On the occasion of the Fall Open House and the opening of Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts, artist, composer, and performer Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste presents a reinterpretation of Steve Reich’s sculptural performance-composition Pendulum Music (1968). Originally presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1968 with Bruce Nauman as a participant, Pendulum Music is comprised of four individuals who swing hanging microphones over amplifiers, creating bursts of feedback that fall in and out of phase with each other. Attending to the work’s legacy while also taking liberty with what is left unspecified in Reich’s 1968 score, Toussaint-Baptiste simultaneously gestures to the work’s history and reveals new aural, spatial, and relational possibilities. Responding to Bruce Nauman’s Bouncing In The Corner performances, in which Nauman uses the architecture of two walls to guide the movement of his body, Toussaint-Baptiste will use the architecture of the VW Dome to dictate the composition’s sculptural and sonic framework. Joined by artists Rena Anakwe, Luwayne Glass (aka Dreamcrusher), and Greg Fox, Toussaint-Baptiste makes explicit what he sees as “the exciting and radical phenomenon of unfixed intersections which emerge from a fixed structure” within Reich’s original composition.
This is one of six new commissions presented as part of VW Sunday Sessions 2018/2019. The VW Sunday Sessions commissioning program supports local and international emerging artists in the development and presentation of new performance work
MoMA PS1’s acclaimed VW Sunday Sessions performance series welcomes visitors to experience and participate in live art. Since its founding in 1976, MoMA PS1 has offered audiences one of the most extensive programs of live performance in the world. VW Sunday Sessions highlights artists responding to contemporary social and political issues through a wide variety of creative and critical lenses. Encompassing performance, music, dance, conversation, and film, the series develops and presents projects by established and emerging artists, scholars, activists, and other cultural instigators. With a focus on artists that blur and break traditional genre boundaries, VW Sunday Sessions embraces the communities in New York City that create and sustain artistic practice.
Since 2012, VW Sunday Sessions has presented a commissioning program resulting in new work by Trajal Harrell, Mårten Spångberg, Anne Imhof, Tobias Madison and Matthew Lutz Kinoy, Hannah Black, and Colin Self. Additionally, the VW Dome Artist Residency offers a platform for creative development and experimentation for artists at all stages of the creative process.
VW Sunday Sessions is organized by Taja Cheek, Assistant Curator, and Alex Sloane, Assistant Curator, with Alexandra Rosenberg, Associate Producer, Chris Masullo, Production Coordinator, Kenzo Perron, Assistant Production Coordinator, Enrique Alba, Production Assistant, and Cody Simons, Production Assistant.
VW Sunday Sessions and the VW Dome at MoMA PS1 are made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America, who have supported the program since its inception.
Major support is provided by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
Dance programming as part of VW Sunday Sessions at MoMA PS1 is supported in part by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.
Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts is made possible by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel.
Leadership support is provided by The Sandra and Tony Tamer Exhibition Fund. Major support is provided by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and by The Jill and Peter Kraus Endowed Fund for Contemporary Exhibitions.
Generous funding is provided by The Hayden Family Foundation, Sully Bonnelly and Robert R. Littman, Ellen and William Taubman, and by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
Additional support is provided by the MoMA PS1 Annual Exhibition Fund and by The Museum of Modern Art’s Annual Exhibition Fund with major contributions from the Estate of Ralph L. Riehle, Alice and Tom Tisch, The Marella and Giovanni Agnelli Fund for Exhibitions, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, Brett and Daniel Sundheim, and Karen and Gary Winnick.
