Weekend Arts Agenda: ‘Mi Casa, Your Casa’ July 17 2014

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Mi Casa, Your Casa, in collaboration with the Instituto de México and gloATL, begins its months-long stretch at the High, where it will colonize the Sifly Piazza for performances and other events. Anchoring the site-specific work is an installation designed by Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena: 36 three-dimensional, bright red frames, each in the shape of a house, which will be reorganized in September. Opening weekend includes Mexican music and folk dancing, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Instrument Petting Zoo, a pop-up shop with items from vendors including Megan Daloz Ceramics, and dance troupe gloATL’s “choir B.” Later this summer are the Object Group’s “Home Bodies”; “En Route” by Atlanta Ballet’s Wabi Sabi; and the Alliance’s musical spin on “Lord of the Flies,” featuring music of the Ramones (a complete schedule is here).

Mi Casa, Your Casa closes on Nov. 2, with a commemoration for the Day of the Dead, though the High said the installation is just the beginning of a two-year initiative to “activate” the piazza.

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FRIDAY

The Book as Art is exactly what it sounds like, and not. That’s the thing: “Artist books can be a delight to the eye, a pleasure to the hand, and made tangible in forms that introduce us not only to new interpretations of an ancient concept but also to questions and ideas.” So goes the official description of this AJC Decatur Book Festival event, presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance, on display through September 19 at the Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur.

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  • Stungun Photography
  • TOP (from left): Gina Rickicki, Suzanne Roush, and Jill Perry. BOTTOM (from left): Tiffany Denise Mitchenor and Blaire Hillman.



The Essential Theatre Play Festival returns for its 16th year. Leading its local lineup are Theroun D’Arcy Patterson’s That Uganda Play - tackling the country’s recent anti-LGBT notoriety - and Karla Jennings’ domestic drama Ravens and Seagulls, co-winners of the festival’s annual play-writing award. Also occurring are several entries in the Bare Essentials reading series. Show times continue through Aug. 17 at the West End Performing Arts Center. Purchase tickets here.

SATURDAY

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DOUBLE | DATE, at MINT, puts two artists together in a pair and let’s audiences participate from there. The first in this series is Saturday, from Curtis Ames and Kojo Griffin. It’s called “Weak Hand,” and is actually a ping-pong game, except spectators can bet on the winner and are then placed into a lottery to win a work of art and, as a result, the process examines “issues relating to the commodification of creativity ... the artist’s role in this process, and ... the supposed position of power held by … the ‘collector.’” It’s heady and light, all at once. Admission is $5. Doors open at 8 p.m.