Inc., a non-profit, tax-exempt, artist-run organization.  Mobius’s mission is to generate, shape and test experimental art. Mobius has presented work involving thousands of artists over its 40+ year history and is recognized as one of the seminal alternative, artist-run organizations in the U.S.A.  Their website is http://www.mobius.org

PUBLICATION

A book on her work, Responding to Site: the performance work of Marilyn Arsem, edited by Jennie Klein and Natalie Loveless, was published in 2020 by Intellect Books of the UK, and can be purchased online or through your local bookstore.

Featured News:

Live performance – ‘Reconstitution,’ on June 20th, 2025, from noon to 5 pm, in ‘Cindy Baker’s Big Thing: 50th birthday Performance Art Celebration,’ at Latitude 53, 10130 – 100th Street, amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Other artists in the program include Migueltzinta Solis, Mitchell Chalifoux, Roses (Roseanna Joy Nay), Michelle Lacombe, and Harley Morman.Beginning at 7 pm, evening programming will take place at … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘Reconstitution,’ on June 20th, 2025, from noon to 5 pm, in ‘Cindy Baker’s Big Thing: 50th birthday Performance Art Celebration,’ at Latitude 53, 10130 – 100th Street, amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Online lecture – ‘Practice and Research of Durational Performance,’ on Monday, May 26, 2025, 9:00–11:30 JST, which can also be viewed in person at the Community Salon, 3rd Floor, International Exchange Building, Tokyo University of the Arts, Ueno Campus, Tokyo, Japan. It will be presented in English with Japanese translation.

The lecture, which will be presented in English with Japanese translation, is a joint project between the Nagashima Laboratory at Global Arts, at Tokyo University and the Durational Performance … [Read more...] about Online lecture – ‘Practice and Research of Durational Performance,’ on Monday, May 26, 2025, 9:00–11:30 JST, which can also be viewed in person at the Community Salon, 3rd Floor, International Exchange Building, Tokyo University of the Arts, Ueno Campus, Tokyo, Japan. It will be presented in English with Japanese translation.

Live performance – ‘Resisting, Surviving’, on Sunday, April 27, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm, as part of Future Ritual’s ‘Ceremony, a festival of performance art,’ from April 23 – 27, at Copeland Gallery, 133 Copeland Rd, Peckham, London, England.

for tickets and more information:https://futureritual.co.uk/CEREMONY-a-festival-of-performance-2025 … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘Resisting, Surviving’, on Sunday, April 27, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm, as part of Future Ritual’s ‘Ceremony, a festival of performance art,’ from April 23 – 27, at Copeland Gallery, 133 Copeland Rd, Peckham, London, England.

Artist talk – ‘100 Ways to Consider Time: an evening with Marilyn Arsem,’ Friday, April 18, 2025 at 7 pm, at the Live Art Development Agency, The Garrett Centre, 117A Mansford Street, E2 6LX London, England, presented by Future Ritual as part of their festival ‘Ceremony.’

Across a 100-day period in 2015-2016, Arsem created one hundred different six-hour performances which took place daily in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Each of these durational works represented a … [Read more...] about Artist talk – ‘100 Ways to Consider Time: an evening with Marilyn Arsem,’ Friday, April 18, 2025 at 7 pm, at the Live Art Development Agency, The Garrett Centre, 117A Mansford Street, E2 6LX London, England, presented by Future Ritual as part of their festival ‘Ceremony.’

Live performance – ‘How to Move Forward (one step at a time): advice and assistance needed,’ Saturday, March 29, 2025, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, as part of ‘States of Emergence,’ an evening of performance art and spatial interventions by Mobius Artists Group.

Mobius Artists Group is proud to present States of Emergence, an evening of performance art and spatial interventions presented throughout Boston’s City Hall. Featuring participatory and experimental … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘How to Move Forward (one step at a time): advice and assistance needed,’ Saturday, March 29, 2025, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, as part of ‘States of Emergence,’ an evening of performance art and spatial interventions by Mobius Artists Group.