Sculpture of Dreams
Presented by Times Square Arts and the Jewish Museum, New York, Sculpture of Dreams is Argentinian conceptual pop artist Marta Minujín’s first public sculpture in New York City, and one of the largest art installations hosted in Times Square to date. Minujín calls the vibrant, 16-piece inflatable an “anti-sculpture,” a reference to her work’s playful and subversive materiality — edgeless, soft, and ephemeral.
Both channeling and challenging the multi-sensory landscape of Times Square, Sculpture of Dreams also hosts an immersive experience—visitors will be invited to walk through the interior of the sculpture, enveloping them in a rush of converging colors and a chorus of recorded birdsong. Visitors will also be prompted to whisper their hopes and wishes into the cavernous interior before exiting, letting the work symbolically embody and receive their dreams and desires.
“Times Square is the biggest Pop scene of all time. For me, it’s like being Alice in Wonderland. My Sculpture of Dreams — a flying, inflatable, soft sculpture — will be surrounded by lights, videos, and people from all over the world who come to see the attractions. It’s the perfect place for this work, I love it!”
— Marta Minujín
Over the course of her six-decade career, Marta Minujín has been a globally influential force in contemporary art with her singular intellect, and irreverent, boundary-pushing artistic ventures. The versatility of her conceptual projects includes performances involving motorcycles, food, and chickens; immersive installations featuring phone booths, neon, and working beauty salons; sculptures built from cheese, mattresses, and banned books; and most recently multi-piece inflatable works that reach over 50 feet tall.
Sculpture of Dreams is a part of a series of works that have been presented in Argentina and Brazil. The Times Square exhibition will mark the series’ North American debut and is presented in conjunction with Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte!, Minujín’s first survey exhibition in the United States, on view at the Jewish Museum beginning November 17.
ABOUT MARTA MINUJÍN
Over the past sixty years, Marta Minujín has developed happenings, performances, installations, and video works that have influenced generations of contemporary artists in Latin America and beyond. Combining elements of experimental theater, film and television, advertising, and sculpture, Minujín creates total environments that place viewers at the center of social situations and confront them with the seductiveness of media images and celebrity culture. Notably, she has often refused to create lasting objects, opting instead to develop her work in opposition to institutional structures, simultaneously crafting monumental yet fragile works that challenge art conventions and testify to her unwavering commitment to radical artistic forms and the artifices of popular culture. Minujín's ability to inspire awe, joy, and surprise has firmly established her as a celebrated pioneer of Latin American conceptual art.
Minujín studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón Buenos Aires. She carried out her first performance, La destrucción (The Destruction), in Paris in 1963. Returning to Buenos Aires in 1964, she was awarded the Premio Nacional Instituto Torcuato Di Tella for the work ¡Revuélquese y viva! (Wallow around and live!), her first interactive installation. Minujín received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966. During the 1970s, she lived between the United States and Argentina, exhibiting her work in major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1973), and Centro de Arte y Comunicación, Buenos Aires (1975, 1976). A retrospective of Minujín’s work was presented at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires in 2010, and her work has been included in documenta 14, Kassel (2017), and in exhibitions at Tate Modern, London (2015); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2015); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2001); and elsewhere. Her first survey exhibition in the United States, Arte! Arte! Arte!, will be on view from November 17, 2023 through March 31, 2024 at the Jewish Museum.
ABOUT THE JEWISH MUSEUM
The Jewish Museum is an art museum committed to illuminating the complexity and vibrancy of Jewish culture for a global audience. Located on New York City’s famed Museum Mile, in the landmarked Warburg mansion, the Jewish Museum was the first institution of its kind in the United States and is one of the oldest Jewish museums in the world. The Museum offers diverse exhibitions and programs and maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 4,000 years.
Support for Sculpture of Dreams is provided in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.