For Immediate Release Media Contact: John Wyszniewski at Blake Zidell & Associates | john@blakezidell.com Natascha Bodemann at FIAF | 646 388 6677 | nbodemann@fiaf.org

French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) presents

US Premiere

Gustavo Ciríaco & Andrea Sonnberger:

Here whilst we walk

Bound Together Walking, Participants Discover Hidden Beauty of Red Hook, Brooklyn

Saturday, September 19 & Sunday, September 20 at 11am, 2pm & 5pm Starts at Pioneer Books • 289 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY

New York, NY, September 1, 2015— As part of the 2015 edition of Crossing the Line, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s acclaimed contemporary arts festival, FIAF presents the US premiere of Here whilst we walk, by Brazilian artist Gustavo Ciríaco and Austrian artist Andrea Sonnberger, on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, beginning at Pioneer Books in Brooklyn. Literally bound together by a giant rubber band, participants in Here whilst we walk become part of an instant community, a collective spectacle, and an ephemeral space as they encounter the hidden gems of Red Hook, Brooklyn. In the tradition of the flâneur, the emblematic metropolitan explorer and connoisseur of the boulevard, Ciríaco and Sonnberger carefully guide a group of 20 participants on an hour-long, silent walk through the streets of Red Hook. Participants are invited to experience a diverse cityscape, in real time and space, as they catalogue their own impressions of community, change, and the natural beauty of this historical neighborhood.

About Gustavo Ciríaco

A Brazilian artist based in Rio de Janeiro and in Lisbon, Gustavo Ciríaco has a strong international presence and has presented his works in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, and more recently in East Asia. His work combines various artistic disciplines, with a special interest in other areas of knowledge. He has used choreography, theater, video, storytelling, and urban actions in conversational works where the encounter is the inspiration for fictions and shared situations. Ciríaco’s most recent projects include the museum project A

room of wonder | Rio & Tokyo, the landscape piece Where the horizon moves, and Those who walk on the ground, who climb trees, who bear wings, a contemporary musical tragedy that premiered in the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Since 2008, together with Fernanda Eugênio, he has been running a series of city labs across the world. In New York they debuted their new collaboration, Steaming Cities. Ciríaco is the former artistic director of Manifesta! and a guest curator for the festival ENTRE Lugares Rio | London with Chelsea Theatre. gustavociria.co/pt About Andrea Sonnberger

Born in Upper Austria, Andrea Sonnberger was educated as a dancer in Vienna and Munich. She has been engaged as a performer in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and Lithuania. Since 1996, she has been working on her own choreographies and ideas, which have also led to installation works and collaborations with other artists. In 1999, she won the Prix du Festival Cour des Capucins in Luxembourg. In 2003, she received a scholarship from the city of Munich and founded the community umluft with the choreographers Eva Forler and Helmut Ott. She was also a member of Tanztendenz Munich e.V. in Germany. Since 2003, Sonnberger has been studying Tai Chi Dao Yin. In 2005 and 2006, she was invited, together with the Brazilian choreographer Gustavo Ciríaco, to join the project Close Encounters in Lisbon. There they developed the outdoor performance Here whilst we walk, which they have presented in more than 30 different cities since its creation. Together they also developed the project neighbors, which they presented in Lisbon, Madrid, and Jerusalem. Sonnberger currently lives and works in Austria, mainly as a shiatsu practitioner and a Tai Chi Dao Yin teacher.

About Crossing the Line 2015

Crossing the Line is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s annual fall festival, presenting interdisciplinary works and performances in New York. The festival explores the dialogue between artist and public, and examines how artists help re-imagine the world as critical thinkers and catalysts for social evolution. Crossing the Line is initiated and produced by FIAF in partnership with leading cultural institutions. The festival’s ninth edition takes place this year from September 10–October 4, 2015. France has a long history of supporting national and international cultural practices, welcoming and nurturing new ideas and influential perspectives from around the world. FIAF, as the leading French cultural institution in the US, critically maintains that tradition through the Crossing the Line festival, presenting leading edge artists from France and the US alongside their peers from around the world. Since its inauguration in 2007, Crossing the Line has cultivated an increasingly large and diverse following, and received numerous accolades in the press. The festival has been voted “Best of 2009,” “Best of 2010,” “Best of 2012," “Best of 2013,” and “Best of 2014” by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time Out New York, Artforum, and Frieze, with performances earning an Obie and several Bessie awards. The New York Times states, “For terrifically unusual, unpredictable, unnameable performance, we’ve come to expect a lot from … the curators of the French Institute Alliance Française’s interdisciplinary festival,” and The New Yorker says, “This interdisciplinary festival…goes from strength to strength.” fiaf.org/ctl About FIAF The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York’s premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org

Merci! Here whilst we walk is supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York as part of the Moving Sounds Festival. Here whilst we walk began in 2006, co-produced by Panorama (Rio) and Alkantara (Lisbon) festivals, and has since been experienced in over 30 international cities. Crossing the Line 2015 is made possible with the generous support of The Hermès Foundation’s (Fondation d'entreprise Hermès) New Settings program; Lead Sponsors Air France and Delta Air Lines, the official airlines of FIAF; Florence Gould Foundation; and JC Decaux; and Sponsors Melissa Shoes, Nespresso, and Pommery. Our Producer’s Circle: Ron Guttman, Isabelle Kowal, Elizabeth Krief Manardo, Tom McCarthy and Violaine Huisman, Virginia A. Millheiser, Marie Nugent-Head, and Elisabeth Wilmers. FIAF would like to thank the following for their generous support of Crossing the Line 2015: Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Enoch Foundation; European Research Council; FACE; Institut français; Italian Cultural Institute New York; King’s Fountain; NYSCA; NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; Robert de Rothschild; SACD (Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques); and The Austrian Cultural Forum New York.

LISTING SUMMARY

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What: Gustavo Ciríaco & Andrea Sonnberger: Here whilst we walk

When: Saturday, September 19th & Sunday, September 20th at 11am, 2pm & 5pm Where: Starts at Pioneer Books, 289 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY Admission: $15 Tickets: 800 982 2787 | fiaf.org Information: Transportation:

212 355 6160 | fiaf.org A C to Jay St.-MetroTech, then B61 to Red Hook (King street bus stop) F G to Caroll St, then a 15 min walk through Caroll gardens. F G to Smith-9th St., then B61 to Red Hook (King street bus stop) or walk R 2 3 4 5 to Borough Hall, then B61 to Red Hook.