Events at the New Museum

Nikhil Chopra: Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing IX November 4 – 8, 2009

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:39:06 -0500

Nikhil Chopra combines strategies associated with theater, portraiture, photography, and installation to chronicle the world in which we live through live performance. Taking on the largely imagined, semi-autobiographical persona of the Victorian draughtsman Yog Raj Chitrakar, Chopra haunts bustling market squares, forgotten old buildings, city streets, and museum galleries to make large-scale drawings of the city. Within the performance, daily actions—washing, eating, sleeping, and grooming—are transformed into ritualistic spectacle. While an ambiguous past collides with an unstable present, Yog Raj Chitrakar reveals the process of documenting what he sees while exploring self-portraiture, autobiography, history, fantasy, and sexuality. From November 4-8, Chopra activates the lobby gallery, now a turn-of the-century tableau vivant, for five days as Yog Raj Chitrakar. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Performa 09.

Wednesday, November 4
12 p.m. Performance begins, Yog Raj Chitrakar in gallery
6 p.m. New Museum closes

Thursday, November 5
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs from Battery Park on the first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. New Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
9 p.m. New Museum closes

Friday, November 6
7:30 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs New Museum for Battery Park
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Battery Park on first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. New Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
9 p.m. New Museum closes

Saturday, November 7
7:30 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs New Museum for Battery Park
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Battery Park on first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
6 p.m. New Museum closes

Sunday, November 8
12 p.m. New Museum opens, Yog Raj Chitrakar in gallery all day
6 p.m. Performance ends

Schedule subject to change. Refer to Twitter (twitter.com/newmuseum) for the most current information.

November 4 – 8, 2009

A Proposition by Nikhil Chopra: Yog Raj Chitrakar and the Traveling Troupe Friday, November 13, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:42:14 -0500

Day 1: Artist Lecture/Performance

Aboard a truck, on the road, Yog Raj Chitrakar imagines a journey that takes him and a troupe of performers through the Indian landscape. From Bombay the gigantic megalopolis on the west coast to Leh, the capital of Ladakh high up in the Himalayas perched at 12,000 feet above sea level and in search of idyllic and romantic vistas, on the borders of villages, towns and cities, they will map, record, collect, and present.

Propositions is a public forum that explores ideas in development. Inspired by the scientific method of hypothesis, research, and synthesis, each two-day seminar explores a topic of current investigation in an invited speaker’s own artistic or intellectual practice. Over the course of a seminar session, these developing ideas are presented to the public, responded to, “researched,” and discussed to propel the ideas forward in unique ways.

The structure of Propositions is as follows:
Friday, 7 p.m. – Initial proposition and lecture
Saturday, 12 p.m. – Guest speaker responds, followed by a lunch break
Saturday, 3 p.m. – Discussion

One Friday evening per month, an invited artist or cultural thinker will present on an idea in process—the hypothesis—as the seminar topic. This initial presentation introduces the seminar leader’s current thinking on a concept or idea as well as unresolved questions that remain. The next day, starting at noon, an “expert” lecture, screening, performance, or activity presents new perspectives or specific knowledge, followed by a lunch break. In an afternoon discussion, hypothesis, research, and public dialogue converge in an informal working session in the fifth-floor Museum as Hub space at the New Museum.

Propositions is part of the Museum as Hub initiative, a laboratory for art and ideas realized through a partnership of five international arts organizations that includes Insa Art Space, Seoul; the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo; and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The initiative seeks to support art activities and experimentation; explore artistic, curatorial, and institutional practice; and serve as an important resource for the public to learn about contemporary art from around the world.

Friday, November 13, 2009 | 7:00 PM

A Proposition by Nikhil Chopra: Yog Raj Chitrakar and the Traveling Troupe Saturday, November 14, 2009 | 12:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:43:41 -0500

Day 2: Guest Performers Smoggo + White Lady and Discussion

Aboard a truck, on the road, Yog Raj Chitrakar imagines a journey that takes him and a troupe of performers through the Indian landscape. From Bombay the gigantic megalopolis on the west coast to Leh, the capital of Ladakh high up in the Himalayas perched at 12,000 feet above sea level, in search of idyllic and romantic vistas, on the borders of villages, towns, and cities, they will map, record, collect, and present. For today’s session, Nikhil Chopra invites Jay Domingo to perform at noon, followed by a discussion at 3 p.m.

Smoggo is the alias of Georgia-based artist Jay Domingo, who relishes incorporating a wide range of media and pop culture influences in his performance and visual work. He uses video, music, performance, photography, and painting in his short noise-based improvisations. His sculpture and digital work has been featured in exhibitions across the country, and his videos have been seen in several regional film festivals. He received his MFA from Ohio State University and currently lives with his family in Atlanta where he teaches middle school art. He also plays in the yacht-funk band Night Moves Gold.

The structure of Propositions is as follows:
Friday, 7 p.m. – Initial proposition and lecture
Saturday, 12 p.m. – Guest speaker responds, followed by a lunch break
Saturday, 3 p.m. – Discussion

Saturday, November 14, 2009 | 12:00 PM

Sung Hwan Kim: One from In the room Sunday, November 15, 2009 | 3:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:51:05 -0500

Please note: there is a strict seating policy for this performance. Latecomers will not be admitted under any circumstances. The duration of the performance is sixty minutes. There will be no intermission.

Directed by Sung Hwan Kim
With dogr and Byungjun Kwon

The performance at the New Museum is a variation of Sung Hwan Kim’s In the room 3 (dog I knew) with new sets and props. The performance opens with an excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry and proceeds in a roundabout way to tell a story about being inside the very shape of this circuitous path.

Sung Hwan Kim’s “In the room” series is told through text, film/video, and music (in collaboration with dogr, a.k.a David Michael DiGregorio). The music itself is made with layered voice, ocarina, delay, a sampling keyboard, harmonica, kazoo, pump organ, guitar, mallets, stretched membranous materials, jae-gum (Korean cymbals), and pang-eul (Korean bells). Thickly layered vocal harmonies interweave themselves with other parts of the narrative; a vocalist might turn into a character in the storytelling process, just as the story might turn into music.

In the Sung Hwan Kim’s own words:

“I thought of a room as a box, from which a story vibrates, and I began to think about the constant occupants of rooms. ‘In the room’ series focused on captives (the tortured), an actress on stand-by for her secret lover, a dog, a radio host, a traveler in a city, and so forth as the room occupants (and vibrators of the hidden boxes). I knew that male humpback whales of one population in a breeding season sing the same song, but each time this song is sung, it varies through imitation and improvisation. I thought of both performances and stories within those performances as versions of variations. Plain phenomena are no more exciting than they are, but they are often told otherwise (through exaggeration, deletion, intonation, rhythm, texture of voice, and usage of timbre) as fairy tales, myths, magic, lies, propaganda, history, or sometimes, fact. Summer Days in Keijo, Dog video, and From the Commanding Heights... spun off from this series. Most of the songs from the ‘In the room’ series are published separately as dogr's album, In Korean Wilds and Villages. In this form, I recognize that the authorship of these stories is conferred to another medium, another language, another culture, and another man.”

Please note: there is an additional performance of Sung Hwan Kim’s One from In the Room on November 19 at 7:00 PM.

This production is commissioned by Hyunjin Kim, and supported by Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and Korean Cultural Service, New York.

Sung Hwan Kim grew up in Korea and is currently based in New York. Previously, he lived and worked in the Netherlands over a period of four years, during which time he served as a fellow at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. In the Netherlands and Korea, he developed the “In the room” series—which comprises film, video, concert, drawing, and writing—in both private and public spaces. The series explores how one form of storytelling can be transformed into another by juxtaposing the different languages of cultures, genres, genders, and generations.

Variations of the “In the room” series have been exhibited or performed around the world at places including STEIM, Amsterdam; De Appel, Amsterdam; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; Wilkinson Gallery, London; and Witte de With, Rotterdam. In 2007 he was awarded the 2nd prize of the Prix de Rome from the Netherlands and the Korean award Hermes Korea Missulsang (Hermes Korea Prize for Contemporary Art). Parallel to his performance at the New Museum, Sung Hwan Kim exhibits other parts of the “In the room” series at MIT List Visual Arts Center and Montehermoso, Spain. He is currently preparing an exhibition at Haus der Kunst, Munich. This exhibition will be accompanied by a new audio book from “In the room” series, with dogr, released by Intermedium Records in 2010.

dogr (David Michael DiGregorio) is a musician currently based in New York. He has a background in 16mm filmmaking, informed by US structuralists from the 1970s. This interest, combined with influences from baroque, choral gospel, pop, Korean and American folk, and electro-acoustic music, inspire him to create tectonic space through layering voice and melismatic storytelling. His songs tell stories of people and their great loves sprawling out over bridges, cityscapes, and farmlands; men turning to monsters; rooms that speak people’s thoughts; beast-vision; aged cities; and haunted voices of our animal progenitors. His recent album, In Korean Wilds and Villages (2009), can be heard on Sonig Records, Köln. Recent performances include Vox Populi, Philadelphia, 2009; Gallery TPW/Images Festival, Toronto, 2009; Établissement d'en face projects, Brussel, 2009; Insa Art Space, Seoul, 2007; Gallery 27, Uiwang, Korea, 2007; De Appel, Amsterdam, 2007; STEIM, Amsterdam, 2006; BAK, Utrecht, 2006. http://www.dogr.org

Byungjun Kwon started his musical career in the early ’90s in Seoul, Korea as a singer/songwriter and has released seven albums ranging from alternative rock to minimal house. He creates music for records, soundtracks, fashion collections, contemporary dance, theater plays, and interdisciplinary events, for which he develops his own musical instruments and performance tools. He currently lives and works in Amsterdam. http://byungjun.pe.kr/xe/

Sunday, November 15, 2009 | 3:00 PM

Sung Hwan Kim: One from In the room Thursday, November 19, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:56:11 -0500

Directed by Sung Hwan Kim
With dogr and Byungjun Kwon

In the Sung Hwan Kim’s own words:

Please note: There is an additional performance of Sung Hwan Kim’s One from In the Room on November 15 at 3:00 PM.

This production is commissioned by Hyunjin Kim, and supported by Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and Korean Cultural Service, New York.

Thursday, November 19, 2009 | 7:00 PM

Brody Condon: Case Sunday, November 22, 2009 | 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:54:56 -0500

This performance and installation based on the classic cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson is a deadpan reading of the novel by mostly non-professional actors in a casual, dress-rehearsal-like atmosphere. Combining Gibson’s1980s dystopian techno-fetishism with early twentieth-century abstraction, faux “virtual reality” scenes will unfold via moving Bauhaus-inspired sculptural props accompanied by the Gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara.

The event at the New Museum is the premiere of Case, which will also be performed at a small outdoor community theater in rural Missouri in summer 2010. The New York production of Case will feature many of the ten cast members from the upcoming Midwest event, such as political activist (and notorious local hell-raiser) Ray “Bad Rad” Radtke, who stars as the main character Henry Dorsett Case, a drug addict and computer hacker hired to execute an impossible cyber crime. Case will also feature Brooklyn-based performance artist Sto as Lupus Yonderboy, leader of the techno-anarchist gang the Panther Moderns, and the actress Sasha Grey as the street samurai Molly. The script has been prepared by the writer Brandon Stosuy, with sound design by Peter Segerstrom, and graphic props by Breanne Trammell.

Brody Condon’s work explores concerns about the over-identification with fantasy in contemporary culture, frequently incorporating modified computer games and referencing role-playing subcultures to create performance and video installation. Condon has attended residencies at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten and Skowhegan. Past exhibitions include the 2004 Whitney Biennial, Pace Wildenstein Gallery, Mattress Factory, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Image courtesy of the artist

Sunday, November 22, 2009 | 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

New Museum First Saturdays for Families: Urs Fischer: Melting Forms Saturday, December 5, 2009 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:11:16 -0500

Please note: During this exhibition strollers will not be permitted in the galleries. Please check them at coat check.

Join us for the second of two family programs dedicated to the exhibition Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty. Fischer’s sculptures and installations present new perspectives of quotidian items and consumer goods, giving physical form to fantasy. Inspired by Fischer’s work, sculpt an ordinary object and transform it into an extraordinary work of art.

New Museum First Saturdays for Families are free of charge. This program is designed and recommended for families with children four to fifteen years old, and includes free New Museum admission for up to two adults per family. Children under eighteen are always admitted free. No preregistration is required. Tickets are given out on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information about New Museum First Saturdays for Families, e-mail familyprograms@newmuseum.org.

Banner image: Urs Fischer, Noisette, 2009. Mixed mediums, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich; and Sadie Coles HQ, London.

Saturday, December 5, 2009 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Jonah Bokaer, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, and Daniel Arsham: REPLICA Thursday, December 10, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:01:33 -0500

Choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with Judith Sanchez Ruiz
Video and set by Daniel Arsham
Original Commissioned Music: ARP/Alexis Georgopoulos

REPLICA, a collaborative performance piece by Daniel Arsham, Jonah Bokaer, and Judith Sanchez Ruiz, examines memory loss, pattern recognition, and perceptual faculties as they apply to the human body. The piece employs built spaces, objects, lighting, and other media to create the illusion of an expanded space through the use of video and/or still images. REPLICA creates situations onstage that could not veritably exist in physical space. This happens through the use of creative geography in video and built spaces, transporting movement to different locations that appear to be just outside the audience’s sightline.

REPLICA has been commissioned by the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS), Washington, DC, with support from the Harman Center. Additional presentation support is being provided by the New Museum, Carré d’Art de Nîmes, Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and USArtists International, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Originally from Ithaca, NY, Jonah Bokaer trained in dance at Cornell University, and subsequently graduated from North Carolina School of the Arts as a North Carolina Academic Scholar (Contemporary Dance/Performance, 2000). Recruited for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the unprecedented age of eighteen, Bokaer pursued a parallel degree in visual and media studies at The New School (2003-07), where he received the Joan Kirnsner Memorial Award. Additional studies in media and performance occurred at Parsons School of Design, NYU Performance Studies, and through self-taught explorations into digital media and 3D animation; this education led to the development of a rare, multidisciplinary approach to choreography, addressing the human body in relation to contemporary technologies. Bokaer has worked with Merce Cunningham (2000-07), John Jasperse (2004-05), David Gordon (2005-06), Deborah Hay (2005), Tino Sehgal (2008), and many others. He has also interpreted the choreography of George Balanchine as restaged by Melissa Hayden. Bokaer’s work has been presented widely throughout venues in the United States and abroad, including Cornell University, Dance Theatre Workshop, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, La Mama ETC, P.S. 122, Symphony Space, the ISB (Bangkok), Naxos Bobine, Studio Théâtre de Vitry, and La Générale (Paris), Les Subsistances (Lyon), La Compagnie (Marseille), La Ferme Du Buisson (Marne-la-Vallée), De Singel (Beligum), International Tanzmesse NRW (Germany), PSi (Copenhagen), Kunsthalle St. Gallen (Switzerland), and others. Upcoming engagements in 2009 include the Attakalari Performance Biennale (Bangalore), Salon Tudor (Santiago), and a new commission from the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC).

Daniel Arsham’s practice spans the fields of art, architecture, and stage design. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Miami, Florida, Arsham was one of the founders of the seminal Miami artist-run spaces The House and Placemaker. Arsham attended the Cooper Union for the advancement of Science and Art and received the Gelman Trust Fellowship. His work has been shown at P.S.1 in New York (Greater New York 2005), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, the Athens Biennial, Mills College Art Museum in Oakland California, and Carre d’art in Nîmes France. In 2006 legendary modern dance choreographer Merce Cunningham commissioned Arsham to design the set, lighting, and costumes for eyeSpace. The performance premiered in 2007 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, and now tours extensively as part of the Cunningham Dance Company’s repertoire. This began Arsham’s five-year collaboration with the late choreographer and established the basis of his collaborative work for the stage. Arsham interpreted Robert Rauschenberg’s 1960s in-situ set designs for the Cunningham Dance Company for their 2009 Paris tour. Informed by his initial collaboration with Cunningham, Arsham’s expanded practice has included collaborations with Hedi Slimane, Bob Wilson, Jonah Bokaer, Friends With You, and Snarkitecture. He is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Paris/Miami, and Ron Mandos Gallery Amsterdam/Rotterdam. A monograph of Arsham’s work was published in 2008 by the French Centre National des arts plastiques and is available in the New Museum Store.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Judith Sanchez-Ruiz joined Danza Abierta Company, the major exponent of Cuban avant-garde dance with whom she toured extensively, teaching and performing in Latin America (1991-96). The choreographic works she has created and performed since that time include On Walcott, which was based on poetry by Caribbean-born Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott and featured the musical direction of Henry Threadgill at Aaron Davis Hall in 2001. Her work has been has presented in Cuba, Argentina, Spain, and the US. In New York her work has been shown at P.S. 122, Movement Research at Judson Church, P.S.1 (MoMA), Joyce SoHo, Aaron Davis Hall, The Kitchen, Queens Museum of Arts, New School University, Danspace Project St. Marks Church, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Sanchez Ruiz currently resides in New York City and has been a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company since 2006. She was recently awarded "Mujeres Destacadas 2008" by El diario, a Spanish-language newspaper in New York.

Thursday, December 10, 2009 | 7:00 PM

Jonah Bokaer, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, and Daniel Arsham: REPLICA Friday, December 11, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:02:27 -0500

Choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with Judith Sanchez Ruiz
Video and set by Daniel Arsham
Original Commissioned Music: ARP/Alexis Georgopoulos

Friday, December 11, 2009 | 7:00 PM

SkowheganTALKS: Fred Tomaselli and John O’Connor Saturday, December 12, 2009 | 3:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:58:44 -0500

SkowheganTALKS, a lecture series organized by the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, features conversations between some of the most influential visual artists working today. This month SkowheganTALKS presents a conversation between Fred Tomaselli and John O’ Connor.
John O’Connor’s work is the result of his immersion in processes, systems, and subjects, both real and invented. He transforms seemingly unrelated and often idiosyncratic systems into highly intricate and nuanced visual manifestations, resulting in quirky, complex, and often large-scale drawings on paper rendered primarily in colored pencil and graphite. Through idiosyncratic and entirely invented systems, O’Connor converts what is ordinarily invisible—spoken and written language, chance events, chaos theory—into visual representations that reveal patterns of speech and events. Ultimately, his use of such isomorphisms can convey the complexity and interconnectedness of every day life, as well as the hierarchical processing of chance experiences. O’Connor cites antecedents as diverse as John Cage, Rube Goldberg, and Alfred Jensen for his work. O’Connor studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received his MFA from Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited recently in Copenhagen and in the 40th Anniversary Art on Paper Exhibition at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, and is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

SkowheganTALKS features recent alumni of the residency program of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in conversation with artists who have been faculty members at Skowhegan. While the association with Skowhegan is the common factor among the artists, the conversations are not intended to focus on the artists’ respective experiences at Skowhegan, but rather to address subjects of broader interest, including the participating artists’ current and past work and the challenges and opportunities that are characteristic of working as an artist today. An especially interesting aspect of SkowheganTALKS is that the conversations are also intended explore the mentor-student relationship, a model that is becoming increasingly important for young artists in New York and worldwide.

Saturday, December 12, 2009 | 3:00 PM

Jonah Bokaer, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, and Daniel Arsham: REPLICA Thursday, December 17, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:03:16 -0500

Choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with Judith Sanchez Ruiz
Video and set by Daniel Arsham
Original Commissioned Music: ARP/Alexis Georgopoulos

Thursday, December 17, 2009 | 7:00 PM

Jonah Bokaer, Judith Sanchez Ruiz, and Daniel Arsham: REPLICA Friday, December 18, 2009 | 7:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:03:51 -0500

Choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with Judith Sanchez Ruiz
Video and set by Daniel Arsham
Original Commissioned Music: ARP/Alexis Georgopoulos

Friday, December 18, 2009 | 7:00 PM

New Museum First Saturdays for Families: Nikhil Chopra: Drawing Memories Saturday, January 2, 2010 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:14:02 -0500

Please note: During this exhibition strollers will not be permitted in the galleries.

Nikhil Chopra combines theater, portraiture, landscape drawing, photography, art actions, and installation to chronicle the world through live performance. In character as a Victorian draughtsman Yog Raj Chitrakar, Chopra will visit several locations in Manhattan in early November to create large-scale drawings to form a panoramic view of the city. Inspired by his artistic process, discover the seventh-floor Sky Room’s panoramic view of lower Manhattan and create a large-scale drawing that preserves an image of our city.

For more information about New Museum First Saturdays for Families, e-mail familyprograms@newmuseum.org.

Saturday, January 2, 2010 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Urs Fischer’s Film Selections Saturday, January 9, 2010 | 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:22:45 -0500

In conjunction with "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty," Urs Fischer selects a group of films to be screened in the New Museum theater.

2 p.m.: Up the Yangtze

4 p.m.: Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris

Up The Yangtze (2008)
Dir. Yung Chang
93 min, English, Mandarin, and Sichuan with English subtitles
A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze—navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. At the river's edge a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The Three Gorges Dam—symbol of the Chinese economic miracle—provides the epic backdrop for this documentary on life in modern China. Official Selection Sundance Film Festival.

Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris (2002)
85 min, French language with English subtitles
Dir. David Teboul
A behind-the-scenes look inside Saint Laurent’s legendary atelier during the creation of his final spring line, featuring Catherine Deneuve.

Saturday, January 9, 2010 | 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Urs Fischer’s Film Selections Friday, January 22, 2010 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:24:44 -0500

In conjunction with "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty," Urs Fischer selects a group of films to be screened in the New Museum theater.

5 p.m.: Cosmonaut Polyakov

7 p.m.: Up the Yangtze

Cosmonaut Polyakov(2007)
110 min, Russian language with English subtitles
Dir. Dana Ranga
This highly acclaimed 2007 documentary directed by Dana Ranga (East Side Story, and Story). Cosmonaut Polyakov follows Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who holds the record of the longest trip into space: one year and two months. For the first time he speaks publicly about the KGB, being in exile, and the struggle of space travel.

Banner image: Still from Cosmonaut Polyakov (2007).

Friday, January 22, 2010 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Urs Fischer’s Film Selections Friday, February 5, 2010 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM

NewMuseum.org — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:28:17 -0500

In conjunction with "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty," Urs Fischer selects a group of films to be screened in the New Museum theater.

5 p.m.: Touki Bouki

7 p.m.: Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris

Touki Bouki (1973)
95 min, Wolof language with English subtitles
Dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty
Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, meet in Dakar. Alienated and disaffected by both Senegal and Africa, they work up schemes to raise money to go to Paris. On the course of their journey, they begin to discover the cruelty of life as their aspirations slowly begin to dissolve. Full of dreamlike surrealism and colorful symbolism, Touki Bouki is often considered the first avant-garde film to come out of Africa. Restored in 2008 by the World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory.

Banner image: Still from Cosmonaut Polyakov (2007).

Friday, February 5, 2010 | 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM