Purple Art
[April 22 2014]
Rainer Ganahl “El Mundo” at Kai Matsumiya, New York
Kai Matsumiya presents a retrospective of Rainer Ganahl‘s ad hoc classical music performance, staged at the now-defunct El Mundo discount store. This exhibition encapsulates the history of an East Harlem building as it passes through diverse economic, demographic and cultural incarnations. Reflecting on the event Rainer Ganahl writes: “Many opera pieces bring us back to polotics, to emerging working-class cultures in which slaves and exploited people play a role, mirroring the industrialization of Europe in the 19th century with the rather under-priviledged context in which El Mundo was built and fuctioned in Spanish Harlem.”
The space at 153 1/2 Stanton Street retains the left-over remains of the former tenant, Rocksmith, which sold merchandise from the Wu-tang Clan amoung other hip-hop retail items. El Mundo runs until May 24th. Photo Elise Gallant
