March 11, 2008 8:37

More Talk With: The Curators of the Whitney Biennial

Let's finish up that conversation with Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Monin, the organizers of this year's Whitney Biennial.

LACAYO: Okay, what about the "social performance" activities over at the Park Avenue Armory, things like the dance marathon, the sleepover, the tequila bar. When did you begin to think this was an essential part of the Biennial?

HULDISCH: Early on we talked about how it would be important to show people that some artists might make video or photography but also carry out other activities that are deliberately ephemeral, "live in the moment" work, things not easily saleable or not saleable at all. We were struggling with how to integrate those into a Biennial, how to present them in an institutional setting without stripping them of the spirit in which they were conceived. At that point we were presented with the Armory.

MOMIN: Given the prevalence of this practice, and how important we felt it was, we needed to have it understood as equivalent to the other work artists were doing. And that was part of the appeal of having the Armory, where we could have everything in one space.

LACAYO: How do you make a distinction between a party that's just a party, and the 24-hour dance marathon like the one planned for the Armory by Agathe Snow, which is being presented as an artwork about endurance? How is one a party and the other an art form?

MOMIN: They can be both. It's supposed to be a fun event. But it's intended to help you think about things and experience them in a different way. It's about commitment, time, duration — things we've been talking about — within a framework that's pleasurable.

HULDISCH: We've been asked this question. Why is it art, it's just a party? Well, "A" — because these are some of our more conceptually grounded artists and projects, the ones resistant to conventional categorizations. In some ways it's the more difficult art. And yet it's being talked about as the fun component of the show — which is great, I don't mind that reversal at all. But on the second level, what art does is transform ordinary materials into something else. That's what those artists are doing. They're just using different kinds of materials.