The Museum of Modern Art's Performance Exhibition Series continues with Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla, which brings Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano (2008). Blending sculpture and performance, the artists have carved a hole in the center of an early twentieth-century Bechstein piano, creating a void in which the performer stands to play the Fourth Movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, usually referred to as 'Ode to Joy.'
The Museum of Modern Art’s Performance Exhibition Series
continues with Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla, which will bring Stop, Repair, Prepare:
Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano (2008) to the Museum’s Donald B. and Catherine C.
Marron Atrium for performances throughout the day, from December 8, 2010, through January
10, 2011. The piece, which was acquired by MoMA in 2009 and is being publicly performed in the
Museum for the first time, was created by the artist duo Jennifer Allora (b. 1974) and Guillermo
Calzadilla (b. 1971), who have been named the United States representatives for the 2011 Venice
Biennale.
Blending sculpture and performance, the artists have carved a hole in the center of an
early twentieth-century Bechstein piano, creating a void in which the performer stands to play the
Fourth Movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, usually referred to as “Ode to Joy.” For each
30-minute performance, the pianist will lean over the piano’s keyboard, playing upside down and
backwards, while moving the instrument around the Atrium. These performances will take place
hourly beginning at 11:30 a.m. each day. Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla is organized by
Klaus Biesenbach, Director, MoMA PS1, and Chief Curator at Large, MoMA, with Jenny Schlenzka,
Assistant Curator for Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA.
Allora & Calzadilla, who since 1995 have developed a complex artistic vocabulary utilizing
films, installations, performances, and sculpture, consciously chose “Ode to Joy” in accordance
with their general interest in the social, political, and cultural instrumentalization of music. The
popular melody has long been invoked as the musical representation of humanist values and
national pride, having been used in such ideologically disparate contexts as the Chinese Cultural
Revolution, Ian Smith’s white supremacist Rhodesia, the Third Reich, and, more recently, as the
official anthem of the European Union. Allora and Calzadilla’s altered version brings the
composition’s deep contradictions and ambiguities to the surface.
Throughout the monthlong exhibition the work will be performed by the following pianists:
Terezija Cukrov, Mia Elezovic, Amir Khosrowpour, Evan Shinners, and Sun Jun. A weekly schedule
will be made available online at MoMA.org beginning December 8.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Allora & Calzadilla have been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions around the world, including
presentations at Haus der Kunst and Kunstverein München; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; San
Francisco Art Institute; Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Serpentine Gallery, London; Kunsthalle
Zurich; The Renaissance Society, Chicago; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris. They have also been
included in group exhibitions such as “Prospect 1 New Orleans,” 2008; the eighth and ninth Lyon
Biennales, 2005/2007; 2006 Whitney Biennial; 2005 Venice Biennale; How Latitudes Become
Form, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, 2003, and Common Wealth, Tate Modern, 2003. In 2011
they will be the U.S. representatives at the 54th Venice Biennale. Allora & Calzadilla are based in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, and are presently DAAD scholarship holders in Berlin, Germany.
ABOUT MoMA’S PERFORMANCE EXHIBITION SERIES
The Performance Exhibition Series is an ongoing 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 will continue with
Performance 10: The Identical Lunch by Alison Knowles in January 2011.
SPONSORSHIP
The Performance Exhibition Series is made possible by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for
Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS:
Modern Mondays
Monday, December 6, 2010
Modern Mondays, a weekly program thabrings contemporary, innovative film and moving-image
works to the public, provides a forum for viewers to engage in dialogue and debate with
contemporary filmmakers and artists. On December 6, a conversation will be held with Allora &
Calzadilla, discussing the artists’ interest in the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic implications
of sound and music in their work.
Press Contact: Paul Jackson, 212/708-9593 or paul_jackson@moma.org
Margaret Doyle, 212/408-6400 or margaret_doyle@moma.org
Image: Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared
Piano. 2008. Prepared Bechstein Piano, Pianist (Mia Elezovic, depicted in
Photo) 81” Long ©Allora & Calzadilla, Gladstone Gallery, New York. Photo:
David Regen
Opening 8 December 2010
Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400
Holiday Hours 2010: Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 25), closed Christmas Eve (Friday, December 24), 10:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. (Museum closes
early)
Christmas Day (Saturday, December 25), closed
Sunday, December 26–Monday, January 3, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. (Museum opens
one hour early)
Tuesday, December 28, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
New Year's Eve (Friday, December 31), 9:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Closed Tuesday
Tickets: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current
I.D.