Tomorrow night is Crush! It is a pre-Valentine’s Day event to benefit the Contemporary. The other day our caterer representative came in during a staff meeting and starting telling us all about the interesting cuisine and fun décor…all having themes of romance and are aphrodisiac inspired. We decided to sell tickets to include the food for free, as well as an open bar, AND admission to an after-party at a club downtown, so our guests (who were encouraged to dress in Hollywood glam) won’t have to worry about money the whole night. There is also going to be music by DJ Darren Snow and a silent auction. The Contemporary knows how to have a good time, so it should be a fantastic event. (Find out more info by visiting the Contemporary’s website or facebook page).

 Front Room artist Fia Backström writes a note to the staff of the museum to explain her project:

• The project/experiment takes place over 4-5 days in the museum.
• In part it involves making an exhibition, involving the people who regularly work towards making an exhibition and all the products thereof; such as painting of walls, easy construction of social spatial device, setting up the release for the show, lightning, video equipment etc etc, going through the process of mounting an exhibition, which sometimes can be frustrating, sometimes elevating and so forth.
• For the process to be visible in exhibition format it needs to be recorded/video taped at intervals. It will be made completely clear when the camera is on.
• Two family tropes have been given as structure for dramaturgy and formal aspects, which will be engaged in regular ways, ie the ways the making of an exhibition, with the assigned roles we inhabit during this course. I will act as The Artist, whatever that means. Hopefully you will agree to be you parts, the ones which you are acting every day.
• I deeply respect the integrity of everyone, which is a crucial foundation of the work, with no intentions to ridicule. I am not interested in a candid camera logic or making a fool of anyone, nor am I interested in peoples faces or psychology or personalities. But in the relations or interactions between us, as a result of our roles and what this potential can bring.

  So from the personnel of the museum I ask two things:

•1. If I can tape some of our interactions, with the guarantee that if something was said on tape, which someone would like to censor, we can easily do that.

•2. I am going to need help, as in any other exhibition process, to move through it all, which I will ask from you.What is important is that from this brief engagement, we surface with a valuable and exciting experience and that as a result what comes out is a challenging and curious installation for the audience.

After spending the week prior to the Opening interacting with staff, and installing, here is the outcome:

While tonight is the opening of Gedi Sibony: My Arms Are Tied Behind My Other Arms and Bruce Nauman: Dead Shot Dan, it is also the unofficial premiere of the newly-revamped Contemporary Flat Files. This is the Contemporary’s rotating collection of flat works, inspired partly by the similar program at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn. If you’ve looked through the Flat Files previously, you may have noticed that the focus of the Flat Files was limited to artists within the metropolitan St. Louis area. Now, the program has been extended to all artists within the Midwestern region. So after (or even before) you’ve had a chance to explore the amazing pieces by Gedi Sibony and Bruce Nauman, please take a trip upstairs to the Media Gallery, where you can say hi to some old friends with new work and welcome our new additions to the family.

Curatorial Intern Nicole Stevens preparing new portfolios for the opening

Tomorrow night is the opening of Gedi Sibony: My Arms Are Tied Behind My Other Arms and Bruce Nauman: Dead Shot Dan, so today…madness. Today the Chief Curator, Anthony Huberman, lead us on a walk-through of the exhibition, so we all get a little preview of what we are about to show. There are still last minute touches being made in the galleries, there was a film crew here throughout most of the day, and Front Room artist, Fia Backström, is here doing her thing. What is “her thing” you might ask? My answer, it is something incredibly interesting. More on that later. For now, here is an image from our walk-thorugh and a YouTube video for you to check out.

Captured incredible lighting in this image

Today, staff, interns, gallery attendants, and members of the installation crew came together in the museum’s conference room to view the inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States. I was sitting toward the back, so had a good view of faces. Most were focused intensely on the TV (the kind from high school, big…not the screen, just in general…and on a cart). There were even a few tears. As the time for Obama’s inauguration came closer, more and more people walked in and grabbed a chair to also become fixated on what we were all witnessing. Then it happened…we applauded as if we were there and realized that we just were a part of history.

The deinstallation process is just about complete now that the outside window piece Crash was taken down. The last remaining piece is the Budweiser sign hanging on the wall in our performance space. (Visit Lutz Bacher’s web page to see these pieces). All I keep hearing from staff members and the install crew is how great the space looks and how fast the walls are going up for the next show. We are less than two weeks away from the opening now!

Yesterday, The Front Room opened with a new artist in its space, Dexter Sinister. Upon entering The Front Room a visitor will see a series of lithographic “proof” prints, each produced individually by Dexter Sinister for a range of other exhibition contexts throughout 2008. You can take a video tour of the exhibition below and see more on The Front Room by going to our website. If you hear construction noise in the background of the video, that is because we have a crew of people here building wall after wall in our main gallery space for our next exhibition. In less than three days, the space has completely transformed from three big gallery spaces into room after room of smaller galleries. Amazing, it feels like a totally different space. I can’t wait to see it complete.

In less than two days the Lutz Bacher: Spill and Aïda Ruilova: The Singles 1999-Now exhibition has almost completely been taken down. It always impresses me how quickly this process takes place. But that is what has to happen in order to get the next exhibition up within such a short time period. Our next show opens in a little over two weeks, on January 23…more to come on the next exhibition soon. As for now, take a look at what used to be the big yellow ramp taking over an entire gallery space and gallery attendants working hard to remove wall text. So much goes into this process.