Yearly Archives: 2012

OUR HAUS

“Unattended Luggage” by Time’s Up gives visitors a chance to explore personal aspects of immigration and home (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Daily through August 26, free, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
212-319-5300
www.acfny.org
our haus slideshow

In 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sang, “Our house is a very, very, very fine house.” The same can be said of architect Raimund Abraham’s stunning Austrian Cultural Forum tower, which turns ten this year. In honor of the anniversary, the ACFNY has put together the multimedia exhibit “Our Haus,” consisting of specially commissioned works that explore the nature of home, the physicality and psychology of place, and the cross-cultural link between New York and Austria. Spread across four floors of the twenty-five-foot-wide, eighty-one-foot-deep, twenty-four-story building that ACFNY director Andreas Stadler calls “an artistic lighthouse in this metropolis of creativity and communication,” the show includes photography, painting, video, sculpture, and site-specific installations that curator Amanda McDonald Crowley says “recognize the ACFNY as a space for conversation, contradiction, intimacy, and conviviality.” In Brünnerstraße 165, Helmut and Johanna Kandl go back to Johanna’s childhood home, combining vintage Super-8 footage of her as a little girl playing in the backyard with contemporary video of her rising out of a pond on the now-abandoned property. Austrian-born artist Rainer Ganahl examines two sides of New York in “Haunted Houses — Vacant Buildings on Third Avenue between 99th and 120th Street,” a two-channel video that he made while riding his bicycle through his adopted home of Spanish Harlem; while the bottom images depict stores and signs of life, the top shows broken windows, empty apartments, and shattered dreams. Judith Fegerl’s “Untitled (cauter)” intrudes on Abraham’s tower itself, as electrical wires burn lines onto the wall. Time’s Up investigates travel and immigration in “Unattended Luggage,” which invites visitors to look through drawers in a large open suitcase filled with items that remind one of home. Matthias Herrmann conjures up Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Bruce Naumann in a series of still-life postcards, free for the taking, that he made during a New York City residency.

Rainer Prohaska’s “Floor Cuisine, ACF New York” offers a place to gather at the Austrian Cultural Forum (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

In 1982, the British ska band Madness sang, “Our house it has a crowd / There’s always something happening,” and the same can be said for “Our Haus.” Rainer Prohaska’s “Floor Cuisine, ACF New York” features kitchen stations throughout the exhibit, culminating in a table downstairs where people can come together and enjoy a drink from Mathias Kessler’s “Das Eismeer, Die gescheiterte Hoffnung (The Arctic Sea, the Failed Hope),” a refrigerator stocked with beer and containing a sculptural tribute to Caspar David Friedrich in the freezer. Meanwhile, the collective WochenKlausur has set up a meeting room that will host various gatherings over the course of the exhibition; through July 22, “It Came from chashama” will highlight works from the nonprofit organization that displays art in public spaces. (The Center for Urban Pedagogy takes over July 23-29, with a panel discussion that first night at 7:00, followed by Green Guerillas, CAAAV, and Not an Alternative.) And in conjunction with the anniversary, Anthology Film Archives is hosting “The Austrian Cultural Forum New York: The First Decade,” a series of screenings through July 22 of Austrian films made over the last ten years, including Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s Our Daily Bread, Götz Spielmann’s Revanche, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, and Ruth Beckermann’s Zorro’s Bar Mitzva.

THE MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT: RICHARD III

Multiple locations July 17 – August 3, free
The Public Theater’s LuEsther Theater
425 Lafayette Ave.
August 6-25, $15 general admission
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org

In the summer of 1957, Joseph Papirofsky literally brought Shakespeare to the masses, trucking through all five boroughs to present a free outdoor production of Romeo and Juliet. The theater guru would soon shorten his last name to Papp and create the world famous New York Shakespeare Festival, which has been presenting high-quality free shows in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater for fifty years now. But the traveling Bard road show is back, as the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit is up and running, spending the next three weeks performing Richard III at locations where people have limited access to the arts (after having presented Measure for Measure last November). The unit will pay visits to such venues as the Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults on July 17, Charlotte’s Place on July 18, the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island on July 19, the Al Oerter Recreation Center on July 20, the Brownsville Recreation Center on July 24, the Fortune Society on July 26, the Goddard Riverside Community Center’s the Other Place on July 27, the Fort Hamilton Army Base on August 3, and several correctional facilities; some stops will also include educational workshops. Directed by Amanda Dehnert, who also composed the original score, the play stars Ron Cephas Jones as the villainous title character, with Kevin Kelly as Edward, Miriam Hyman as Clarence, Michael Crane as Buckingham, Keith Eric Chappelle as Hastings, Michelle Beck as Anne, Suzanne Bertish as Margaret, Alex Hernandez as Catesby, and Lynn Hawley as Elizabeth. Linda Roethke designed the set and costumes. The production will then move indoors August 6-25 at the Public, with all tickets $15 except for twenty per performance that will be donated to community organizations that were not part of the tour.

JAMES ROSENQUIST: F-111

James Rosenquist, “F-111” (detail), oil on canvas with aluminum, 1964-65 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art, fourth floor
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Daily through July 30, $25 (includes same-day film screenings)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
f-111 slideshow

First flown in December 1964 and officially deployed during the Vietnam War in 1967, General Dynamics’ $75 million F-111 Aardvark multipurpose tactical fighter bomber was a prime example of cutting-edge weaponry in its time, built with taxpayer money. In 1964, New York-based artist James Rosenquist, who grew up in North Dakota and Minnesota, raised by parents who were amateur pilots, began what would become one of his most powerful and influential installations, “F-111.” Designed as its own room, “F-111” has been reconstructed at MoMA and is being shown as it first was at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1965, along with eight framed preparatory pieces that give insight into Rosenquist’s creative process. Resembling a four-walled billboard (Rosenquist was a former billboard painter), “F-111” consists of twenty-three colorful wraparound panels that meld consumer and advertising culture with ironic militaristic imagery. A pretty little girl is getting her hair done under the nose of the jet plane. A mushroom cloud is exploding under a rainbow umbrella. A fork is digging into spaghetti. Flags in a white cake proclaim its health benefits. A diver is swimming through a nuclear explosion. The eighty-six-foot-long mural took Pop art to another level, not merely re-creating familiar societal images but juxtaposing them with an instrument of mass destruction while the country was escalating its involvement in a controversial war. The immersive installation, inspired in part by Claude Monet’s large-scale works, provides a dizzying sensation of inescapable rapid-fire imagery that Rosenquist says on the Acoustiguide “felt to me like a plane flying through the flak of an economy.” Rosenquist, perhaps best known for paintings that look like they’ve been torn to reveal another work beneath it, here places his messages front and center, creating a visual collage of images that effortlessly flow into one another. On the audio tour the artist also notes that the plane’s “mission seemed obsolete before it was finished.” All these years later, Rosenquist’s “F-111” seems far from obsolete itself, perhaps even as relevant as ever.

ROOFTOP FILMS: MANHATTAN

MANHATTAN will be screening for free in Coney Island on July 16

MANHATTAN (Woody Allen, 1979)
3059 West 12th St, on the beach at Coney Island
Monday, July 16, free, music and dancing 7:00, film 8:30
rooftopfilms.com

Woody Allen’s Manhattan opens with one of the most beautiful tributes ever made to the Big Apple, a lovingly filmed black-and-white architectural tour set to the beautiful sounds of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” As Allen’s character says at the beginning, “He adored New York City, he idolized it all out of proportion — no, make that, he romanticized it all out of proportion.” Once again collaborating with screenwriter Marshall Brickman, master cinematographer Gordon Willis, and Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton, Allen’s tale of a nebbishy forty-two-year-old two-time divorcee who takes up with a seventeen-year-old ingénue (Mariel Hemingway) is both hysterically funny and romantically poignant, filled with classic dialogue (Yale: “You think you’re God.” Isaac: “I gotta model myself after someone.”) and iconic shots of city landmarks. Manhattan is being screened in an iconic landmark itself, Coney Island, on July 16, a free presentation of Rooftop Films, with music and dancing at 7:00, followed by the film at 8:30. Future free Rooftop Films screenings include a “Coming Home” shorts program with Shenandoah and the Night at MetroTech on July 20, The Muppets in Coney Island on July 23, Peter Nicks’s The Waiting Room in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza on July 24, Nina Conti’s Her Master’s Voice and a pair of shorts in Socrates Sculpture Park on July 25, and The Natural in Richmond County Bank Ballpark on July 26.

SUMMER RESTAURANT WEEK

Multiple locations
July 16 – August 10
Lunch $24.07, dinner $35
www.nycgo.com/restaurantweek

Been wanting to try that hot, much-buzzed-about restaurant but the price is just a little bit out of hand? Now’s your chance, especially with so many New Yorkers off to the Hamptons and other beach areas, as hundreds of eateries are participating in the twenty-first annual Summer Restaurant Week, which is actually creeping toward Summer Restaurant Month. Running July 16 – August 10, the seasonal promotion offers new foodies and longtime gourmands the opportunity to enjoy $24.07 lunches and $35 dinners at old and new favorites. Advance reservations are strongly suggested for the more popular hot spots, which include the ‘21’ Club, Aureole, B. Smith’s, Barbetta, Beacon, the various Boulud restaurants, Capsouto Frères, Circo, Devi, Esca, and Gotham Bar & Grill, and that’s just at the beginning of the alphabet. Many of the places have their special Restaurant Week menus posted online so you’ll know exactly what’s on tap. But you better book fast.

BASTILLE DAY ON 60th STREET

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 15, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
www.fiaf.org

On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, a symbolic victory that kicked off the French Revolution and the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Ever since, July 14 has been a national holiday celebrating liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In New York City, the festivities will actually take place on Sunday, July 15, along Sixtieth St., where the French Institute Alliance Française hosts its annual daylong party of food, music, dance, and other special activities. There will be tastings ($20) inside FIAF, including wine and cheese, cocktails, and beer; a raffle drawing with such prizes as trips to France, St. Barts, and New Orleans; a Twitter challenge with yet more prizes; food and drink from Le Souk, Richart, Gastronomie 491, Bistro 61, Macaron Café, Financier, Opia, Ponty Bistro, Rouge Tomate, Tiny Treats, Bel Ami, Mille-feuille, and more; a macaron demonstration by master chef François Payard; French language workshops; live performances by the Hungry March Band and Can-Can Dancers; and a Kids’ Corner with such family activities as face-painting, arts & crafts, games, and more.

NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL / JAPAN CUTS: MONSTERS CLUB

MONSTERS CLUB is another offbeat and unusual tale from Toshiaki Toyoda

MONSTERS CLUB (MONSUTAZU KURABU) (Toshiaki Toyoda, 2011)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Sunday, July 15, 6:00
Japan Cuts series continues through July 28
212-715-1258
www.subwaycinema.com
www.japansociety.org

Two years ago, Japanese auteur Toshiaki Toyoda presented The Blood of Rebirth at the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts, his first movie in four years following a hiatus involving drug charges, as well as his previous work, 2005’s extraordinary Hanging Garden. The iconoclastic Osaka-born director of such other films as Blue Spring and 9 Souls is now back at the dual festivals with his latest, another bizarre, offbeat tale, Monsters Club. Inspired by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto that called for revolution, Toyoda has crafted another surreal mood piece that can be as mesmerizing as it is frustrating and silly. Ryoichi Kakiuchi stars as Eita, a quiet, disciplined young man who has quit society and instead lives in the middle of a snowy forest, where he calmly chops wood, cleans his cabin, and sends out letter bombs to kill corrupt corporate executives and politicians. There he is visited by his supposedly dead brother, Yuki (Yôsuke Kubozuka), as well as a strange, haunting face-painted creature (Pyuupiru) who is an oddly charming mix of Sid Haig’s freakish Captain Spaulding from House of 1000 Corpses and Hayao Miyazaki’s adorable Totoro. But soon the idyllic little life Eita has built for himself is threatened as he discovers it’s not so easy to escape from today’s must-stay-connected world. A weirdly meditative tone poem, Monsters Club is screening at Japan Society on July 15 at 6:00 and will be followed by a Q&A with director Toyoda.