Wikipedia
EIDIA (pronounced “idea”) is the pseudonym under which the American transdisciplinary artists Paul Lamarre and Melissa P. Wolf have collaborated since 1986.
Lamarre (born in Monroe, Michigan, 1950), was the oldest of seven children in a large Roman Catholic family. His early inspiration to be an American contemporary artist came as a child seeing the Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals at the Detroit Institute of Art. Lamarre received his BFA for painting, ceramics and photography from the University of Michigan, graduating in 1979. He was mentored there by the abstract expressionist painter Gerome Kamrowski who actually encouraged Lamarre to "drop out" and move to New York. However, Lamarre completed his degree graduating magna cum laude and, after a brief spell in Chicago, Illinois, moved to New York City in 1980 where he still lives and works with his wife and art collaborator Melissa P. Wolf. The duo, called EIDIA, began working together while Lamarre was living at the Chelsea Hotel, (to create The Chelsea Tapes video series). This work was made possible by a fellowship from the New York Creative Artist's Program Service.
Melissa P. Wolf (born in Buffalo, New York) attended Syracuse University, Boston Museum School, Tufts University and Pratt Institute Brooklyn, New York.
The name EIDIA (created by Lamarre) is derived from the ancient Greek word for idea, “eidos”, but the acronym has many possible meanings that Lamarre and Wolf outlined in their 1978 manifesto: Each Idea Defines Itself Aesthetically; Esthetic Interpretations Directs Imaginative Action; Everything I Do Is Art; Every Individual Does Individual Art; Every Individual Develops Ideal Aesthetics; Every Intellect Develops Intuitive Art; and Ecological Involvement Demands Immediate Action/Individual Action.
EIDIA approaches their work in many ways, playing with different concepts and materials simultaneously. Over the years, they have worked in sculpture, photography, painting and video and film, presenting everything from static objects to multimedia installations. For years, they have purposefully worked outside of traditional gallery systems. EIDIA House, founded by Lamarre and Wolf, is a meeting place and forum for artists, scholars, poets, writers, architects and others who are interested in the arts as instrument for positive social change (a concept dubbed "idée force" by the late French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu). The intent of EIDIA House is to “broaden aesthetic research, promote a comprehensive expansion of the influence of art on a world wide basis, encourage 'green' architecture, and create an authentic forum for social change originating from the art world”. Although EIDIA House can be located anywhere, at the moment it is based in Lamarre and Wolf’s home and studio space, located in the Williamsburg area of New York City’s Brooklyn borough.