45 Years of Art, Performance, and Activism
Mobius Artists Group had its start in 1975, when I rented a studio in Somerville, Massachusetts with friends, and invited various artists with whom I had worked in the art, music and experimental theater community of Boston to collaborate in creating live, interdisciplinary performances. These were performed on the street, in bookstores, the food coop, and in galleries throughout Cambridge and Boston. Many of these early pieces were experiments with different performance structures that gave the audience a role in creating the work, which we dubbed 'audience-activated performances.' Chance-operational strategies allowed the audience to combine and recombine elements, and the performances lasted as long as the audience wanted to stay. In 1977, after being regularly asked, "Who are you?" we chose the name Mobius, referencing the never-ending infinity loop of the Mobius strip.
The group has undergone several name changes since then. After being an unnamed group (1975-1977), we became known as Mobius Theater (1977-1985), then Mobius Performing Group (1985-1990), and finally Mobius Artists Group (1991and continuing). We incorporated in 1980 as Mobius Theater, Inc., an artist-run 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization for experimental work in all media, but dropped 'Theater' from our legal name in 1985 to become Mobius, Inc.
Throughout its existence Mobius has retained an experimental inter-media emphasis and continues to function as an artist-managed organization. Since its inception, the members of Mobius have continued creating original works, incorporating a wide range of visual, performing and media arts to make live performances, video, installations, and intermedia works. We create projects individually and in collaboration with other group members, as well as with artists outside the group. The group’s membership continues to change, with new members joining and others leaving every year. More than 100 artists have been part of Mobius Artists Group, working in performance art, new music/sound art, installation, dance/movement, and video/film. Since the mid-1990s, outdoor site-specific performances and installations have become increasingly important formats for our work. Over the years, Mobius Artists Group members have consistently produced original works which have received favorable reviews in Boston, nationally and internationally. Works created at Mobius have been presented throughout North and South America, Europe, Oceania, in the Middle-East, and in Asia.
By the early 1980s many of the smaller Boston galleries were closing, all of which had been spaces in which we had shown work. In 1983 Helen Shlien asked if Mobius wanted to take over her gallery on the top floor of a warehouse at 354 Congress Street, when she moved her gallery downtown. We knew the space well, and had regularly shown work there, and where Helen had also been programming other artists working in performance art, video and installation. We immediately said yes, signing a lease the size of our annual budget.
From the beginning, we knew that we didn't want to only show our own work in the space. We wanted to make it available for other artists in Boston and New England to use, to serve as a laboratory for artists experimenting at the boundaries of their disciplines. We were particularly interested in supporting new and emerging artists whose work couldn't easily be shown in other spaces either because of its content or its cross-disciplinary nature. We did not charge rent, but asked only to split box-office receipts. This was one way of making the cost of experimentation less risky for the artists, who were for the most part self-producing their work.
A newsletter in which the artists wrote about their projects had a wide circulation, and by-passing the media to be the primary source of information about upcoming events at Mobius. In its 20 years on Congress Street from 1983 to 2003, we presented different events every weekend for 40 weeks each year, showcasing new work in all media.
Opening the public performance and exhibition space in 1983 coincided with the emergence of other artist-run spaces across the country, and Mobius quickly became involved with the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO). Becoming a part of this network of hundreds of artist-run spaces gave us contact with other artists and spaces across the United States. It was also an opportunity to engage in cultural politics and arts advocacy on a national level. For instance, Mobius hosted the Boston chapter of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression during the Culture Wars of the 1990s.
Being a member of NAAO was also the impetus to begin creating exchange projects with artist communities in other parts of the country. In these projects, artists from the partner organizations presented work at Mobius, and in turn, Mobius Artists Group members traveled to present work in the partner organizations. The first exchanges in the United States included partnerships with the 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle, Washington (1986), The LAB in San Francisco, California (1989), the Pyramid Art Center in Rochester, New York (1989) and No.B.I.A.S. (North Bennington, Vermont (1996).
By the mid-1990s these exchanges became global as many group members had become active in the extensive network of international performance art festivals. To date, Mobius Artists Group members have been invited to perform in more than 30 countries around the globe.
A highlight of each year were the ArtRages fundraising parties, with music and dancing, and many local artists creating installations and performances. Our landlords, Boston Wharf Company, would let us use one of their empty spaces in Fort Point, which we cleaned and brought up to code in order to get the permits for the parties. And afterwards, Boston Wharf Company could then lease their newly cleaned spaces to long-term tenants.
Many of the members of Mobius Artists Group taught, and continue to teach, in area colleges, including The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, Rhode Island College of Art and Design, Montserrat College of Art, Holy Cross College, and Bridgewater and Framingham State Universities. We regularly had student interns from the colleges. Over the years, we have also presented programs of students' work, programming students from different colleges on the same night so that they had a chance to learn what their colleagues were doing in other schools. We co-produced the Mobilize Series with the Performance Area of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 2003 to 2014, presenting performances by Boston artists along with international performance artists who were teaching visiting artists workshops at the school. Since then Mobius Artists Group has continued presenting international artists with the Mobilize series.
In addition to the Congress Street space, we operated public exhibition spaces at 725 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA (2007-2011) and then across the river at 55 Norfolk Street in Cambridge, MA (2011-2016). Mobius Artists Group continues producing events in other venues and outdoor spaces throughout greater Boston. In its 40+ year history, Mobius has presented work involving thousands of artists.
Since 2016 Mobius Artists Group has been itinerant, producing work outdoors and in different spaces throughout greater Boston, as well as internationally. Thinking positively, this gives us a chance to tailor work to different spaces and areas of the city. It has also meant that our overhead costs are lower, allowing us to focus on artmaking rather than fundraising, which gives us greater flexibility in our programming.
A selection of Mobius Artists Group exchanges and group projects over the years include:
1984-1986: The Sound Art Series from 1984-1985, curated by Richard Lerman, presented international sound artists every month. It culminated in the month-long Sound Art Festival in 1986, also curated by Richard Lerman, which featured collaborations between Boston-area sound artists, including Mobius Artists Group members, and national and international sound artists.
1996–1997: Liquor Amnii, an exchange with women artists from North Macedonia in cooperation with Mala Stanica and presented in Chifte Amam, an abandoned 15th century Turkish Bath, as part of the Skopsko Leto Festival in Skopje, North Macedonia; and on the banks of the Providence River at the Convergence Festival in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
1999–2000: Usvajanje Slobode ("Taking Liberty"), an exchange with artists in Istria, Croatia, presented throughout Istria; and at Mobius in Fort Point, Boston.
2001–2002: Prokopavanje Kanala ("Digging the Channel"), an exchange with artists in Zadar, Croatia, presented in outdoor locations in Zadar; and at Mobius in Fort Point, Boston.
2003: Juliett 484, an exchange with artists in Ustka and Gdańsk, Poland, in cooperation with the Castle of Imagination Festival. Performances were presented in the Baltic Art Gallery in Ustka, and Modelarnia in the Gdańsk Shipyards, Poland; on a circa 1965 Russian submarine at the Convergence Festival, in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, and at the BPM Space in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
2006: These exchanges culminated with the Mobius International Festival of Performance Art, five nights of performances presented in Boston. This festival featured over 20 international artists and the work of nearly every member of the Mobius Artists Group. It also included a panel discussion on performance art that was co-sponsored by the Performance Area of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
In 2011, members of the Mobius Artists Group were invited By Grace Exhibition Space of Brooklyn, NY to take part in "INFILTRATE!", a festival of performance art at the Fountain NY Art Fair on a boat at Pier 66, New York City, New York, USA. Mobius presented performances and an exhibition of performances photos by Bob Raymond.
In 2012, the Mobius Artists Group was invited to exhibit photos, perform for the opening reception and first weeks of 100 Years of Performance (version #4 Boston, 2012), organized by MoMA PS1 in collaboration with Performa. The exhibition was curated by Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1 Director and MoMA Chief Curator at Large; and Roselee Goldberg, Performa Director and Curator. The Boston exhibition was coordinated by Director and Chief Curator Kate McNamara of the Boston University Art Gallery, Boston.
In 2017 The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, City of Boston, commissioned Mobius Artists Group to create work in response to the Brutalist architecture of Boston City Hall and the democratic ideals that animate it, A part of the 'Heroic Encounters' Series. Concrete Actions was an evening of site-inspired original works of interactive performance art, video, visual art, sound and movement, by 13 members of Mobius Artists Group.
In 2017 Mobius Artists Group presented four different programs in a month-long series at Boston Cyberarts Gallery. They included an exhibition of documentation of Marilyn Arsem's 100 performances for 100 Ways to Consider Time; performance art from Ireland, with two live performances by Alastair MacLennan and Sinéad O'Donnell, as well as a program of video performances organized by EL Putnam; For a Future to be Possible, a photo exhibition with an installation by Ngoc-Tran Vu of her series 'Pilgrimage to Hué,' working with Anna Wexler; and Birdsongs, an installation by Tom Plsek and Joanne Rice, with evening performances by guest artists.
In 2018 Mobius Artists Group and Bbeyond Performance Art, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, created the exchange project Transactions I & II. Traveling to each other's countries, performances took place in the Cathedral Quarters Art Festival in Belfast, N. Ireland, and on The Greenway in Boston, MA. A panel discussion on Performing in Public: the challenge of working outside the gallery, also took place at Fort Point Arts Community's gallery Assemblage, in Boston.
In 2019 Mobius Artists Group member Sara June produced the first Butoh Festival at Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA, which featured public performances by local, national and international artists, as well as workshops. A second festival was schedule for 2020, but has been postponed due to the pandemic. It will take place as soon as it is possible to do so safely and when we are able to include international performers.