Opens September 17
Press opening September 16
Strastnoy Boulevard: This exhibition, running from September 17 – 25 at the Theatre of Nations’ New Space, is dedicated to the public art in Times Square, its past and current development, and on the territory of the New Space. More than 40 artists are to take part in this exhibition (including Bjork, Yoko Ono and JR).
Highlights will include:
- 15 curated pieces from the Midnight Moment program currently running in its fourth year, where a new artist each month is featured on the electronic billboards of Times Square from 11:57 to Midnight. People will stand in the center of the space and be surrounded by the 15 pieces playing on 4 channel installation screens that are 6m x4m and 3m x 4m.
- JR’s Inside Out project will combine Times Square’s May 2013 installation of pasted photo booth photos on Duffy Square at Broadway and 46th Street with the similar Moscow version of the project connecting the two countries.
- Luke DuBois’ Times Square Portraits will also be included as a video art installation broadcasting the faces and photos collected during his residency from the 17,000 taken and posted on social media from Times Square every day.
Curator Sherry Dobbin, creative director of Times Square Arts (former director of Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center) will present her curatorial project and a cycle of lectures on public art for the first time in Moscow (at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture & Design, September, 15 on 8 pm).
http://www.strelka.com/en/events/event/2016/09/15/place-of-power-how-art-brings-people-together
Sherry Dobbin, Curator: “Typically, the questions that arise when an artist engages with Times Square, as this exhibit illustrates, include those that concern it remaining open day and night; it not being square; it having no formal proscenium; obliging no exclusive audience; inviting no pretentions; and allowing no privacy. Times Square is the ultimate challenger. It will always win, which means the artist must always collaborate, using the environment and visitors and hawkers. One is drawn to Times Square for the sheer energy of the city, yet one doesn’t know what awaits. Much like in the absurdist dramas where characters await Godot, or are stuck in Huis Clos, or expect The Rhinoceros, time is subjective; the experience is unknown and there is no clear beginning or end. Times Square itself is the stage, so each individual in proximity is simultaneously audience, participant and performer.
"This exhibition leads the viewer on a journey that alters scale and proportion, extends through passages and odd juxtapositions, conjuring a sense of place that is sometimes diverse to the point of contradiction. And throughout this new space, we introduce how Times Square Arts, informed by an historic cultural precedence, engages artists to use the physical public space, the private corners, the electronic billboards, and the intimacy of airwaves to demonstrate that ‘public art’ is truly defined by the limitless investigation into how ‘public’ and ‘art’ intersect, much like a crossroads.”
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Presented by The Theatre of Nations in Central Moscow, The New Space is an interdisciplinary project that is going to unite modern artists of all fields to create a new cultural environment by researching all the diverse forms of contemporary art. The conception of The New Space consists of seven units: curating, literature, dance and performance, architecture, music, visual and cinema art. As a part of each unit not only the kind of art but also its interaction with the theatre tradition is to be explored. The opening unit of the New Space includes exhibitions and performances of the leading Russian and American artists and curators. Follow The New Space on Instagram at @newspacemoscow. Visit www.newspacemoscow.com for more information.
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by the. New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Visit http://www.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/index.aspx for more information. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @TSqArts.
Exhibition: Times Square(d): Theater of the Absurd
Author: Sherry Dobbin (USA)
Dates: September, 17-25, 12pm-8pm
Where: Theatre of Nations’ New Space, Strastnoy Boulevard 12/2