The Art Newspaper: “The exhibition as we know it is in a form of crisis,” says the PS1 associate curator Jenny Schlenzka. She is one of several curators who are turning to performance, and specifically dance, to re-engage audiences in museums. Speaking at a recent talk organised by the Performa Institute, “Why Dance in the Art World?”, held in the historical birthplace of the Judson Dance Theater in Washington Square Park, Schlenzka lamented “how few people interact with the art” in galleries. She says that, while museum-going has become something of “an empty ritual”, there is some “really interesting work coming out of the dance world [that] is relevant for the visual arts world”.
2 comments:
At the very beginning of the semester I commented on another article on the topic of dance and performance as exhibits in museums, and the subject has since then been wandering in the back of my head. I like the positive aspects outlined by this article as opposed to the last one I read, with interesting points made about audiences being draw to performance art where they might not be drawn to visual arts in the first place. It's a great idea that these two medias are working together to reach out to various sections of the community, in a setting that is traditionally purely visual and non-interactive.
As a dancer this fills me with joy to hear. Dance is one of the often over looked aspects of the arts due to the high expense of going to a ballet and the inability to see a good dance company out side of a major city. Putting dance in a major venue like a museum where people can stop and see a beautiful, though provoking performance without having to pay a ton of money to go to a big theater dance performance. Also putting dance in museums gives people who never really considered dance an art form to take a second look at it. More modern art museums should consider bringing dance and performance art into their galleries.
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