info
The artistic duo of multidisciplinary artists Colombian born XIMENA GARNICA and Japanese born SHIGE MORIYA develop, and create collaborative works ranging from sculptural, video, mixed media and light installation art, to interdisciplinary movement-based performances, publications, and research projects. Their work has been shown at visual art galleries, museums, theaters and public places in NEW YORK and across the United States in venues such as BAM, The Brooklyn Museum, The Watermill Center, The New Museum, HERE, Japan Society, The Czech Center New York, The Asian Museum of San Francisco, as well as in international locations in Japan, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Mexico and Colombia.
Since 2001, XIMENA AND SHIGE are based in BROOKLYN, New York at their live-work space, CAVE. They are the co-founders and artistic directors of LEIMAY and the LEIMAY ENSEMBLE. Through LEIMAY they have been spearheading a variety of programs at CAVE including international and local performance festivals, residencies, fellowships and educational projects. The LEIMAY Ensemble, is a group of six dancers and performers who work regularly throughout the year with Ximena and Shige creating body rooted performances and developing LEIMAY LUDUS, the theory, practice and aesthetics behind Shige and Ximena’s works. Ximena teaches dance at P.H.T.S., New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, at local seniors centers, and at her studio in New York.
Ximena and Shige have worked with artists including Robert Wilson, Ko Murobushi, John Patrick Shanley, Susan Marshall. Their work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New York Press, The MIT Press Journal Theater Drama Review (TDR), Hyperallergic, and other magazines and publications.
awards
AWARDS
Armani Design Award
Ford Foundation Fellowship
BAM Professional Development Program Fellowship
Urban Artist Initiative Fellowship
Van Lier Fellowship
GRANTS
NEA Artistic Excellence
Puffin Foundation
Asian American Arts Alliance
Japan Foundation
New Music USA
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Department of Cultural Affairs
NYSCA
BAC
RESIDENCIES
Movement Research at the New Museum
HERE HARP Program
Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center
New Hazlett Theater
Bessie Schonberg Individual Choreographers Residency at the Yard
National Museum of Dance
Hanoi Contemporary Arts Center
quotes
“Ximena and Shige’s work is unique and powerful. It feels very ancient and very contemporary – a rare balance. It allows for a freedom of the mind”. – Robert Wilson
“… its efficient minimalism …made for the night’s most evocative spectacle.” The New York Times on Threshold
“This dance…suggested life and death happening in a continuum. It was respectful, haunting, and beautiful. ” – – The New Yorker on Threshold
“There’s something I hadn’t seen before.” The New York Times on Becoming -Corpus
“[Ximena and Shige’s] work is a model of the conjunction of visual art and physical dance theater…We became corpus together.”
TDR: The Drama Review on Becoming-Corpus
“The choreography sets stillness against motion with skill… surreal power…” The New York Times on Becoming -Corpus
“The video projections are Mr. Moriya’s bailiwick and his control is remarkable. He can make solid flesh appear to melt.” The New York Times on Becoming -Corpus
statement
For a decade, we have been working under the umbrella name of LEIMAY. Together we create works in both the visual and the performing arts. The work ranges from mixed-media, video, and installation art to interdisciplinary and movement-based performances, publications, and training projects. Our subjects often question the ambivalence of human nature; the perception of the spectator’s gaze; the intervals between spaces, objects, and time; the energetic flow of spaces and bodies; and the tension between the organic and the inorganic. We seek transformation as an aesthetic.
Our methods and mediums are constantly shifting, however we share a continuous need of attracting, provoking, and supporting exchange, generative confrontation, and collaboration.
We perceive the process of conceptualizing, creating and experiencing an artwork, or creating, conceptualizing and experiencing an artwork, as an act of transformation of the surrounding reality and an opportunity to transform ourselves, to continuously look for our place within the flux of life. The overwhelming life force of Nature engulfs us in a depth of energy that our words fail to contain. When we create, we wonder if our work can manifest even a trace of it. As individuals and as partners we desire stability, but, the constant transformation of the world shifts the ground out from under our feet, leaving only change. Because of this, we have become interested in looking for what our place is and what our sense of direction is in the moments when place and direction are broken. Through our work we explore what emerges when the illusory stability of habit and social norms dissolve.
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