One hundred years after the Futurist manifesto was written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the art world is still looking to the future with a mix of fear, hope, and excitement. Futurism, the theme of this year’s Performa 09 biennial, is being explored by artists across the city through dance, sound, sculptures, food, video, and print. This year, it includes 110 performances, 150 artists, 40 curators from around the world, and eleven Performa-sponsored events that are all making their New York debut.
Art Historian RoseLee Goldberg created Performa in 2004. The theme of this year’s biennial is personally relevant to Goldberg, since she wrote a book on the subject in 1979. “I have been waiting to celebrate the centennial [of Futurism] for 30 years,” she said. The biennial this year “takes history and brings it to life,” Goldberg said. “There has always been a dry representation of futurism. No one dealt with the performance element.”
Performa does a thorough job of documenting all of its performances with video recordings and photography. Noam Elcott, professor at the School of the Arts, said Performa is “very thoughtful in creating material that will survive.” He explained that tangible documentation is often difficult to come by and eye witnesses are scarce. Through this, Performa’s work is expected to benefit historians and students in the future.
The biennial further explores the theme of Futurism through varying media. Dexter Sinister, an art duo consisting of Stuart Bailey and Columbia professor David Reinfurt, will be putting out six issues of a newspaper entitled “The First/Last Newspaper” over the course of the biennial, each in the original format of the first newspapers. The papers cover topics such as media, communication, and intellectual ownership, and are located in the bottom corner of Port Authority, in a room completely surrounded by windows facing the New York Times building.
When asked about the location, Bailey responded that “there is some poetry in doing it in the heart of Manhattan.” Although the newspapers are across from the New York Times, Dexter Sinister does not want to be seen as opposing the paper. “We are not writers or journalists—we offer something the regular coverage by journalists can’t,” Bailey said.
Goldberg referred to the space as “instant architecture.” It is made of unfinished wood, which fills the space with a smell of fresh wood. The walls made of bookshelves open up to reveal rooms behind them. Goldberg said, “It’s like kids playing around. You go in this little room and that little room.” The Hub, located in Cooper Union, is the information center for the biennial and is also Performa’s first inclusion of architecture. The bottom floor of Cooper Union was transformed by the Berlin architects Office. “The requirements were an instant amphitheater with performance space, a space for recording video and radio, a little gallery, a book store, an information center, and its all there. It’s a miracle” Goldberg said.
One of the events that took place in The Hub featured another popular element of Performa 09—food. The “Pasta Sauna” was inspired by Marinetti’s distaste for pasta, which he wrote about in his infamous cookbook “La cucina futurista.” In the 1932 cookbook, Marinetti insulted Italian cooking by saying that pasta caused people to be drowsy and lazy.
Eating-designer Marije Vogelzang and Proef design studio created a small structure inside the Performa Hub, out of wood and clear plastic, in which ladders topped with pasta makers hovered over simmering pots of boiling water. Visitors were then prompted to take balls of pasta, put them through the pasta makers, and wait for their pasta to cook. The steam made by the boiling of the pasta filled the room and created a sauna.
Ina Arends, creative organizer of Proef, remarked, “pasta makes you dull and slow and so will the sauna.” The installation took Marinetti’s writing to its literary limits.
Performa 09 is “very much about the city of New York,” Goldberg said. “The most important thing is that people have experiences they never forget, and that they think about.”
Performa will run through Nov. 22nd. Nearly all events are free and schedules can be found at the Biennial Hub in Cooper Union.
Comments
We're looking for comments that are interesting and substantial. If your comments are excessively self-promotional or obnoxious you will be banned from commenting. Consult the comment FAQ and legal terms.