Biography
Arturo Vidich is from New York City. He currently identifies as an inter-media artist working mainly in experimental performance. The work of Arturo Vidich consists of actions and artifacts that revolve around his long-time fascination with bodies and behavior, both human and non-human. He is interested in treating the performer’s body and sculptural materials as interchangeable objects, and in the possibilities that emerge out of endurance, resistance and limitation. He claims intuition and improvisation as essential to his artistic practice.
Guided by the concept of ‘becoming-animal’, Vidich operates under the presumption that to explore human-animal relationships is to find some understanding of the self. He creates open social situations within designed boundaries that expose the urgency of thought in unpredictable encounters. Vidich creates art works as “games of the outsider,” and uses the metaphor of the container to layer frames of reference in depth. The result is a collapsed set of poetic, informative, enticing, and earth-shattering impulses.
Many of Vidich’s projects demand learning new skills or taking on apprenticeships, thus the nature and format of his work shifts depending on the project at hand. This holistic process, in addition to Vidich’s life long interest in non-human animals, led him to work as a veterinary technician for three years, and achieve a certificate in dog training. The experiences he had while working closely with animals, and their people, have been an endless source of inspiration for his process as an artist.
Beginning in 2003, Vidich’s performance work has been presented in New York by The Chocolate Factory, Dorkbot NYC, Brucennial 2010: Miseducation, SITE Fest 2010, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research, Catch Series, Dixon Place, Chashama, and AUNTS. He has also shown in Belgium, The Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, and New Zealand. In 2008, Vidich was awarded the Movement Research Artist Residency. In 2007, Vidich was awarded the first International Artist Residency at the Red Stables, Dublin, Ireland. In the same year, he co-founded and now co-directs Culture Push, a non-profit arts organization that brings together diverse professionals to share knowledge and resources. Through Culture Push, he initiated a collaborative open-source residency, called Genesis Project, for artists who work or want to work with or through the body. Vidich has collaborated and performed with Deborah Hay, Yvonne Meier, Daria Faïn, Allison Farrow, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Hari Krishnan, Eiko & Koma, Lower Lights Collective, Christopher Williams and Nami Yamamoto, and with Aki Sasamoto since 2001. He has assisted visual artists Douglas Repetto and Jeffrey Schiff. His writing has been published twice in the Movement Research Performance Journal. Vidich’s work has been reviewed in the Village Voice, The New York Times, and he has been interviewed by WNYC. Occasionally Vidich curates performances through Kunstverein NY. He has a degree in Dance from Wesleyan University. Vidich is currently a master’s candidate at the Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.