MEDIA RELEASE

The Donkey Mill Art Center presenting Moulin de l’Ane II 6-9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 9.

This is the second celebratory benefit inspired by the by the turn of the century French art scene. While last year’s successful fundraising event was based on the Moulin Rouge, this year’s tribute will be to Marcel Duchamp and the Big Daddies of Dada.

The evening will consist of live drawing, costumes, music, poetry, moving pictures, refreshments and a touch of anarchy. In Dada fashion, artists will incorporate various drawing techniques, collage, and text into their original art.

Come to Moulin d’Lane dressed in your latest Dada Couture in the manner of Alexander McQueen to pose as a model, be photographed by Chris Johnson of Clixtudios or just stand back and enjoy the “happening.”

The parlor game favored in the period, Exquisite Corpse, will be offered and the performance art of “Spontaneous Combustion” will add to the convivial atmosphere. In celebration of the City of Lights, “Shady Characters,” original lampshades by the Mill’s established and emerging artists will be auctioned.

Tickets are $25 in advance at the Donkey Mill Art Center and Kona Stories Books in Keauhou. Purchase tickets early because last year was a sell-out event.

The mission of the Donkey Mill Art Center, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, is to enrich the lives of persons of all ages and abilities through art education. The Donkey Mill is a gathering place for all to explore, expand and develop their artistic selves and cultural identity in a supportive community.

The Donkey Mill is located three miles south of Holualoa Village on Mamalahoa Highway.

Dadaism is widely considered the precursor to modern art. Dada, in all its anti-art devices, paved the way for Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptualism, and other art movements of the past century. The movement arose from a world ravaged by the First World War.

Dada artists attacked anything conventional … history, art, literature, and bourgeois values reflecting the bedlam of the era.

Marcel Duchamp sums up the anti-art climate with his notorious ready-made “Fountain” (urinal). His work challenged existing preconceptions about the nature of art with a stabbing sense of humor.

It still provokes the question: What is art?

For further information or tickets, call 322-3362 or visit www.DonkeyMillArtCenter.org