“… because why would anyone want to ride a horse to California? Especially a woman. Especially an Italian woman who can’t ride very well. Especially an Italian woman who doesn’t have a gun.”

A Ride West – live: A Spaghetti Western Musical Saga is the new iteration of an interdisciplinary project which began in 2012 when Valentina Vella became strangely obsessed with the idea of riding a horse across America. The ride was attempted in the summer 2013 and it culminated in a long video piece which was first presented at the 2014 Interdisciplinary Arts MFA show.

While exploring the same themes – the American West as a repository of dreams and projections, the Hero’s Journey as a storytelling device, Jungian theories about the psyche, the heroic stance as an antidote to erotic longing – the work presented at Links Hall complicates the video’s narrative and is an opportunity to amplify its performative elements.

The show features a live band (Nathan Paulus, Sharon Hoyer and Josh Miller from the I Ching Quartet and Daniel Schneider from The Singleman Affair) and live video editing and processing by Michael LaHood.

Presented with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.

DATES: January 10 & 11 at 7pm (open rehearsal Friday January 9 @ 7pm)

LOCATION: Links Hall – 3111 N. Western ave, Chicago

ARTIST WEBSITE: http://valentinavella.net/

EVENT WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/1tK7NUM

VENUE WEBSITE: http://www.linkshall.org/