Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla

NEW YORK, November 10, 2010— The Museum of Modern Art's Performance Exhibition Series continues with Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla, which will bring Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano (2008) to the Museum's Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium for performances throughout the day, from December 8, 2010, through January 10, 2011. The piece, which was acquired by MoMA in 2009 and is being publicly performed in the Museum for the first time, was created by the artist duo Jennifer Allora (b. 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (b. 1971), who have been named the United States representatives for the 2011 Venice Biennale. Blending sculpture and performance, the artists have carved a hole in the center of an early twentieth-century Bechstein piano, creating a void in which the performer stands to play the Fourth Movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, usually referred to as "Ode to Joy." For each 30-minute performance, the pianist will lean over the piano's keyboard, playing upside down and backwards, while moving the instrument around the Atrium. These performances will take place hourly beginning at 11:30 a.m. each day. Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Director, MoMA PS1, and Chief Curator at Large, MoMA, with Jenny Schlenzka, Assistant Curator for Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA.

Performance 9:
Allora & Calzadilla
Kuratoren: Klaus Biesenbach, Jenny Schlenzka