{"id":2650,"date":"2013-11-12T05:45:38","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T05:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2650"},"modified":"2013-11-12T05:45:38","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T05:45:38","slug":"as-a-landmark-auction-opens-a-new-era-the-dia-art-foundation-pivots-toward-new-media-art-by-rachel-corbett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archive.raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2650","title":{"rendered":"As a Landmark Auction Opens a New Era, the Dia Art Foundation Pivots Toward New Media Art By Rachel Corbett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DIA_FOUNDATION_ARTSPACE\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Peguei l\u00e1 no Artspace<\/a> essa mat\u00e9ria da Rachel Corbett publicada em\u00a0Nov. 7, 2013.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Dia Art Foundation<\/a>\u00a0is expecting an infusion of about $20 million when it sells off all of the\u00a0Cy Twombly<\/a>s in its collection, plus a few\u00a0John Chamberlain<\/a>s, and its onlyBarnett Newman<\/strong>, at\u00a0Sotheby\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0postwar and contemporary art auctions next week. It\u2019s a big move for an institution whose reputation rests largely on the very 1960s-era Minimalist and Conceptual art with which it\u2019s parting ways. But Dia director\u00a0Philippe Vergne<\/strong>\u00a0has said that the museum \u201ccannot be a mausoleum,\u201d and plans to use the proceeds to fund a new acquisition budget.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen what Dia\u2014which famously underwrote some of America’s greatest Land Art works during the 1960s and ’70s\u2014will ultimately do with the money, but the institution has expressed a clear interest in branching out into new media. \u201cIt has been very much our mission in the last few years, commissioning new work in performance and sound art,\u201d said\u00a0Kelly Kivland<\/strong>, a Dia curator with a background in performance art.<\/p>\n

Some might have noticed this playing out already. Last month, curators brought the postmodern choreographers\u00a0Lisa Nelson<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Steve Paxton<\/strong>\u00a0to perform at its soon-to-open Chelsea outpost, and Dia will continue working with the pair during the year to prepare for a return performance next fall. (In 2011, Dia staged a similar year-long dance series with\u00a0Yvonne Rainer<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

The institution has also increased the performance budget for its annual fund-raising galas, last year commissioning video artist\u00a0Tony Conrad<\/strong>\u00a0and, next week, plans to feature a new live work from the electronic-music duo\u00a0Matmos<\/strong>. Kivland stressed that the\u00a0event<\/a>\u00a0will be more than a party performance\u2014\u201cit\u2019s actually part of a program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew Daniel<\/strong>, who comprises one half of Matmos along with his partner\u00a0M.C. Schmidt<\/strong>, agreed that they\u00a0wanted to do more than just entertain guests at a \u201cswanky party.\u201d And so the Baltimore-based duo traveled to New York in September to begin recording a site-specific project inside the former\u00a0Alcamo<\/strong>marble factory at 541 W. 22nd Street, which will house the new Dia space.<\/p>\n

From inside the empty, echo-y space, Daniel and Schmidt sang and hummed drone-like melodies, whistled on bird and duck calls, dropped plastic tubes, rocks, and metal rods on the floor and threw cell phones against the walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to capture the sound of the room as it responded to different intensities of noise and activity,\u201d said Daniel. The sounds will be remixed, layered, and ultimately recycled back into the same space from which they originated when the pair live mixes the new tracks at Monday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

The event also includes an eight-person chorus comprised of volunteers from the event. The singers will wear headphones and sing back the recorded words they hear, which come from mysterious-sounding transcripts of \u201cthe statements of experimental test subjects during the Ganzfeld experiments into telepathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from literally co-opting the framework of the museum, Matmos also sees itself operating, in some ways, within the larger conceptual structure that Dia has helped establish since the 1970s. Thinkers like\u00a0Sol LeWitt<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lucy Lippard<\/strong>have\u00a0been “a huge influence on how M.C. Schmidt and I think about the relationship between sound-as-sound, and the conceptual implications surrounding how we identify what the source of a sound is,” Daniel said. “Our work is neither the concept nor the sounds of our songs but rather the forcefield of tension and relationship between those two related, yet distinct, zones; the work happens when images and words and cultural context acts upon the raw immanent experience of hearing vibrations and they struggle for determination.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project is an extension of something that\u2019s very much been a part of our history,\u201d said Kivland, noting that the organization helped Minimalist composer\u00a0La Monte Young<\/strong>\u00a0realize his\u00a0Dream House<\/em>\u00a0in 1979, and acquired\u00a0Max Neuhaus\u2019<\/strong>s sound installation\u00a0Times Square<\/em>\u00a0in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut because we have this increased presence in New York City, we\u2019re really honing in and invigorating and have an earnest dedication to increasing our performance and sound program. It\u2019s always been a part of it, but there\u2019s a recognition that it’s going to be renewed.\u201d<\/p>\n