When: June 26 — September 29; closed Mondays
Where: New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
Price: $12–18; under 18 free; under 15 must be accompanied by an adult to enter the environment
Tags: #immersive, #environmental, #art, #ContentAdvisory, #MobilityAdvisory (see below)
In 1965, at the Center of Visual Arts of the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Minujín and Rubén Santantonín devised the now-legendary environment La Menesunda. The work led visitors on a circuitous journey through eleven distinct spaces, including a tunnel of luminous neon signs, a bedroom complete with a married couple, a hallway lined with illuminated TVs, and a salon with makeup artists and masseuses offering their services. This intricate, interactive labyrinth sought to provoke visitors and spur them into action, and to offer new modes of encounter with consumer culture, mass media, and urban life. In 2015, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires presented a reconstruction of La Menesunda, and in June 2019, the New Museum presents the second recreation of this installation, its first-ever presentation in the US. While La Menesunda was created as a direct response to street life in Buenos Aires — the title is slang for a confusing situation — the work, alongside that of Niki de Saint Phalle, Christo, Claes Oldenburg, and others, counts among the earliest large-scale environments made by artists, demonstrating how Minujín anticipated the contemporary obsession with participatory spaces, the lure of new pop-up museums, and the quest for an intensity of experience that defines social media today.
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Contact Level: None
Content Advisories: This exhibit is not for all audiences; it contains steep staircases, uneven and soft floor surfaces, small and narrow enclosed spaces, and blinking neon lights.
Visitors will be admitted one at a time. Access to the exhibition is first come, first served; New Museum staff has the right to close the line at any time in order to adhere to museum hours. Children fifteen years old and under must be accompanied by an adult to enter the exhibition. No more than one child can enter with one adult. No strollers are permitted inside the exhibition.
Please watch your step. If wearing heels, you are welcome to remove your shoes in rooms with soft floors. Please move through the exhibition at a steady pace to avoid holding up others behind you.
Accessible tours for visitors with disabilities are available free of charge upon request with one week’s advance notice. To learn more about these accommodations, please speak with Visitor Services on the Ground Floor or email access@newmuseum.org.
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