THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART’S PERFORMANCE EXHIBITION SERIES CONTINUES IN JANUARY 2011 WITH ECLECTIC GROUP OF PERFORMANCES

NEW YORK, December 20, 2010—The Museum of Modern Art continues its Performance Exhibition Series with a range of performances taking place during January and February 2011. The Identical Lunch, a performance by Alison Knowles held in conjunction with the exhibition Contemporary Art from the Collection, will take place twice a week between January 13 and February 4 in MoMA’s Cafe 2. A program of live performance and dance, featuring the work of such notable figures as Trisha Brown and Ralph Lemon, will take place in MoMA’s Marron Atrium in conjunction with the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century. Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960, an exhibition of photographs of performative actions drawn from MoMA’s collection, opens on January 28 and brings together performances from the last 50 years that were specifically created for the camera. Continuing through January 10, Allora & Calzadilla’s Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano will be performed daily in MoMA’s Marron Atrium. Complete information on each of the exhibitions is below.

PERFORMANCE EXHIBITION SERIES:
Performance 10: Alison Knowles
January 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, and 28, and February 3 and 4
Cafe 2, second floor
In conjunction with the exhibition Contemporary Art from the Collection, Alison Knowles is inviting Museum visitors to have an “identical lunch” with her, as a performance piece, on select dates in January and February in MoMA’s Cafe 2. Knowles conceived of The Identical Lunch in the late 1960s, when her friend and fellow Fluxus artist Philip Corner noticed that she ate the same lunch every day: “a tuna fish sandwich on wheat toast with butter and lettuce, no mayo, and a cup of soup or glass of buttermilk.” Turning this habit into a performance, she asked friends to try the same lunch, often at a local diner, and to write about their experiences. The project has evolved to include communal meals served by Knowles along with artist’s books gathering photographs and participants’ descriptions of the events. For the MoMA performance, participants must sign up for the event on MoMA’s website, MoMA.org. Registration begins January 3 at 9:30 a.m. Space is limited; lunch will be free with Museum admission. The exhibition is organized by Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director, and Christophe Cherix, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art.

PERFORMANCES 11–15: On Line
January–February 2011
The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium
The dancing body has long been a subject matter for drawing, as seen in a variety of works included in the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, currently on view on the Museum’s sixth floor. These documentations show dance in two dimensions, allowing it to be seen in a gallery setting. But if one considers line as the trace of a point in motion—an idea at the core of this project—the act of dance itself becomes a drawing, an insertion of drawing into the time and three-dimensional space of our lived world. In conjunction with the exhibition, and as part of MoMA’s ongoing Performance Exhibition Series, these programs of live performance and dance are organized by the exhibition’s curators, Connie Butler and Catherine de Zegher, with Jenny Schlenzka, Assistant Curator for Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.

All performances take place in the Marron Atrium, and are included with admission to the Museum. MoMA will be posting updates and information on the Performance Exhibition Series on Facebook and Twitter.

for complete press release.