Purple Diary

[02/26/2009]

KLARA LIDEN OPENING SHOW at the museum of modern art, new york

Last night I went to MoMa for the opening of “Projects 89” created by the Klara Liden, a Swedish artist based in Berlin. For her show, she created a site-specific architectural installation made of scaffolding, sheetrock, tarpaper, and thousands of cardboard boxes discarded by the museum. The exhibition also includes a new work on video, which features the artist skipping rocks in the Hudson River to the entrancing music of Tvillingarna.

“The bundles of recycled cardborard (collected from the Museum’s offices and retails stores) are evidence of the enormous volume of detritus created by contemporary consumer culture. By transforming everyday materials and discarded goods into the building blocks of her work, Linden finds value in ruin,” explains the curator Eva Respini.

Downstairs, the terribly long coat check line resulted in a large pile of outerwear on floor. This led to an impromptu performance – several Klara supporters jumped head first into the heap.
The resulting octopus drew quite an audience until a disgruntled security guard broke it up. Onlookers included Christopher Wool, Mirabelle Marden, Stefania Bortolami, Adam McEwen, Elizabeth Peyton, Leo Fitzpatrick and Terence Koh.

Dinner followed at the Bombay Palace on 52nd street, hosted by curator Eva Respini and the Reena Spaulings crew. Then all the ladies headed to the Beatrice Inn where I deejayed. It was refreshing to see some new faces on the dance floor this Tuesday, thanks JD Samson, Emily Sundblad, and of course, Klara.

From February 25 till June 8, 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art.

Text and photos by Rachel Chandler