Projects 31: A Space Without Art is a special presentation organized by the Museum’s Projects Committee in solidarity with “A Day without Art,” the art community’s annual observance of World AIDS Day, December 1. In A Space Without Art the Committee, which comprises staff members from all six curatorial departments, seeks to take note of the loss felt by all those who increasingly must reckon with the fact that a significant portion of the art of our time will never be made.
“A Space Without Art is a commemoration, not an installation,” noted Robert Storr, curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and coordinator of the Projects Committee. “It symbolizes an absence and provides a quiet space to stop and think about that absence.” Framed, unused art materials, including blank drafting, drawing, and photographic papers; an unprimed, stretched canvas; an empty vitrine; and a bare sculpture base will be on view. In Robert Farber’s sound installation, a Visual AIDS project that is being heard here for the first time, a bell tolls every ten minutes to mark another death from AIDS. On World AIDS Day, Farber’s piece, Every Ten Minutes, will be heard in museums, galleries, and other art venues throughout the city.
Speaking Out: Film and Video about Aids, can be seen at the Museum from November 22 through December 3. This program of twenty-eight films and videos will address the impact of the AIDS crisis on independent experimental film- and videomakers. The works included range from very personal statements to calls for direct action.
