joaoflux / digital / analog / culture

For the group show “New York, New York, New York - So nice we named it thrice” at Flux Factory in Queens artists had been invited to contribute works that were to be placed on a map of new york that is scaled to fit the exhibition space. When entering the space one could think that the installation was the work of one artist. Despite quite different approaches and aesthetic choices of each artists involved (who did not know what their “neighbors” would come up with) the individual works grow together in a way one rarely sees in group shows. This is of course due to the tight placement and because the map provides a formal frame. The result is quite inspiring and seems to be an appropriate way of dealing with a city.

What is interesting is that the idea of using a map as a frame relates to the famous panorama at the Queens Museum of Art where another New York show, “New York States of Mind” opened on Sunday, just two days after the Show at Flux Factory. The States of Mind show was put together by Shaheen Merali of House of World Cultures in Berlin, where it was quite a success a couple of months ago.

Merali’s Show is far from being conventional in form and choice of artists and makes good use of the architecture at the QMA and there is a certain playfulness in the installation. However, there are few works one could imagine in both shows. Interestingly enough the work that seems to be misplaced in QMA and would have fit better in the exhibition at Flux Factory is Hans Haacke’s minimalist installation which makes use of the panoram of New York. It consists of a what Card Bord of which two columns have been cut out. The card board is suspended above the World Trade Center in the panorama (where it still exists, because it was last updated in 1992). The work seems a bit flat for the State of Mind exhibition, that is otherwise rich in ambiguous works that go beyond the kind of quick art joke that one can appreciate in a show like the one at Flux Factory, which obviously does not have the pretense that a show in a major museum automatically has. Anyway, it is not a big surprise that Haake delivers such a cheap piece, given that his more recent works often seem to be obvious choices that don’t hit the nail on the head as brilliantly as his installation at the german parliament (”Der Bevölkerung”).

Anyway, despite finding Haakes contribution boring, I must admit that it made me think about how they are going to deal with the twin towers when the panorama updated the next time. It’s a catch - one cannot really keep them when the rest of the panorama is updated, but it also seems quite tough remove them. One can imagine protests when such a plan becomes public.