at the Cisneros Foundation brunch

Berta Sichel, Reina Sophia curator who organized C.I.F.O. exhibition

Berta had curated the exhibition, Being in the World; Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection at C.I.F.O (the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation), one of Miami’s private museums. The exhibition explores video work by Bill Viola, Shirin Neshat, Chantal Ackerman and four other artists or artist collaborations.

Sharin Neshat still from 'Zarin' (2005) video

The selection investigated the work against the background of Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea of  situation as a way of exploring both the literal and metaphorical displacement  accompanying current globalization and the previous cultural habits and experiences that migrants inevitably bring to new circumstances.

Robin Rhode, detail, ‘Marongrong’ 2002 digital animation

CIFO hosted a brunch which was notable not only for the food and elegant floral decorations set within tents outside the exhibition space, but also for the amazing range of footwear worn by the female guests. I wasn’t in Kansas or Philadelphia anymore!

flowers at the Cisneros Foundation brunch

at the Cisneros brunch

Ackerman’s D’est: au board de la fiction was the highlight of the artwork on view, a piece that doesn’t loose its power no matter how many times I see it.  It was the first time I’d seen Neshat’s  powerfully-wrenching short piece,  Zarin (2005), a straight-forward single-channel narrative in color. I can only assume it presages her approach to film in the feature-length Women Without Men for which Neshat won the Best Director award at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

I caught up with Susan Sterling, Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. who was escorting members of her Director’s Circle around C.I.F.O.’s exhibition. Susan and I co-curated an exhibition of Carrie Mae Weems’ work in the early 1990s, and later in the day I ran into Carrie herself.  That was a great reunion.  Carrie has been making videos, one of which, exploring her long interest in male/female relations,was prominently on view at Photo Miami .

at the Cisneros Foundation brunch

The other private museum I saw was the Margulies Collection at The Warehouse . Miami’s private museums surely represent  more square footage devoted to contemporary art than in any city in the world, and none is more impressive than the collection put together by real estate developer, Martin Z. Margulies.

Roberta Fallon, Martin Z. Margulies, Libby Rosof at Margulies' Warehouse

I’d known Marty and his curator, Katherine Hinds since 1984 and was delighted to introduce them to Roberta and Libby. The collection’s recent acquisitions emphasize video and photography (Penn photography students curated an exhibition from the collection which was reviewed here)  although there was also sculpture by younger artists as well as a major installation by Michael Heizer and significant work by George Segal, Miro and Noguchi.

at Margulies Warehouse l. to r.: Los Carpenteros, Shinique Smith, Sara Barker, Florian Baudrexel, Robin Rhode

Unlike most of Miami’s other private collections as well as most public museums these days, in the U.S. and Europe, Margulies’ collection goes beyond the handful of artists who are the current fashion; this not only gives it a personal stamp, but also means that even seasoned art professionals are certain to be introduced to new artists.  I certainly saw artists I didn’t know. One area was installed around urbanistic themes: Anri Sala’s video, Dammi I Colori (2003) which pans the newly polychrome housing in Tirana; Courtney Smith’s Paraparquetry (2007) which employs re-used wood from old furniture to create a multi-dimensional parquet floor that resembles a cityscape;

Courtney Smith’ 'Paraparquetry' (2007) at Margulies' Warehouse

and Peter Belyi’s Danger Zone (2007), a model of a distopian city of the future whose failed modernist towers have crumbled to rubble. Belyi is a sort of Piranesi of the 21^st century, creating a sci fi romanticism of ruins.

Peter Belyi 'Danger Zone' (2007) at Margulies' Warehouse

Interior of the Royal Theater on South Street

The Royal’s current condition can best be judged by the fact that the audience was required to don bright, blue hard hats provided by The Network for New Music which sponsored the program in conjunction with Hidden Philadelphia .  The last time I wore a hard hat was on an early visit to Eastern State Penitentiary before its fate had been determined and the site had been made safe for visitors (although they still require a release).

Audience members photographing the theater’s interior

The Royal was Philadelphia’s first black-run theater, set in the middle of what was then a vibrant African-American neighborhood.  The interior reflected the ambition of its name: the stage flanked by huge gilded columns, a chandelier (long gone) on the ceiling and walls decorated with stenciled patterns.  It was an entertainment center for the community featuring live acts including Fats Waller and Bessie Smith as well as movies.   I found myself sitting next to Jessie Frisby who owns Jessie’s Ladies’ Shop (across the street from the theater) and is president of the neighborhood merchants’ association; she recalled seeing movies at the Royal as a child, and proudly told me she’s included in the mural that’s now on the theater’s facade.

Anri Sala still from The Long Sorrow (2009)

I was there to see the recent video by Anri Sala, an Albanian artist whose video, Intervista (1998) had been one of the high points of the exhibition Archive Fever at the International Center for Photography, New York last year.  What I got was an adventurous duet of video with live performance in which the video, The Long Sorrow, was an equal partner.

Marshall Allen, photo by Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times

The performer I heard on Thursday was saxaphonist Marshall Allen, an early member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and  Free Jazz pioneer; he’d been given a lifetime achievement award the previous night at the Vision Festival at the Abrons Arts Center in New York’s Lower East Side.  On Wednesday the performer was Jemeel Moondoc, the saxaphonist who is in Sala’s video.  The video, spare and restrained, focused largely on Jemeel’s face as he played.  The camera’s stillness left the music to carry the intensity off which Marshall Allen played.

Anri Sala still from The Long Sorrow (2009)

The Long Sorrow was filmed at one of Berlin’s modern, high-density housing projects and the title comes from the inhabitants’ nickname for the building.  It began with a close-up of Jameel’s face seen through a window and only at the end did the camera move back to give a view of the site and reveal the fact that the musician was suspended outside a top-floor window.  Projected onto the theater’s side walls the video lost the crispness it would have in a gallery, but the contribution of the recorded musician lamenting the soulessness of his surroundings was as clear as the live musician’s recreation of better days at the Royal.  It was a duet of memory, sadness, opposition and perhaps hope; of locations as well as performers.  Its intensity blew away any possibility of the romance of ruin accruing to the theater. Instead it emphasized the power of the art and music that was nurtured there in its glory days, and of the neighborhood’s loss.

The work of  internationally-acclaimed video/film artist Anri Sala will be presented in Philadelphia on the evenings of  June 10 and June 11, 2009  at the Royal Theater as part of the “Hidden City” citywide exhibition.

Anri Sala, Long Sorrow video still, showing Jameel Moondoc playing; photo courtesy Johnen Galerie, johnengalerie.de

Anri Sala’s “Long Sorrow” (2005) is a 13-minute video in which free-jazz saxophonist Jameel Moondoc is suspended from a building in the periphery of Berlin in a neighborhood nicknamed “Long Sorrow” by those who live there.  Jameel is the continuing presence in the video which begins with close-ups of his neck and mouth before revealing his whole person suspended outside the window of the building.  Jameel plays his music throughout the video as neighborhood buildings appear. Light reflects off the curves and gestures of Jameel’s face intermittently as the camera scans the neighborhood.

Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra

For the June 10 performance at the Royal Theater, Jameel will appear live to play an impromptu duet with himself while “Long Sorrow” is being shown.  For the June 11 performance, Marshall Allen, leader of the world-renowned Sun Ra Arkestra, will appear live to do an impromptu duet/performance while “Long Sorrow” is being shown.

Anri Sala (right) making Long Sorrow; photo courtesy Johnen Galerie

Anri found The Royal Theater—- the original site of African American culture, jazz and cinema in Philadelphia—-to be a fitting setting for the showing of his piece in “Hidden City”.  Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Pearl Baily, Billy Paul and other greats performed at the Royal, and the African American musician union was formed at the Royal Theater.

The Royal Theater interior

The once grand Royal Theater, an enormous, high-ceilinged space has been crumbling since 1970 when it was closed.   The building’s bones – including the original projection room — are crickety but still there, and the building’s deterioration and marks of the passage of time have created their own grandeur.   On June 10 and 11, the Royal Theater will add to its history.  For two nights, the grande dame  building of South Street will be alive again with jazz and video and people. Tickets are available here