Joséphine A. Garibaldi and Paul Zmolek

Making work together as Callous Physical Theatre, Joséphine A. Garibaldi and Paul Zmolek are dedicated to fostering collaboration across communities, disciplines and cultures regionally, nationally and internationally through a dialogic practice of art-making, research and pedagogy. Callous Physical Theatre is a collaborative, project-based endeavor guided by our slogan, “We go where the work takes us.” From environmental and performance installations, movement and text based visual poetry, Garibaldi and Zmolek have devised original performance, installation and digital works nationally and internationally together for three decades. Their work has received awards for Excellence in the Arts and Arts Outreach and has been supported by grants from the Fulbright organization and foundations based in Australia, Latvia, Finland, Portugal, Italy, California, Washington, Iowa, Missouri, Florida, Idaho, Vermont and New Mexico.

Notable works include: 

  • CAGEVENT 2{020}2: Sometimes it works, Sometimes it doesn't REDUX (2022), a collaborative created event structured with time brackets ala John Cage performed at {Re}HAPPENING on the historic Lake Eden Campus of Black Mountain College.
  • Sable September (2021), a stop motion video created with fellow artists in residence at The Sable Project.
  • Sable Mountain: A Sense of Place (2021), a video performance with collaborators in residence at The Sable Project.
  • Runescores (2020), a group-sourced digital performance installation featuring works by 15 artists in response to non-determinate scores created though the drawing of rune stones.
  • Illuminating Site: Birdsong (2019) featuring over 200 handmade lanterns utilized for two different performance installations at Birdsong Nature Center.
  • Virtually Real: the isolated connection community (2018) a performance installation culminating their project Laptop Performance Laboratory: Modular Play with collaborators from Australia, Canada, Latvia and throughout the U.S.
  • Illuminating Site: Camino Iluminado (2018) installation of 40 lanterns featuring images from Messejana, Portugal in the Jardim da Igreja Matriz.
  • Nameless, but in sight (2017) a 1,500 square feet performance installation in the atelier, kitchen and cold storage of the top floor of Centre Vanha Paukku in Lapua, Finland.
  • The Place Where I Start (2016), an intermedia performance installation featuring performances by children and adults from the small town of Heyfield within an installation of found object textile works, video, photography and audio at Cowwarr Art Space, in the dairy district of Gippsland, Australia.
  • Ghost Town (2015), site-specific performance installations at three forgotten ghost towns deep in the desert of Utah for the curated digital exhibition of Another Language Performing Arts Company. Made while primitive camping with 4 members of CPT.
  • Stories from the Park (2014), a site-specific performance as part of the Riga 2014 festival at Ziedondarz Park, Riga, Latvia; 
  • Double Blind Sided: Kafka's German Process (2013)  a “compost modern movement opera” inspired by Kafka’s The Trial and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Composer Robert Fruehwald received Honorable Mention in the prestigious American Award for his original music.
  • Birch Loops (2012) a 4,500 square feet living environmental installation in the adjacent forest of Arteles Creative Center in Hämeenkyrö, Finland.
  • Appartengono: A Sense of Belonging (2011)  a video physical work featured in the 2011 International Contemporary Artist Exhibition at the Gallerie le Logge in Assisi that was created in collaboration with the children and adults of the tiny village of Costa di Trex, Italy.
  • The Rule of Life (2011) live and video physical theatre work inspired by the ascetic practice of the Orders of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.
  • Big Dance/Little Space (2010) performance festival on a 5’X5’ stage.
  • SiteWorks (2009) performance festival at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.
  • Train (2008) month-long interdisciplinary arts festival at Barefoot Studios and train-related sites throughout Tacoma.
  • On the Backs of Our Mothers / Migrant (2008) interconnected physical theatre works sharing stories of the impact of railroads on our lives.
  • Grudge Match: ReMatch (2006) our second Christmas physical theatre work as antidote to the Nutcracker.
  • SiteWorks (2006) performance festival at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.
  • Subcutaneous (2005) physical theatre work reflexive of and performed within Ingrid Lahti and Harriet Sanderson's Skin installation.
  • Grudge Match (2005) Christmas physical theatre work, an antidote to the annual Nutcracker.
  • Zaum: Beyond Significance (2002) contemporary ballet informed by the innovations of the Russian Cubo-Futurists.
  • In God We Trust (2000) intermedia performance installation exploring the ideology of the Market in Late Capitalism.