calendario eventi  :: 

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22/6/2009

Two exhibitions

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA, New York

Contemporary Galleries, second floor

June 23–September 14, 2009

Roman Ondák
Performance 4

The Museum of Modern Art presents the fourth installment of its Performance Exhibition Series with Roman Ondák’s (Slovakian, b. 1966) Measuring the Universe (2007). The work, a recent acquisition by MoMA, will have its North American premiere beginning on June 24, 2009. Measuring the Universe, which was first enacted in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, in 2007, is a performance-based work in which the height of each visitor to the exhibition is recorded on the gallery’s wall by a Museum attendant, eventually creating a unique wall drawing and a visual record of thousands of museum visitors. Measuring the Universe is the second work solely based on performance to enter MoMA’s collection, following the 2008 acquisition of Tino Sehgal’s The Kiss (2003). The exhibition is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator, with Jenny Schlenzka, Assistant Curator for Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and on view in the Contemporary Galleries on the second floor through August 24, 2009.

Klaus Biesenbach states: “Ondák is an important emerging artist who carries forward the transition of conceptual art coming out of Central Europe, and is known for installations, drawings, and performances that draw from this rich history. Measuring the Universe combines many of the characteristics in Ondák’s oeuvre, most importantly the practice of involvement and participation with the spectator, collapsing the usual distinction between performer and audience, professional and amateur, production and reception.”

The work is brought into existence by simple and minimal means: an empty white cube gallery, museum attendants who are equipped with black felt tip pens, and museum visitors. The interaction among these elements is scripted as follows: once a visitor enters the gallery, he/she is approached by a museum attendant who asks the visitors if he is interested in having his height measured. If the visitor agrees to participate, the attendant then marks the height with a black line onto the wall, and writes the visitor’s first name and the date the measurement took place. This procedure is repeated continuously with every visitor who enters the gallery for the duration of the exhibition.

After a short period of time a distinctive wall drawing appears, consisting of the ghostly traces of thousands of visitors. The three dimensions of the gallery are eventually expanded by a fourth dimension: a recording of time.

The result can be understood in reference to others’ works in MoMA’s collection, including Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings, which are similarly based on a set of simple instructions carried out by someone other than the artist, or Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Untitled (Placebo) (1991), which also converts the passive onlooker into an active participant by inviting visitors to pick up silver-wrapped candies from the Museum floor.

SPONSORSHIP:
The Performance Exhibition Series is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.

ABOUT MoMA’S PERFORMANCE EXHIBITION SERIES:
The Performance Exhibition Series is a two-year series of exhibitions that bring installations documenting past performances, live re-enactments of historic performances, and original performance pieces to various locations throughout the Museum. The series began with the gallery exhibition Performance 1: Tehching Hsieh in January 2009, and continued in March 2009 with Performance 2: Simone Forti and Performance 3: Trio A by Yvonne Rainer.

Press Contact: Paul Jackson, 212/708-9593 or pressoffice@moma.org

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June 23–September 21, 2009

Song Dong
Projects 90

The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor

As part of its ongoing Elaine Dannheisser Projects series, The Museum of Modern Art presents Projects 90: Song Dong, featuring the large scale installation Waste Not (2005) by the Beijing-based artist, on view for the first time in the United States. Initially a collaboration with his mother, Zhao Xiang Yuan (1938-2009), the installation—which covers nearly 3,000 square feet of The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium—comprises all the contents of her home, amassed over the course of 50 years during which the concept of “waste not” (wu jin qi yong in Chinese) was a requisite guideline for survival for the generation that lived through the hardships of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969/76).

Song Dong (b. 1966) initiated the collaboration with his mother in an attempt to wrest her from her grief following the death of his father in 2002. The installation includes the house itself, countless cups, pots, basins, folded and piled up shirts, buttons, ballpoint pens, bottle caps, bags, tubs, toothpaste tubes, neckties, 10-liter oil flasks, handbags, skipping ropes, stuffed animals, and dolls. Sorted by type, the materials are lined up alongside one another, forming a miniature cityscape that viewers can navigate around and through. In the process of organizing and arranging the goods, the baggage of the past was unpacked and his mother’s intended goal of waste not was fulfilled as these materials now have another life in the work. Tragically, Zhao died unexpectedly earlier this year, adding poignancy to the neon sign hanging in the installation that reads “Dad, don’t worry, mum and we are fine.” It remains a family project as the artist is assisted in the installation by his sister, Song Hui, and his wife Yin Xiuzhen.

On view June 23 through September 21, 2009, Projects 90 is organized by Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, and Sarah Suzuki, The Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr., Assistant Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art. The Projects series is coordinated by Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director, The Museum of Modern Art.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Song Dong, who lives and works in Beijing, has been at the forefront of conceptual art in China since the 1990s. Known for combining aspects of performance, video, photography, sculpture, and installation, Song’s works are often ephemeral and utilize modest materials that explore notions of transience and impermanence in personal, local, and global spheres. He has long been part of a traditional, tight-knit Beijing community, and his work reflects the everyday concerns and realities of his neighbors. Song graduated from the Normal University in Beijing in 1989 and has exhibited widely in Asia and abroad. Recent exhibitions include Song Dong (2008) at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai; Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China (2004-2006) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and Oalors, a chine: Chinese Contemporary Art (2003) at the Center Pompidou in Paris. His work was presented at the 2004 Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil and at the 2003 Istanbul Biennale. He was also shown in the exhibition Inside Out: New Chinese Art Exhibition (1998) at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

ABOUT THE CURATORS
Barbara London, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, joined the Museum in the early 1970s and founded the Museum’s video exhibition and collection programs. Ms. London organized the upcoming exhibition Looking at Music: Side 2 (2009) and past exhibitions Looking at Music (2008), Automatic Update (2007), River of Crime (2006), Stillness: Michael Snow and Sam Taylor-Wood (2005), Anime!! (2005), Music and Media (2004), TimeStream (2001), a web commission by Tony Oursler; a series of Web projects undertaken in China, Russia, and Japan; Video Spaces: Eight Installations (1995), and Projects shows with Nam June Paik, Shigeko Kubota, Peter Campus, Thierry Kuntzel, and Steve McQueen, among others.

Sarah Suzuki, the Sue and Eugene Mercy, Jr. Assistant Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art, joined the Museum in 1998. Previously, Ms. Suzuki organized the exhibitions Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities (2008), Projects 86: Gert & Uwe Tobias (2007), Focus: Elizabeth Murray (2005), an exhibition of Murray's editioned works in conjunction with the artist's MoMA retrospective, and has collaborated on numerous other exhibitions including Eye on Europe: Prints, Books & Multiples/1960 to Now (2006); The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910–1934 (2002); and Collaborations with Parkett: 1984 to Now (2001).

ABOUT THE ELAINE DANNHEISSER PROJECTS SERIES
Created in 1971 as a forum for emerging artists and new art, the Elaine Dannheisser Projects series plays a vital part in MoMA’s contemporary art programs. With exhibitions organized by curators from all of the Museum’s curatorial departments, the series has presented the work of close to 200 artists to date. Website http://www.moma.org/projects

SPONSORSHIP
The Projects series is made possible by the Elaine Dannheisser Projects Endowment Fund and by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art and the JA Endowment Committee. Additional support for this exhibition is provided by the Annie Wong Art Foundation.

Press contact
Kim Donica: T 212/708-9752 E pressoffice@moma.org


Image: Installation view of Roman Ondák’s Measuring the Universe at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, 2007. Roman Ondák (Slovakian, b. 1966). Measuring the Universe, 2007. Performance and installation. Collections MoMA, New York, and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Photo: Ernst Jank. Courtesy of the artist.

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