18th Street Arts Center and Dance Camera West present “Men in the Wall,” a four-screen, 3D-video dance installation by British artists Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, June 20-30 at 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica.  The opening reception is Wednesday, June 20, 7-10pm with an artist talk at 7:30pm.

3D glasses will be provided to view “Men in the Wall,” a world of four men, whose shared framed lives reveal a public quartet of private differences.  The piece runs on a continuous 25-minute loop.  Cast includes Jeddi Bassan, Sebastian Gonzalez, Thomas Kampe, and Scott Smith with text by Billy Cowie and costumes by Holly Murray.  “Men in the Wall” is an Arts Council Capture 3 Award and received support from The Centre for Research and Development (Arts and Architecture) University of Brighton. Presentation of “Men in the Wall” was made possible by the James Irvine Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Billy Cowie and Liz Aggiss work together in dance/theatre performance, screen dance and installation. They have made over thirty live performance pieces for their company Divas Dance Theatre, have toured Europe extensively and completed four major screen projects (two BBC Dance for Camera commissions and two ACE Capture projects). Aggis and Cowie’s dance screen work has received numerous international awards including: Czech Crystal, Prague Golden Film Festival (2002); Special Jury Golden Award, Houston (2003); Best Female Film, Mediawaves Hungary (2003); and the Romanian National Office of Cinematography Award (2003). A book about their work, Anarchic Dance, was published by Routledge in 2006.

Dance Camera West is a non-profit organization committed to fostering and promoting the vibrant art of dance for the screen from around the world.  DCW is one of only a handful of organizations in the USA that present dance film, and the only one of its kind on the West Coast. DCW was voted one of the “Top 25 Dance Organizations to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2005 and 2006.  The Los Angeles Times selected the Dance Camera West Film Festival as one of the Ten Best dance events in Los Angeles for 2006.

Men in the Wall is made possible with support from the James Irvine Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.