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 – ‘Retour à la terre’ (Return to Earth) – part 2, on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 19:00, as part of RiAP at Langage plus, 555 rue Collard, Alma, Québec, Canada.

Arsem will participate in the international performance art festival Rencontre internationale d'art performance (RiAP) in Québec City, Québec Canada, which has been in operation since 1984.  It will … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘Retour à la terre’ (Return to Earth) – part 2, on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 19:00, as part of RiAP at Langage plus, 555 rue Collard, Alma, Québec, Canada.

Live performance – ‘Retour à la terre’ (Return to Earth) – part 1, on Saturday, September 14, 2024, from 13:00 to 19:00, in RiAP at Le Lieu centre en art actuel, 345 rue du Pont, Québec City, Québec, Canada.

Arsem will participate in the international performance art festival Rencontre internationale d'art performance (RiAP) in Québec City, Québec, Canada, which has been in operation since 1984.  It will … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘Retour à la terre’ (Return to Earth) – part 1, on Saturday, September 14, 2024, from 13:00 to 19:00, in RiAP at Le Lieu centre en art actuel, 345 rue du Pont, Québec City, Québec, Canada.

Live workshop – ‘Considering Time in Performance (Exploration du temps en art performance),’ a five-day workshop, Wednesday – Sunday, September 4-8, 2024, at Le Lieu centre en art actuel, 345 rue du Pont, Québec City, Québec, Canada.

This workshop examines the significance of time in live performance. What is the effect of time on the artist? What is its impact on the audience?  How does it become apparent through material … [Read more...] about Live workshop – ‘Considering Time in Performance (Exploration du temps en art performance),’ a five-day workshop, Wednesday – Sunday, September 4-8, 2024, at Le Lieu centre en art actuel, 345 rue du Pont, Québec City, Québec, Canada.

Live performance – ‘El don del agua’ (The Gift of Water), on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from 4:30 pm to 10:30 pm, at the Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima, San Pedro Garza García, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

Arsem’s performance, El don del agua (The Gift of Water), at the Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima is on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from 4:30 pm to 10:30 pm.  Situated under a young oak tree in the garden … [Read more...] about Live performance – ‘El don del agua’ (The Gift of Water), on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from 4:30 pm to 10:30 pm, at the Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima, San Pedro Garza García, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

Live workshop – ‘Performance as Experiment,’ a five-day workshop Monday, July 8 to Friday, July 12, 2024, at the Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima, in San Pedro Garza García, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

Marilyn Arsem will teach a workshop and perform as part of the program "Invocar presencias" (Invoking Presences), directed by performance artist Alejandro Zertuche in collaboration with the Centro … [Read more...] about Live workshop – ‘Performance as Experiment,’ a five-day workshop Monday, July 8 to Friday, July 12, 2024, at the Centro Cultural Plaza Fátima, in San Pedro Garza García, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.