Exhibition

Tacita Dean: Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS…(six performances, six films), 2008

February 2, 2013–March 17, 2013

Tacita Dean, Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS…(six performances, six films), 2008. Six 16mm color films with optical sound. Installation at Dia:Beacon, Beacon, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris.

Opening Saturday, February 2, The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) presents British-born, Berlin-based artist, Tacita Dean’s 16mm film installation:  Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4’33” with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007 (six performances; six films), 2008. Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), one of the most legendary choreographers of our time, was filmed by Dean in Cunningham’s dance studio on Bethune Street, New York City on April 28, 2007 where he performed to his life partner’s John Cage’s 1952 composition, 4’33”. As the title so aptly describes, this unrehearsed solo performance of Cunningham, sitting in a chair, was performed and filmed six times; occasionally another performer Trevor Carlson appears in the footage, standing with a stopwatch. Tacita Dean’s six projected films of these performances and their unique ambient soundtracks run simultaneously within the Museum’s space.

It was a static dance, exhilarating and beautiful, which caused me to catch my breath, . . . . Each performance appeared to hold a myriad of differences, even in its repetition.
– Tacita Dean describing Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS…(six performances, six films), 2008

Location

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
Second Floor

Opening Reception

Saturday, February 2, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Artist Talk by Tacita Dean

Related Programs

Tacita Dean Fatigues. Selected Works. Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. February 1-March 9, 2013

JG a new film project by Tacita Dean. Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside. February 7-April 21, 2013. Exhibition opening and artist talk: Thursday, February 7 at 6:30 pm, in the Great Hall of the University Commons.

About the Artist

Tacita Dean (b. 1965, Canterbury, England. Lives and works in Berlin)

Tacita Dean studied art at the Falmouth School of Art in England (1985 – 1988), received a Greek Government scholarship to the Supreme School of Fine Art in Athens (1988 – 1989), and completed her postgraduate degree at Slade School of Fine Art in London (1990 – 1992). Dean was nominated for a Turner Prize in 1998, and in 2001 was given a solo exhibition at Tate Britain. In 2000, she awarded a one-year German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the Berlin Artists-in-Residence programme. Additionally, Dean has received the following prizes: Aachen Art Prize (2002); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2004); the Sixth Benesse Prize at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) and the Hugo Boss Prize at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2006). Dean also participated in the Venice Biennale (2003 and 2005), the Bienal de São Paulo (2006 and 2010), and dOCUMENTA (13) (2012). Her numerous solo exhibitions have taken place at such venues as Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2000), Tate Britain, London (2001), MACBA, Barcelona (2001), Dia:Beacon, New York (2007), the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2007), the Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2009), MUMOK, Vienna (2011), Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London (2011), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); the New Museum, New York (2012), and the Norton Museum, Florida (2012). Also opening February 2013, Dean’s work will additionally be on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, and Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside, PA. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Tate Modern, London.