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January 29, 2004
Performance Artist Pat Oleszko Featured at February 6 Falmouth Forum

WOODS HOLE, MA - New York performance artist Pat Oleszko will present the next Falmouth Forum lecture titled "The Heights of Absurdity, or the Quixotic Life of an Artist in Troubled Times" on Friday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Marine Biological Laboratory's (MBL's) Lillie Auditorium, MBL Street, Woods Hole. The presentation, sponsored by the Associates of the Marine Biological Laboratory, is the fourth in the 2003-2004 Falmouth Forum season.

Oleszko's lecture will tell the thrilling ride of an artist who wears her art on her sleeve. Using the world as a stooge, Oleszko has discovered herself while dressing the part from the street, to the stage, to the screen. Oleszko is a founding force in performance art and video, creating extraordinary, often inflatable, costumes that are used by her in performances, street parades, installations, and exhibitions. She has continuously toured the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan performing at museums, galleries, colleges, and theaters. Oleszko recently spent a year in Rome as a recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

Through stories and pictures, Oleszko will illustrate the bizarre circumstances she pursues to express her take on absurdity. She will also show her 24-minute film "Roamin' Holiday: A View from a Broad." Shot in Rome, the film is the distillation of a year's grant-funded research and roaming and features the artist in multifarious disguise.

Oleszko has been seen in New York's annual Easter parade, beauty contests, restaurants, and burlesque houses. More recently, her work has appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, P.S. 122, Banff Center for the Arts, and Whitney Museum of Art. Oleszko has received many grants and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and New York Dance and Performance Award for Sustained Achievement.

Admission to this Falmouth Forum presentation is free and open to the public. A buffet dinner is available before the lecture at 6:00 p.m. in the Swope Center located near the auditorium. Dinner tickets are $16 and must be purchased in person and in advance at either Eight Cousins Children's Books, Main Street, Falmouth, or at the MBL's Communications Office in the Candle House in Woods Hole. Dinner seats are limited and tickets are only available until they sell out or until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 2. All tickets are nonrefundable. For more information contact the MBL's Communications Office at 508-289-7423.

The MBL Associates were founded in 1944 to provide an opportunity for friends of the Laboratory, both scientists and non-scientists, to support the MBL. Over the years the Associates have taken on a wide range of projects, including providing fellowships for young scientists, supporting the MBL WHOI Library, renovating the Lillie Auditorium, and landscaping the Whitman-Loeb quadrangle on the Woods Hole campus. The Associates also help bring the work of the Laboratory to a broader public by sponsoring the Falmouth Forum Series and operating the MBL Gift Shop. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in the Laboratory.

A complete listing of 2003-2004 Falmouth Forum presentations can be found here.

The Marine Biological Laboratory is an internationally known, independent, nonprofit instititution, dedicated to improving the human condition through creative research and education in the biological, biomedical and environmental sciences.  Founded in 1888, the MBL is the oldest private marine laboratory in the Western Hemisphere.