The Special Projects Program, located in the south wing of P.S.1’s second floor, showcases the work of artists distinguished by the long-term, site-specific, process-oriented, or audience-oriented nature of their practice. Twelve artists each year will have the chance to develop and showcase a project in a former studio space, working and exhibiting over the course of three months. Artists will be working during open hours, with doors regularly open to the public. To P.S.1’s more formal attempts at education and audience involvement, we hope that the Special Projects Program adds a more casual and personal opportunity for exchange.
Cristian Alexa was born in Romania and has lived and worked in New York since 1996. His work, a combination of performance, gesture, and life carried on self-consciously, regularly takes place in the city streets. On September 20, less than a month after having moved into his studio, Alexa fled P.S.1, recording his daring escape. On October 10, 1999, Alexa will premier his new video, Escape from P.S.1.
Toshihiro Komatsu was born in Japan and has been living in the U.S. since 1998. His central artistic investigation has been the work space (the artist’s studio), and himself in relation to the environment. Komatsu has made several purposeful reinterpretations of his own studio over the past ten years, creating a wearable version as well as a version at the foot of Mount Fuji. On October 10, Komatsu will be showing several large periscopes installed in the window frame, creating a view which appears to fragment reality.
Isidro Blasco presents a site-specific construction that covers the walls, ceiling, and floors of the project room. His work recreates the space in which the installation is built according to a subjective perception of the space, so that the viewer experiences the room and its distorted replication almost simultaneously. On October 10, Blasco will hold an open studio.