Wang Jianwei
Spiral Ramp Library
February 12 and 13, 2015, 8pm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
5th Avenue at 89th Street
New York City
Experience Spiral Ramp Library, a theater performance in the Guggenheim Museum that focuses on the gathering and circulation of people and ideas within the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright–designed museum space. Conceived as the closing ceremony of the exhibition and commission Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, on view through February 16, the script is based on recordings from the opening sound performance held in the Guggenheim Museum’s rotunda, in which 20 orators spoke on ten topics: disappearance, Gnosticism, library, map, universe, climate, Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Guggenheim.
Spiral Ramp Library continues Wang Jianwei’s practice of connecting theater to his exhibitions. In 2009, Wang Jianwei produced Time • Theater • Exhibition at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, in which the artist considered the overlapping time between watching theater and an exhibition. In 2011, Wang Jianwei again produced a closing ceremony performance for his exhibition project, Yellow Signal, at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Yellow Signal (2011) was conceived in five chapters, with a final closing ceremony that linked all parts of the exhibition.
Wang Jianwei is recognized throughout Asia and Europe for his bold experiments in new media, performance, and installation art, creating his works as a “multimedia theater,” in which theater becomes the basis of all art forms, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and photography. The artist views theater as an important strategy for opening up interaction and conversation with what he calls a “communal moment of the staged event.” Working from the idea of theater as a way to connect art directly to people, Spiral Ramp Library will feature dancers from China performing abstract and concrete body movements in relation to themes of time and space in the Guggenheim Museum’s Peter B. Lewis Theater. Viewers will experience a performance that consists of contemporary dance, theater, sound, and installation.
For Spiral Ramp Library, Wang Jianwei works together with a production team from China, including sound director Chen Hongli; lighting director Wang Qi; performer He Fan; and dancers Jiang Jun, Liu Bin, and Zhang Cunliang.
The February 13 performance of Spiral Ramp Library will be followed by a Q&A with the artist. Both performances will conclude with an exhibition viewing and reception.
Tickets and information:
Thursday, February 12
Friday, February 13
Box office: T +1 212 423 3575
Wang Jianwei: Time Temple is made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
*Image: Wang Jianwei, Spiral Ramp Library, 2014–15. Wang Jianwei directing the opening performance as part of Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 30, 2014. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection. This work was created on the occasion of the commission Wang Jianwei: Time Temple, presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. All works by Wang Jianwei. © 2015 Wang Jianwei. Photo: Enid Alvarez. © 2015 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.
