INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE NOW: THE FIRST DECADE OF THE NEW CENTURY Curated by RoseLee Goldberg In her groundbreaking book Performance Art: From Futurism To The Present (1979), art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg showed that performance is central to the history of 20th century art. In 2005, she launched Performa 05, the first biennial of visual art performance, and predicted that performance would become “the medium of the 21st century.” Indeed, its time has come. Museums around the world are establishing performance art departments, including most recently the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and several museums currently being built will have dedicated performance spaces. Moreover, following Performa’s lead, biennials worldwide are making performance integral to their programs. Performance Now is an exhibition that shows how performance has come to be at the center of the discussion on the latest developments in contemporary art and culture. The first decade of the 21st century has seen the emergence of a true globalism in the art world, with an ever-expanding map of knowledge and an understanding of cultural developments around the world. A full immersion in historical, political and religious subtexts of a broad range of cultures is now demanded of artists, curators and audiences. There has also been much reflection on the complexities of displaying, Emily Coates, Pat Catterson, Sally Silvers, and Patricia Hoffbauer in Yvonne Rainer’s RoS Indexical, 2007. Photo copyright Paula Court. Courtesy of Performa.
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INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
PERFORMANCE NOW: THE FIRST DECADE OF THE NEW CENTURY Curated by RoseLee Goldberg
In her groundbreaking book Performance Art: From Futurism To The Present (1979), art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg showed that performance is central to the history of 20th century art. In 2005, she launched Performa 05, the first biennial of visual art performance, and predicted that performance would become “the medium of the 21st century.” Indeed, its time has come. Museums around the world are establishing performance art departments, including most recently the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and several museums currently being built will have dedicated performance spaces. Moreover, following Performa’s lead, biennials worldwide are making performance integral to their programs. Performance Now is an exhibition that shows how performance has come to be at the center of the discussion on the latest developments in contemporary art and culture. The first decade of the 21st century has seen the emergence of a true globalism in the art world, with an ever-expanding map of knowledge and an understanding of cultural developments around the world. A full immersion in historical, political and religious subtexts of a broad range of cultures is now demanded of artists, curators and audiences. There has also been much reflection on the complexities of displaying,
Emily Coates, Pat Catterson, Sally Silvers, and Patricia Hoffbauer in Yvonne Rainer’s RoS Indexical, 2007. Photo copyright Paula Court. Courtesy of Performa.
INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL
collecting, preserving and explaining conceptual material that had so profoundly shaped artistic developments in the final decades of the twentieth century, yet which, paradoxically, was ephemeral and almost invisible. At the same time, contemporary performance is activating the museum, drawing new and young audiences to these institutions. Performance Now will be made up of objects, ephemera, sound, and video, including material from a number of key Performa commissions, and works originating from around the
world including South Africa, China, Eastern Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. Encouraging a more engaged collaboration with potential host organizations, ICI will invite curators from interested venues to participate in a series of discussions on curating and presenting performance during the upcoming Performa biennial, Performa 11, which will take place in New York City from November 1—20, 2011. About the guest curator: RoseLee Goldberg’s seminal study, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (first published in 1979 and now in its third edition) is regarded as the leading text for understanding the development of the genre and has been translated into more languages (including Chinese, Croatian, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish) than any other book of its kind. When director of the Royal College of Art (RCA) Gallery in London, Goldberg established a program that pioneered an integrative approach to curating exhibitions, performance, and symposia, directly involving the various departments of the RCA in all aspects of the exhibitions program. As curator at the Kitchen in New York she continued to advocate for multi-disciplinary practices to have equal prominence by establishing the exhibition space, a video viewing room, and a performance series. Most recently, her vision in the creation of Performa has set a precedent for performance art that is now impacting museum programming and diverse audiences across the U.S. and abroad. Artists in exhibition (subject to change): Marina Abramovic, Ai Weiwei , Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Vanessa Beecroft, Jerome Bel, Candice Breitz, Maurizio Cattelan, Spartacus Chetwynd, Jeremy Deller, Nathalie Djurberg, Omer Fast, Cao Fei, Yang Fudong, Regina Jose Galindo, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Zhang Huan, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Jesper Just, William Kentridge, Laura Lima, Kalup Linzy, Long March Project, Liz Magic-Laser, Ryan McNamara, Shirin Neshat, Kelly Nipper, Roman Ondák, Adam Pendleton, Yvonne Rainer, Mika Rottenberg, Laurie Simmons, Tamy Ben-Tor
William Kentridge, I Am Not Me, the Horse is Not Mine, a Performa Premiere, 2009. Photo by Paula Court, courtesy of
Performa.
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Example of works to be included in exhibition: Please note: This list is preliminary Vanessa Beecroft, VB45, 2001 Jerome Bel, Veronique Doisneau, 2004 Candice Breitz , New York, New York, 2009 Jeremy Deller, The Battle of Orgreave, 2001 Nathalie Djurberg, Untitled (Working Title Kids & Dogs), 2007 Omer Fast, The Casting, 2007 Regina Jose Galindo, ¿Quién Puede Borrar las Huellas?, 2003 Pierre Huyghe, The Third Memory, 2000 Christian Jankowski, Rooftop Routine, 2007 Jesper Just, True Love is Yet to Come, 2005 William Kentridge, I am not me, the horse is not mine, 2008 Adam Pendleton, The Revival, 2007 Mika Rottenberg, Cheese, 2007 Laurie Simmons, The Music of Regret, 2005 Basic facts: Participation fee: $20,000, for 10 weeks, plus incoming shipping (see additional requirements below) Number of artists: Approximately 35 Number of works: Approximately 50-60 Space required: 3,500 – 4,500 square feet, plus performance space if live performance is to be added Tour dates: September 2012 – September 2014 In addition to the artworks on the checklist, wall texts, press, and 20 identical monitors with built-in DVD players will be included with the tour. Technical/Programming requirements:
• Venues will need to provide DVD players hooked up to a maximum of 10 projectors. 20 monitors with built-in DVD players will be traveling with the exhibition. If venues wish to provide their own identical monitors and DVD players, they may do so, and deduct $5,000 from the presentation fee.
• Venues are required to build an architectural element at the entrance of the exhibition, to be designed by commissioned Performa architects nOffice (http://www.noffice.eu/). Materials required include plywood, fluorescent tubes, and an explanatory wall text by RoseLee Goldberg (file to be provided). Design/customization costs for nOffice architects to create the entrance element are approximately $2,000 - $5,000.
• Venues are required to build custom shelving to create monitor space for video documentation (see image below for example). Some documentation and projections can be installed above the monitors.
• Depending on space, venues will need to present up to 10 large wall projections, and possible floor pieces (see image below).
• In larger galleries, customized seating to view longer pieces is ideal. • Venues will need to cover travel, accommodation, and speaker’s fee ($3,000) for
RoseLee Goldberg to deliver a lecture in association with the exhibition.
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• Optional: If desired/possible, venues can work with Performa to produce a performance/live program and talks to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. This may require travel costs for curatorial/production staff from Performa.
• We encourage venues interested in exhibiting Performance Now to attend Performa 11, when ICI will host discussions surrounding the issues of presenting performance. This will also provide curators with the opportunity to explore the possibility of hosting additional programming and to share ideas with others who will be participating in the tour.
Installation views from 100 Years at PS1, New York For further information, or to reserve a slot for the tour, please contact ICI exhibitions manager Fran Wu Giarratano at [email protected] or 212-254-8200 ext. 29.
