NEW YORK—M.I.M.E. was formed in the spring of 1999 as a collective effort to revitalize the the artform of Mime. The original members Delia Gonzales, Gavin Russom, Chris Holstad, Sigrun Hrolfsdottir and Aleksandra Mir never set down any rules for M.I.M.E. but to get together when we feel like being mimes and to do what we think a mime might want to do in any given moment and situation. Due to our disparate schedules and geographic dislocation, the five of us have never even managed to appear intact as a group. But we don’t mind miming in solitude, or together with other guest mimes. Both friends and family members have contributed to M.I.M.E.


Among our appearances, there has been a couple of M.I.M.E. swims in public pools in Europe and the US, a Ku Klux Klan M.I.M.E., various M.I.M.E. events honoring French culture, M.I.M.E. drinking in bars involving the public, and solitude M.I.M.E. meditations deep in the Icelandic interior. M.I.M.E. has been on Public Access TV and made a special project for the literary magazine Open City. One day, we would like to create a large, ambitious M.I.M.E. opera at the Met, or mime for the Pope. So far, our most ambitious attempt, the mimodrama 'Life is Beautiful', conceived for the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in May 1999, was cancelled due to budget constraints. M.I.M.E., however, is the undiscriminating ability to produce oneself in and transcend any given condition or framework.
 It is a great freedom to be in M.I.M.E.