MOCA North Miami

Merce Cunningham: Dancing on the Cutting Edge. Part I
From Jan 26th through Apr 29th, 2007

Dancing on the Cutting Edge. Part I is the first of a two-part exhibition on the work of legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham. Like many visual artists who embraced “the performance” and the use of the body as a medium for their artistic expressions, Merce Cunningham has engaged - throughout a five-decade career - with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Olafur Eliasson and Gabriel Orozco to create scenographic works and costumes for his presentations.

Many of those works are now presented in the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). They are brought back to the Visual Arts realm by the careful, yet powerful selection of the museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater. The exhibition includes works created by artists coming from the most diverse manifestations, ranging from set design and installations to multimedia presentations and video projections. “As in all of Cunningham’s productions, the dance, décor and music exist independent of one another...” the curator points out, acknowledging the ability of the artist in recognizing the creative potential of cross-disciplinary collaborations.

What’s interesting here is how these same works that were specifically created for live presentations, can now be viewed as mere installation works. The absence of music, performers, or a radical audience shift, haven’t dimmed the “spectacular” in the works or limited their readiness to communicate independently. Within the frame of this exhibition, works like Convex / Concave by Olafur Eliasson - a large circular mirror foil on a frame, connected to a pneumatic pump - or Ernesto Neto’s large mixed media installation of nylon and netting, appear in all their visual splendor. They are a good example of how artworks can interact, feed and grow from collaboration experiences, and yet keep their identity. Other artists included are Sandra Cinto, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Richard Hamilton, Rei Kawakubo, Charles Long, Christian Marclay, Jacqueline Matisse Monnier, The Open-ended Group (Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, Paul Kaiser), Henry Samelson, and Terry Winters. An illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by the curator and a forward by Trevor Carlson, Executive Director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, will accompany the exhibition.

Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
770 NE 125th Street
North Miami, FL 33161
305.893.6211
www.mocanomi.org