Visitors can exchange gifts on select Sundays as part of “Pia Camil: A Pot for a Latch” exhibition at the New Museum (photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio)
New Museum of Contemporary Art
235 Bowery at Prince St.
Installation on view Wednesday – Sunday through April 17, $10-$16
Exchange Days: Sunday, March 6 & 20, April 3, 2:00 – 4:00
212-219-1222
www.newmuseum.org
piacamil.me
Mexico City native Pia Camil turns the New Museum Lobby Gallery into an interactive trading post in “A Pot for a Latch” Exchange Day. On March 6 and 20 and April 3 from 2:00 to 4:00, visitors are invited to bring an object to the installation, leaving it while going home with another. The work is inspired by the ceremonial ritual of the Northwest Pacific Coast Indians, which used the potlatch as a way to distribute property. The installation consists of one hundred objects; the event will end once each item has been exchanged. There are very specific rules about what can and can’t be brought to the exhibition; in her invitation, Camil notes, “The object you bring is a talisman of sorts, and it should be thought of in the same way that the ancient Romans conceived of in their term ‘res,’ which denotes a gift that has both a personal value and a history. Bring objects of power, of aesthetic interest, and of poignancy. The monetary value of these items is insignificant; their value lies instead in their richness of meaning and in the new life that they acquire on the grid within the Lobby Gallery. Potential exchange items may include: clothes, curtains, blankets, artworks, photographs, paintings, frames, nondescript items of undetermined function, objects that resemble parts of the human body such as wigs or mannequins, costume jewelry and accessories, mirrors and reflective items, potted plants, colorful items and/or those with interesting shapes and forms, transparent materials such as shower curtains, lingerie, or X-rays, books, and trinkets. Prohibited exchange items include but are not limited to: electronics, heavy items (over twenty pounds), small-scale objects (less than six inches in diameter), loose-leaf paper, tote bags, mass-produced garments, food or other perishables, weapons, and chemicals or other hazardous materials.” In previous installations, Camil has offered fabrics for people to put on at Frieze in “Wearing-watching,” blocked off part of a museum facade with black mesh in “Cuadrado Negro,” and explored the failure of housing projects in a percussive floor video. With “A Pot for a Latch” Exchange Day, she offers visitors the opportunity to have an object of personal value be on view in a museum, giving it a different kind of meaning, while taking home a piece of meaningful art from a stranger, a direct comment on capitalism while referencing the old barter system. The installation is on view every day the New Museum is open, but the exchange takes place only on alternating Sundays.