The Marigny Parade

R. Luke DuBois - The Marigny Parade

...aims to both creatively document, deconstruct, and explore an ephemeral performance of 350 young musicians as they march towards a united destination.

The Marigny Parade is a 45-minute DVD commissioned by the PROSPECT New Orleans art biennial. The DVD contains five different artistic viewpoints on a large, multi-pronged marching band parade that took place in New Orleans on October 22nd, 2011. The parade featured three bands: The Roots of Music Marching Crusaders, The O. Perry Walker "Orange Crush" Marching Band, and the Eleanor McMain "Marching Mustangs" band. These bands divided into a five-part, synchronized parade, starting in five different locations in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, converging on Washington Square Park. 

The parade performed music written by R. Luke DuBois for the occasion, drawing inspiration from the repertoire of contemporary New Orleans bands. The performance of the parade serves as the raw material for The Marigny Parade DVD. Documented professionally from over fifteen angles by a film crew in collaboration with the New Orleans Video Access Center, the twenty-minute parade is re-assembled and remixed into five video works on the DVD. The first two mixes focus on the Roots of Music band and the two high school bands (Walker and McMain), respectively, showing their viewpoints on the parade. The third mix is an ambient, painterly exploration of the entire performance from multiple perspectives at once, drawing from DuBois' previous work with sound and image, such as his 2006 Cantaloupe Music release, Timelapse. The final two video works focus on the rhythms and harmonies of the parade, using the video documentation as source material for two up-tempo visual remixes of the piece. The DVD, bookended by a title sequence and end credits, aims to both creatively document, deconstruct, and explore an ephemeral performance of 350 young musicians as they march towards a united destination.

Founded by curator Dan Cameron, PROSPECT New Orleans is one of the leading biennials of international contemporary art in the United States, created with the mission of contributing to the revitalization of New Orleans through contemporary art. As a commissioned artist, DuBois worked over a year and a half with musicians and videographers in New Orleans to conceive, execute, and document The Marigny Parade. Rather than presenting the parade on video in a documentary format, DuBois captures the excitement, energy, and scale of a massive work of street performance through an audio-visual editing and remix language that relates to his work as a live audiovisual performer working in the experimental arts community in New York City.

All proceeds from The Marigny Parade go to benefit The Roots of Music, a non-profit organization "dedicated to supporting, promoting, teaching, and protecting at-risk youth through music education, academic support, and mentorship while preserving the musical heritage of New Orleans."

Artists

The Marigny Parade
CA21080
Formats: 
CD / Digital
Release Date: 
06/13/2014

THE MARIGNY PARADE trailer