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Filed under: Venice Biennale

As you may have seen by now, the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale – organized by none other than the IMA! – was recently featured in the New York Times.  The article takes place at the Circus Warehouse in New York City as gymnasts rehearsed on mock-ups of the artwork they will perform on in Venice.  They’ll be performing within artists Allora and Calzadilla‘s exhibition Gloria, alongside an upside-down tank with a treadmill, a pipe organ ATM, a video projection, and a statue lying in a sunbed.  Yes, you read that all correctly!  I think IMA curator and Pavilion commissioner Lisa Freiman summed it up best when she said, “It’s all about making the impossible possible.”

A large part of what makes this project so complex (and fascinating to watch unfold) is the live performance element, a first for the U.S. Pavilion.  An athlete associated with USA Track and Field will run on the treadmill (atop the overturned tank) and gymnasts affiliated with USA Gymnastics will perform on replicas of business class airline seats on either side of the Pavilion. As Carol Vogel described it as she watched them rehearse, “…(she) bent her body in graceful movements over a seat: wrapping herself around the tray table, draping her body along the edge of the seats, limbs splayed, forming a perfect split, and finally alighting on the divider, a leg gracefully extending high in the air — Brancusi’s “Bird in Space” sculpture come to life.” Look for frequent updates from us and our partners at USA Gymnastics and USA Track and Field on next week’s big performances.

The Venice Biennale takes place every two years and features cutting edge, contemporary art that represents a record 89 countries this year, along with additional exhibitions throughout the city.  Along with the activities happening inside the U.S. Pavilion, we’ll also be documenting the Biennale at large to show Gloria within the larger context of international contemporary art.   So far, we’ve been hearing lots of glowing updates from IMA staffers as they are busy installing for next week’s opening.  Here’s the exhibition banner freshly unfurled on the wall:

Along with updates here, we’ll also be continuously adding content to our microsite - expect behind-the-scenes glimpses, video interviews, images of the installation, and much more.  And perhaps the most active place for updates will be our Twitter handle devoted to the project: USPavilion11.  Stay tuned!

Filed under: Art, Contemporary, Travel, Venice Biennale

The IMA has been keeping a secret for a while, but as of 6 p.m. yesterday, we received permission to tell the world…

The Big News

The IMA has been selected to represent the United States at the 2011 La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) and present the work of Puerto Rico-based artist collaborative Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Often described as the Olympic games of the contemporary art world, more the 70 nations present the newest and best works from their respective countries every other year at the Venice Biennale. This year marks the 54th International Art Exhibition.

A Few More Details

U.S. Pavilion

The IMA will present the work of Allora & Calzadilla at the U.S. Pavilion in Venice, Italy from June 4 through November 27, 2011. The U.S. pavilion is presented by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, which supports and manages the official United States participation at selected international exhibitions. Lisa Freiman, Chair of the IMA’s Department of Contemporary Art, will serve as Commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion.

More to Come

More details about the Venice Biennale and Allora & Calzadilla’s work will be posted in the coming weeks and months.

Read All About It

The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/arts/design/08arts-ARTTEAMREPRE_BRF.html?ref=todayspaper

Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/07/artist-pair-from-puerto-rico-to-represent-us-in-venice-biennial/

Indianapolis Star: http://www.indystar.com/article/20100908/LOCAL/9080348/IMA-picked-to-represent-U.S.-at-show-in-Venice

Artinfo: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35714/united-states-picks-allora-calzadilla-for-the-54th-venice-biennale/

ArtForum: http://artforum.com/archive/id=26356

Filed under: Art, Current Events

This Thursday at The Toby I’ll be participating in a panel discussion about the new exhibition, Tara Donovan: Untitled. Here’s a taste of what we’ll be discussing, from this exhibition’s TAP tour.

The event is free, open to the public, and offered in conjunction with the IMA’s Educator Sneak Peek Program. To accommodate multiple audiences, the program will be divided into two sections (feel free to come to one or both parts):

Part 1 — 5:00 pm
We’ll discuss the roles of staff members in selecting, displaying and caring for contemporary art.

Part 2 — 6:00 pm
We’ll discuss in greater detail the process of commissioning new artworks, complexities of working with installation art, and the long-term care of contemporary artworks.

Joining me on the panel will be a friend and special guest, Jill Sterrett, Director of Conservation and Collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); and

Lisa Freiman, IMA Chair of the Department of Contemporary Art;

Greg Smith, IMA Senior Conservation Scientist.

Here’s a link for more information about the program. I think we’ve got just about all the angles covered in this panel, but if you have any questions that you’d like us to address, please leave a comment and we’ll see if we can add it into the conversation.

Detail of Tara Donovan's Untitled (© Tara Donovan, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York)

Filed under: Art, Conservation, Current Events, Education, Exhibitions, Public Programs, The Toby

Eden II

On Friday morning, November 20, I stood hard-hatted and slack-jawed beneath Tea Mäkipää’s ship, Eden II, as it hung from a crane far above 100 Acres, and couldn’t help but marvel at the process that turns conversations, emails, and artist’s renderings into an actual, physical, 47-foot, 8-ton object.

This rare pleasure is experienced by those involved with object– and place-making everywhere, but it was felt most distinctly by the crowd gathered for the ship launch in 100 Acres, a park first envisioned in an IMA strategic plan in 1996. While Eden II began its journey via two cranes, one barge, and one motorboat from the park’s central meadow to its resting place in the southwest corner of the lake, one could also see crews at work building the walls of Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments, hear the nearby construction of Marlon Blackwell’s visitor’s center, and observe the assembly of Andrea Zittel’s fiberglass floating island by LA-based fabricators The Barnacle Brothers. At long last, 100 Acres is really happening. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park, Current Events