Exit reflects both the challenges inherent in the field of dance and art, and the process of aging as creators, serving as an allusion to the artist’s capacity for navigating the unknown. After creating a decade of works as ChameckiLerner, EXIT focuses on creating the possibility of extinction.  Or reinvention.

Historically, ChameckiLerner established themselves among the founders of manipulation by using complex, articulated movement ingrained in physical structures to define the psychological state of a body. After the extreme repercussion of this manner of moving, ChameckiLerner went in search of new ways of representing and presenting bodies on a stage. Together, Visible Content, Costumes by god and Exit comprised a trilogy of work focused on the concept of extinction: the dissolution of the viewer’s focus, the displacement of the body, and the extinguishment of the artist.

In EXIT Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner have decided to end it all, experimenting with the concept of extinguishing themselves as an artistic entity. The piece is a kind of funeral rite in which the dearly departed watch from beyond their graves as colleagues offer eulogies and flashbacks.

The piece had humor – let’s stage our own artistic funeral – and in the same complex breath, it had sadness for all the uncertainties of being an artist making live performance work.  It is unclear whether it was in fact a true artistic funeral for ChameckiLerner or simply a performance concept. Either way, it was brilliant. Carley Petesch, Brooklyn Rail.