Naama Tsabar
Composition 20
June 7, 8, 9, 2016
6–9pm
14th Street Passage, On the High Line at West 14th Street
Maria Hassabi
Movement #2
June 28, 29, 30, 2016
7–7:30pm
On the High Line at West 30th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues
Eduardo Navarro
We who spin around you
July 19, 20, 21, 2016
6:30–8:30pm
On the High Line at West 32nd Street and 12th Avenue
Free admission / open to all ages / no RSVP required
Commissioned and produced by High Line Art, High Line Performances are a series of live, often participatory events that transform the park into an open-air theater. Performances take place on and around the High Line and have previously included works by Pablo Bronstein, Jamel Cyrus, Simone Forti, Alison Knowles, David Lamelas, Ryan McNamara, Cally Spooner, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company, among others.
For her performance on the High Line, Naama Tsabar presents the third iteration of Composition 20, inviting a group of musicians to utilize their amps—which are scattered across the park’s pathway—both as a sound-amplifying source and as a pedestal to stand on. For the work, Tsabar commissions three composers to craft unique musical scores, all to be performed simultaneously by different sets of the musicians. As the musicians step up onto their amps, their collective shifting silhouette forms a sculptural composition that complements the accompanying sonic one.
In her rigorous choreography, Maria Hassabi arranges her own and other dancers’ bodies in compositions that move painstakingly slowly, to the point where the slightest movement becomes meaningful, and the viewers’ sense of their surroundings becomes heightened. For the High Line, Hassabi presents a new composition for four dancers. Hassabi’s performance on the High Line will act as an informal preview for the completed work, STAGED, which will premiere at The Kitchen in October 2016 as part of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Crossing the Line Festival.
We who spin around you is a new work realized by Eduardo Navarro for the High Line at the Rail Yards. In the late afternoon as the sun begins to lower in the sky, Navarro invites participants to don custom-made bronze masks designed to help them safely view the sun, transforming it into a tiny dark green sphere. Then, an astrophysicist gives a brief lecture on solar history, and our changing relationship to science in the context of astronomy and solar studies. The work—situated at one of High Line visitors’ favorite spots for watching the sunset—invites viewers to think about their place in the surrounding terrestrial and celestial worlds.
About High Line Art
Presented by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art commissions and produces public art projects on and around the High Line. Founded in 2009, High Line Art presents a wide array of artwork including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and produced by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the uniqueness of the architecture, history, and design of the High Line and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.
Support
Major support for High Line Art comes from Donald R. Mullen, Jr. and The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Additional funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Dorothy Lichtenstein. High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
