Welcome to the first public event in which the newly founded Xenakis Project of the Americas (XPA) is involved. It is an honor and a pleasure to share the exciting activities of the next three days, featuring Iannis Xenakis: Past, Present, Future, with the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center of NYU Polytechnic (BXMC).
Xenakis’ legacy in the Americas is both profound and far-reaching. During the initial process of organizing both the first museum exhibition of Xenakis’ papers in the Americas at The Drawing Center (an exhibition that will then travel to the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, then to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles) and the extensive programming at those venues, we encountered many people whose lives or careers had been influenced by either the man or his work or both. The enthusiastic response from this community to our invitation to participate in our Forum bears testimony to that. For everyone gathered here, Xenakis has made a difference and by participating with us, we all contribute to the perpetuation of his legacy.
I believe this is the first colloquium/forum entirely dedicated to Xenakis’ work in the United States. Throughout Europe (in Paris, Athens, Cologne, Vienna…) this is not the case. In Guelph/Toronto, Jim Harley organized the international symposium “The Creative and Scientific Legacies of Iannis Xenakis” in conjunction with the first soundaXis Festival in June 2006, which celebrated much of Xenakis’ music as well. Hats off, Canada! Much earlier, in 1990, his longtime friend and colleague, Roger Reynolds organized a “Xenakis @ UCSD” fest. Indeed, other friends or institutions in the States have also supported Xenakis’ work during his lifetime and beyond. But I repeat, this is, to my knowledge, the first pan-American event, bringing together thirty musicians, architects, philosophers, scholars and artists in the USA. Our choice to limit our invitation to citizens and/or residents of the Americas is deliberate (and criticized by our jealous European colleagues) for two reasons.
First, to prove true Carl Skelton’s statement to Françoise Xenakis a little over a year ago (November 2008 at La Tourette Convent during a “Musique – Architecture – Musique” Forum):
“Madame, I don’t know how to break this to you but on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, you are not a widow: Xenakis is thriving where I live”.
Second, to emphasize that the Xenakis Project of the Americas, although international in scope, intends to be firmly rooted in the Americas, with activities and participants first and foremost in and from the Americas. Our roster for the next three days can (and will!) boast breadth and expertise that will set new, higher standards for our European counterparts.
We have striven to organize this forum in a manner that would appeal to Xenakis: as trans-disciplinary as possible with representation not only of the freshest research, but also setting goals for future developments – both from an artistic and scholarly perspective.
Many of our participants are already friends, but we also encourage all of you to share ideas, contacts, and projects, true to a xenakian model of generosity and collective effort.
This is a very exciting time for Xenakis-related activities and organizations. In addition to the creation of the Xenakis Project of the Americas under the generous and prestigious umbrella of the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation at the CUNY Graduate Center, we are pleased to announce the newly-established residency of the Centre Iannis Xenakis (formerly CCMIX, formerly Les Ateliers UPIC) under very similar auspices of the Groupe de Recherche en Histoire at the Université de Rouen in France. The future holds many opportunities for creative and scholarly pursuits and exchanges – individually and collectively – between these two institutions. We are eager to encourage each and every one of you to participate in these new adventures with us.
Finally, we would like to thank each of you for your efforts in making this Forum possible, exciting, and enjoyable!
- Sharon Kanach
