Exhibition — Apr 16 until Apr 22, 2015

Maria Hassabi’s new live-installation PLASTIC continues to explore the figurative role of the performer, having been precisely sculpted within the fixed architectural environment of the museum.

The Stedelijk Museum and Het Veem Theater proudly present PLASTIC by Maria Hassabi, as part of the larger project titled: Maria Hassabi (in the context of Amsterdam).

Maria Hassabi’s new live-installation, PLASTIC is a recent co-commission with the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. PLASTIC is an artwork composed of dancers, occupying interstitial spaces of the museum, and explores the relationship between space, time, and physicality. Performed during the opening hours of the museum, PLASTIC reflects upon conventions of display, the language surrounding performance-based work, and the idea of stillness in relation to the physical body. Composed of a four-hour solo repeated on a loop by each of its four performers, PLASTIC bridges the conceptual and physical divide between performer and object, bystander and viewer, while addressing the ways in which dance and the spectacle of performance are presented in theatrical and exhibition context.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Maria Hassabi (born in Cyprus) is a New York-based artist and choreographer. Over the years she has developed a distinct choreographic practice involved with the relation of the body to the image—defined by sculptural physicality and extended duration. Her works draw their strength from the tension between the human subject and the artistic object—the dancer as a performer and as a physical entity. Hassabi is a 2015 recipient of the Alpert Award in the Arts; a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow; and a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2009 Grants to Artists Award. In 2012, she received The President’s Award for Performing Arts from the LMCC, and in 2013 she represented The Cyprus Republic as part of Cyprus and Lithuanian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Her works include PLASTIC (2015), PREMIERE (2013), INTERMISSION (2013), Counter-Relief (Kaai 2013), SHOW (2011), Robert and Maria (2010), Soloshow (2009), Solo (2009), GLORIA (2007), Still Smoking (2006), Dead is Dead (2004) and LIGHTS (2001). She has also created several short-form pieces, art installations including PLASTIC (2015) and CHANDELIERS (2012), and a short film, THE LADIES (2012). Her works are presented in theaters, museums, galleries and public-spaces worldwide.

CREDITS

PLASTIC
2015
Live installation

Performed by Hristoula Harakas, Maria Hassabi, Molly Lieber, and Oisín Monaghan

Sound design by Morten Norbye Halvorsen

Styling by threeASAFOUR

Produced by Ash Bulayev

PLASTIC is co-commisioned by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

The presentation of PLASTIC in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has been made possible with the generous support of co-curator with Mels Evers and Het Veem Theater Amsterdam 

PLASTIC has received generous support from the Jerome Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Dance Development 2013–2014 program. The artists would like to thank French Institute / Alliance Française and Steven Kahn for his kind support and generosity.

The project Maria Hassabi (in the context of Amsterdam) is supported by the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts).