THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART AND P.S.1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER PRESENT PERFORMANCES, EXHIBITIONS, AND FILM PROGRAMS AS PART OF PERFORMA 09 New York, October 2, 2009 The Museum of Modern and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center will participate in Performa 09, the third edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance presented by Performa, a nonprofit interdisciplinary arts organization committed to presenting and researching performance art. Performa 09 runs from November 1 to 22, 2009, at more than 80 venues throughout New York City. This year s festival is inspired, in part, by the 100 years that have passed since The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism was published in 1909. Among the events at MoMA are an opening-night performance by Fischerspooner; a psychedelic video compilation by Brody Condon; and the film series Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection. P.S.1 hosts the exhibition 100 Years (version #2, ps1, nov 2009). See below for detailed information. THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Performance 6: Fischerspooner November 1, 2009, 6:00 9:00 p.m. The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium, second floor MoMA and Performa 09 present Fischerspooner s Between Worlds (2009), a pop spectacle developed in conjunction with Fischerspooner s new recording, Entertainment. The performance runs continuously, with no clear beginning or end, on a large central stage, inviting the audience to view the piece from all sides. With source material provided by The Wooster Group and inspired by phenomena ranging from Japanese theater to the early years of the U.S. space program, this new performance continues Fischerspooner's interest in exploring the spaces between art and entertainment, reality and fiction, intentions and mistakes. Performance 6: Fischerspooner is part of MoMA s ongoing Performance Exhibition Series. Tickets: Available for purchase via the Performa website at www.performa-arts.org. $20 general admission; $16 Performa Members; $10 students and seniors. Performance 6 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. The Performance Exhibition Series is made possible by MoMA s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation. Additional support for this exhibition is provided by John and Amy Phelan.
Modern Mondays Brody Condon: Without Sun Monday, November 2, 7:00 p.m. The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2 As part of Performa 09, MoMA presents Brody Condon: Without Sun, a video compilation of "found performances" (online videos of people who recorded themselves while having psychedelic experiences). The screening is followed by a live recreation by two performers an actor mimicking the voices and a dancer matching the body movements who repeat the gestures of these individuals' drug-induced journeys. Following the performance, Condon discusses Without Sun and its relationship to Case, his upcoming performance adaptation of William Gibson s classic cyberpunk novel Neuromancer (1984), to be held at the New Museum as part of Performa 09. Condon is a New York-based artist, born in Mexico in 1974. His work combines a fascination with video and role-playing games, countercultural communities, new-age subcultures, and art history, which he rolls into moving image installations and performative situations. Modern Mondays is a weekly program that brings contemporary, innovative film and moving image works to the public and provides a forum for viewers to engage in dialogue and debate with contemporary filmmakers and artists. Modern Mondays presents new and newly rediscovered film and media works with the director in attendance, stimulating discourse, dialogue, and interaction in a social setting. Brody Condon: Without Sun is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film. Modern Mondays is made possible by Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro. Additional support is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection November 1, 2009 January 2, 2010 The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters On February 20, 1909, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism was published in Le Figaro. Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 1944) called for a cultural movement aimed at a mass audience that would reject the sober and genteel conventions of the bourgeois world and accept the speed, technology, and dynamism of the early twentieth century. Thus was born the cultural, political, and ideological movement known as Futurism. The Futurists painters, writers, musicians, and filmmakers were drawn to and promoted an unsentimental aesthetic perception informed by technology and the machine age. The roots of Futurism simultaneously embraced and rejected a broad scope of philosophical, political, and cultural issues that were thrown into flux at the end of the nineteenth century. The rise and growing importance of urban centers, nationalism, and technology replaced outmoded reverence for academia, museums, libraries, aristocracy, and religion. In "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism," Marinetti breathlessly announces the coming Futurist revolution, in which the heretofore dark night is illuminated by the internal glow of electric hearts. He speaks the language of the machine age and venerates bolts, padlocks, snorting machines, hungry automobiles, and enormous grappling irons. Nuts and Bolts: Machine Made Man in Films from the Collection was created especially for Performa 09 s celebration of the centenary of Futurism, after Performa Director RoseLee Goldberg approached MoMA about presenting a series of Futurist-related films from the Museum s collection. Through its selection of films, Nuts and Bolts addresses Marinetti s attraction to a mechanical being in the reign of the machine age. Such a being would be endlessly energetic, productive in the factory, free of sentimentality, and immune to disease and death. Throughout cinematic history mechanical
creatures robots, androids, humanoids, cyborgs have often reflected both the discord and the connection between man and machine, a concept Marinetti proclaimed a century ago in Le Figaro. Organized by Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film in collaboration with Performa 09. Sincere thanks to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Toho Co. Ltd., Lana Wilson, and RoseLee Goldberg. Films to be screened The Birth of the Robot. 1936. Great Britain. Directed by Len Lye The Robot. ca. 1970. USA. Directed by Frank and Joan Gardner Sleeper. 1973. USA. Directed by Woody Allen Program: 110 min. Sunday, November 1, 2:00 p.m. T2 Thursday, December 3, 4:00 p.m. T2 A Clever Dummy. 1917. USA. Directed by Herman Raymaker. Silent The Iron Giant. 1999. USA. Directed by Brad Bird. Program: 108 min Sunday, November 1, 5:00 p.m. T2 Thursday, December 3, 7:00 p.m. T2 Rhapsody in Steel. 1934. USA. Directed by F. Lyle Goldman L inhumaine. 1924. France. Directed by Marcel L Herbier. Silent with piano accompaniment. French intertitles with English translation Program: 157 min. Monday, November 2, 4:00 p.m. T2 Saturday, December 19, 1:00 p.m. T2 La Marche des machines. 1928. France. Directed by Eugène Deslaw. Silent Metropolis. 1926. Germany. Directed by Fritz Lang. Silent with piano accompaniment Program: 100 min. Wednesday, November 4, 4:00 p.m. T2 Wednesday, December 23, 7:00 p.m. T2 Techno-Cracked. 1933. USA. Directed by Ub Iwerks Kureji no buchamukure daihakken (Computer Free-for-All). 1969. Japan. Directed by Kengo Furusawa In Japanese, English subtitles Program: 92 min. Sunday, November 7, 1:00 p.m. T2 Thursday, December 24, 4:00 p.m. T2 The Golem. 1995. USA. Directed by Robert Ascher Der Golem. 1920. Germany. Directed by Paul Wegener, Carl Boese. Silent with piano accompaniment Program: 86 min. Sunday, November 8, 1:00 p.m. T2 Monday, December 28, 4:00 p.m. T2 The Legend of John Henry. 1974. USA. Directed by Sam Weiss Terminator 2: Judgment Day. 1991. USA. Directed by James Cameron. Program: 148 min. Saturday, November 14, 1:30 p.m. T2 Wednesday, December 30, 4:00 p.m. T2
My Baby Doll. 1925. USA. Directed by Edward I. Luddy. Silent with piano accompaniment. Dutch intertitles Die Puppe. 1919. Germany. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Silent with piano accompaniment. German intertitles Program: ca. 61 min. Wednesday, November 18, 4:30 p.m. T1 Saturday, December 19, 4:00 p.m. T2 Felix the Cat in Astronomeows. 1928. USA. Produced by Pat Sullivan Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemy Caution. 1965. France/Italy. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. In French, English subtitles Program: 102 min. Friday, November 27, 3:30 p.m. T2 Thursday, December 31, 4:00 p.m. T2 Lineage. 1979. USA. Directed by George Griffin Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. 1965. USA. Directed by Robert Gaffney Program: 98 min. Saturday, November 28, 1:30 p.m. T2 Saturday, January 2, 1:30 p.m. T2 MoMA Admission: $20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free for children 16 and under. Free for members. Admission includes admittance to Museum galleries and film programs. Free admission during Target Free Friday Nights 4:00-8:00 p.m. Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00-8:00 p.m.). Admission is free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders. P.S.1 CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER 100 Years (version #2, ps1, nov 2009) November 1, 2009 April 5, 2010 P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center 100 Years (version #2, ps1, nov 2009) is an exhibition that gathers important happenings, actions, moments, and gestures to outline a history of performance art that is still largely unknown. Organized by P.S.1 and Performa on the occasion of Performa 09 which is inspired by the one hundred years that have passed since The Futurist Manifesto first appeared in 1909 100 Years will travel to other venues, with content varying and developing over time. For each version, works can be added to or subtracted from, or include a greater local emphasis, depending on the venue. Organized by P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Performa. The exhibition is curated by Klaus Biesenbach, P.S.1 Chief Curatorial Advisor and MoMA Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art; and RoseLee Goldberg, Performa Director and Curator. The exhibition is made possible by the Annual Exhibition Fund of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center with generous support from the Julia Stoschek Foundation. P.S.1 Admission: $5.00 suggested donation; $2.00 for students and senior citizens; free for MoMA members and MoMA admission ticket holders.
ABOUT PERFORMA 09 Performa 09, the third edition of the internationally acclaimed biennial of new visual art performance presented by Performa, will be held in New York City from November 1 through 22, 2009. The threeweek festival will showcase new work by more than 80 of the most exciting artists working today, in an innovative program breaking down the boundaries between visual art, music, dance, poetry, fashion, architecture, graphic design, and the culinary arts. Presented in collaboration with a consortium of more than 60 arts institutions and 25 curators, as well as a network of public spaces and private venues across the city, Performa 09 will ignite New York City with energy and ideas, acting as a vital think tank linking minds across the five boroughs and bringing audiences together for brilliant new performances in all disciplines. Performa is a non-profit multidisciplinary arts organization established by RoseLee Goldberg in 2004, dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. Performa launched New York s first performance biennial, Performa 05, in 2005, followed by Performa 07 in 2007. www.performa-arts.org No. 81 Press Contact: Kim Donica, 212/708-9752 or kim_donica@moma.org Paul Jackson, 212/708-9593 or paul_jackson@moma.org Public Information: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday Museum Admission: $20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free for children 16 and under. Free for members. Admission includes admittance to Museum galleries and film programs. Free admission during Target Free Friday Nights 4:00-8:00 p.m. The public may call 212/708-9400 for detailed Museum information. Visit us on the Web at www.moma.org.