Babi Badalov
Josef Dabernig
Miklos Erdely
Tamas Kiraly
Eva Kotatkova
Jiri Kovanda
Julius Koller
KwieKulik
Denisa Lehocka
Lia Perjovschi
Societe Realiste
Lauren Cornell
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module. On view in and around the spacecraft will be 117 artworks, including video, sculpture, print, and installation, by artists hailing from cities around Eastern Europe, all of whom tranzit has worked with previously. The exhibition space becomes an universe that dramatizes the cross-cultural translation involved in the presentation of art.
curated by tranzit and organized by Lauren Cornell
For their presentation “Museum as Hub:
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module,”
tranzit will transform the Fifth Floor gallery of the New
Museum into the simulated interior of a spaceship. The
spacecraft, specially designed for the exhibition “Report on the
Construction of a Spaceship Module” at the New Museum, is
a composite of shuttles featured in Eastern European science-
fiction films from the Cold War period. In its structure and
design, it recalls future fantasies from the socialist Eastern
Europe side of the Iron Curtain and explores the ideological
role outer space played during this time. On view in and
around the spacecraft will be 117 artworks, including video,
sculpture, print, and installation, by artists hailing from cities
around Eastern Europe, notably Vienna, Prague, Budapest,
Bucharest, and Bratislava, all of whom tranzit has worked with previously. The exhibition offers an
allegory of “anthropological science fiction,” where the exhibition space becomes an estranged and
exciting universe that dramatizes the cross-cultural translation involved in the presentation of art. The
unique model evokes the challenges that contemporary artists experience in exhibiting works, or that
curators come across in organizing exhibitions that stitch together diverse art, selected across generation,
cultural context, personal narratives, and time.
The exhibition will be on view from January 22–April 6, 2014. The project is curated by tranzit
and organized by Lauren Cornell, Curator, 2015 Triennial, Museum as Hub, and Digital Projects. In
conjunction with the exhibition, the New Museum presents a publication including contributions by
Lauren Cornell, tranzit, Miklós Erdéley, and Stano Filko, as well as an original science-fiction short story,
extensive information on all participating artists, and a guide to the public programs. The publication will
be free and available in the gallery and was edited by Taraneh Fazeli, Education Associate.
As an organization, tranzit consists of a network of autonomous but interconnected groups based in
Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Much like the Museum as Hub (the
New Museum’s international partnership initiative through which the exhibition is produced), tranzit
organizations actively collaborate with each other to produce art historical research, exhibitions, and new
commissions. The work included will form a loose and actively debated retrospective of their ten-year
institutional history, providing a look at art from Eastern Europe through the lens of their organization.
Fifth Floor Gallery at New Museum Transformed into
Simulated Interior of a Spaceship
with more than One Hundred Artworks on View as part of the Museum as Hub
The installation will include works by sixty-five artists including Babi Badalov, Josef Dabernig, Miklós
Erdély, Tamás Király, Eva Koťátková, Jiří Kovanda, Július Koller, KwieKulik, Denisa Lehocká, Lia
Perjovschi, and Société Réaliste, among many others. About the ambitious three-month project, tranzit
writes, “We hope for the exhibition to make the facts of time relativity, cultural translation, and spatial
distance not only explained by curatorial conventions (texts, wall labels) but also performed by the visitors
as they move inside the space and experience it as explorers, interested and disoriented by the new
terrain they’re discovering.”
Public Programs
A conference, “Futures of Eastern Europe,” will take place the opening weekend, January 25 and 26.
The conference will include a series of critical discussions exploring the ideological role that outer space
played in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, accompanied by a day-long science-fiction movie
marathon. Another session will feature a series of lectures and debates by a young generation of curators
and intellectuals, who will pose key questions related to art emerging from Central and Eastern Europe
today. Participants include: Ivana Bago, Cosmin Costinas, Éva Forgács, Kate Fowle, Ana Janevski,
Deimantas Narkevicius, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Tomáš Pospiszyl, Jelena Vesić, and Anton Vidokle.
The spacecraft’s interior will also be used for conversations (via Skype) with participating artists, other
curators, and critics—these discussions will be open to the public.
About Museum as Hub
Museum as Hub facilitates exchange and dialogue around international art and ideas. Founded in 2007,
the initiative includes exhibitions on the Museum’s Fifth Floor, as well as residencies, commissions,
public programming, and editorial and digital projects. Through support of contemporary art practices, the
Museum as Hub aims to catalyze future exchange and collaboration around the world. Since its launch
in 2007 by the New Museum, the Museum as Hub initiative has worked closely with a group of founding
partner institutions to produce diverse programming at the New Museum and internationally. For more
information on Museum as Hub and partners, visit newmuseum.org/museum-as-hub.
Support
The exhibition is made possible through a partnership with ERSTE Stiftung.
Artist travel is provided, in part, by the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Additional support for artist travel
has been provided in part by Balassi Institute - Hungarian Cultural Center; the Ministry of Culture of the
Czech Republic; and the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania.
Museum as Hub is made possible through the generous support of the Robert Sterling Clark
Foundaion. Artist residencies are made possible by the Ford Foundation. Support for Museum as Hub
and public programs is provided, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the
New York State Council on the Arts. Additional support for artist residencies is made possible by Laurie
Wolfert. Endowment support is provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Skadden, Arps Education
Programs Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Fund for Education Programs at the New
Museum. Education and public programs are made possible by a generous grant from Goldman Sachs
Gives at the recommendation of David B. Heller & Hermine Riegerl Heller.
Image: Jindřich Polák, Ikarie XB-1 [Voyage to the End of the Universe], 1963 (still). Courtesy the National Film Archive, Prague
Media contact:
Gabriel Einsohn, Senior Communications Director
Hyatt Mannix, External Affairs Associate 212.219.1222 x209 press@newmuseum.org
Andrea Schwan, Andrea Schwan Inc. 917.371.5023 info@andreaschwan.com
Opening weekend, January 25 and 26, 2014
New Museum
235 Bowery New York, NY 10002
Public Hours:
Wednesday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Thursday 11 a.m.–9 p.m.
Friday–Sunday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Admissions:
General $16
Seniors $14
Students $10
Members Free
Under 18 Free
Thursday Evenings 7 p.m.–9 p.m.: Pay-What-You-Wish Suggested Minimum: $2