Diller + Scofidio:Talking the talk
You couldn’t exactly blame Institute of Contemporary Art director Jill Medvedow for leaning on the word when she introduced Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio as our architects at the ICA’s " Viewpoints " lecture last Thursday evening. Since unveiling their plan for the new ICA last September, Diller and Scofidio have become the hot architects, with profiles in the New York Times Magazine and Newsweek and a fresh commission to redesign the plaza and the " campus " of New York’s Lincoln Center. They’re also the subject of a career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. As Medvedow said, " This is their moment. " Moment enough that the talk drew an overflow crowd to the ICA’s tiny 120-seat theater in its current digs on Boylston Street, with a spillover crowd of another 60 or 70 watching on a video feed in one of the upstairs galleries. Is this architecture or rock and roll?
The New York–based Diller and Scofidio (they’re a married couple) are used to lecturing (they have teaching positions at Princeton and Cooper Union), and they’re as notorious for their theories and conceptual art projects and installations as they are for the buildings they’ve constructed. They did warn any students in the audience that this lecture would be " theory free. " Still, as the pair moved through various projects — the Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology in Manhattan, a " floating " park for the East River, a permanent installation for the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, and various proposals for Lincoln Center — certain conceptual tropes became apparent. For one, the couple love to play with the architectural idea of public-versus-residential space. That became evident as they talked about and showed their plan for the Eyebeam, a multi-story building that will serve as both museum and workplace, with its spaces interlocking as two modified S curves. The couple called the interface between public and residential spaces in the building " controlled contamination. "
In fact, over the course of the 90-minute presentation, there was plenty to appeal to everyone’s inner post-structuralist: the binary oppositions of public/private, inside/outside, horizontal/vertical, segregation/integration. It all meant something, and the couple’s wit drew a fair share of laughs. Lincoln Center, they pointed out, is a space that " architects love to hate, " but the couple showed much affection with their various proposals, some of which they conceded are contradictory. How to deal with the Center’s " fortress-like " outer walls, or the punishing environment of its vast central plaza? As an animated video demonstrated a canopy that would pivot from atop Avery Fisher Hall to shade the plaza during summer days and illuminate it for evening performances, Scofidio commented dryly, " This is what Jill would call a ‘budget buster.’ "
At the Whitney, meanwhile, Diller and Scofidio are critiquing several assumptions about museums and architectural space with one of the key exhibits, in which a robotically programmed Black & Decker drills holes in the definitive structure of museum space, the white wall.
And what about those inventive metaphors, like " controlled contamination " ? Is that how architects talk the talk these days? " Architecture academic-speak does tend to latch on to these metaphors, " answered Diller in a post-lecture e-mail, " and I guess we’re guilty. " The public, however, is beginning to use Diller + Scofidio’s own language in talking back. After the Whitney exhibit opened, museum workers found a crumpled note inside a hole in one of those white walls, a note that Diller said she found " poignant. " Projected on the screen at the ICA, the uncrumpled note read: " Please make the ICA turn out good. "
" Building a Vision: Diller + Scofidio in Boston " — including a documentary film, process models, a schematic model, and a " virtual " tour of the new ICA building planned for Boston’s Fan Pier — is on view at the " old " ICA, 955 Boylston Street, through April 27.
Only 285 days left till First Night 2004
This coming December 31, First Night will present its 28th annual day-long festival of art, music, dance, ice sculpture, fireworks, and more. The application guidelines for artists who wish to participate in First Night 2004 are now available. For more information, call (617) 542-1399 or visit www.firstnight.org.
Boston LandmarksOrchestra 2003
Conductor Charles Ansbacher and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra have announced this summer’s Fleet-sponsored series of free concerts. There’ll be 40 in all, up from 28 last year and eight in the orchestra’s inaugural 2001 season. The BLO will be playing all over eastern Massachusetts, not just in Boston. Here’s a look at the Boston-area concerts:
" ¡Ritmo Latino! Classical Sounds! "
Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez, with guitarist Emmanuel Rossfelder
Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9
Ginastera, Estancia ballet suite
Thomas Oboe Lee, Mambo
July 12, 8 p.m.; Boston Common Parade Ground
July 13, 6 p.m.; Chandler Pond Park in Brighton
" Romantics in the Park "
Rossini, Overture to La Cenerentola
Dvorák, Violin Concerto, with Joseph Lin
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4 (Italian)
July 25, 8 p.m.; Jamaica Pond Park in Jamaica Plain
July 26, 2 p.m.; Fort Warren on George’s Island
July 28, 8 p.m.; Boston Common Parade Ground
July 31, 6:30 p.m.; Harvard Yard
" Three Landmarks Sopranos "
Ina Kancheva, Jonita Lattimore, and Deborah Fields in works by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Gershwin, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, plus two world premieres by Patricia Van Ness: one musical work inspired by historic Franklin Park (commissioned by the American Composers Forum and ParkARTS for the Landmarks Orchestra), and a new ensemble work especially written for these sopranos.
August 16, 8 p.m.; Boston Common Parade Ground
August 17, 6 p.m.; Franklin Park in Roxbury
" The Landmarks Concerts for Children "
Daniel Pinkham, Make Way for Ducklings, a BLO-commissioned work based on Robert McCloskey’s Boston-set children’s book.
June 21, 4 and 5:30 p.m.; Boston Common Parade Ground
July 29,10:30 a.m. and noon; Paul Revere Mall in the North End
August 12, 10 and 11:30 a.m.; Shirley-Eustis House in Roxbury
Several more concerts will be announced at a later date, as will the rain locations for the outdoor concerts. For the complete season, call (617) 520-2200 or visit www.LandmarksOrchestra.org.
Jacob’s Pillow 2003
Jacob’s Pillow will open its season on Saturday June 14 with a star-studded benefit: Wayne Eagling of the Dutch National Ballet will premiere a new work choreographed on and performed by the students of the School at Jacob’s Pillow Ballet Program. As for the rest of the season, here’s the Ted Shawn Theatre line-up:
Twyla Tharp Dance, June 18 through 22
María Pagés’s Flamenco Republic, June 25 through 29
Mark Morris Dance Group, July 2 through 6
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, July 9 through 13
Rennie Harris, July 16 through 20
CND2, July 23 through 27
Merce Cunningham Dance Company, July 30 through August 3
Batoto Yetu, August 6 through 10
Stephen Petronio Company, August 13 through 17
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, August 20 through 24
And in the Doris Duke Studio Theatre:
MéMé BaNjO/ Compagnie Lionel Hoche, June 26 through 29
Doug Varone’s " Short Fictions, " July 3 through 6
Battleworks, July 10 through 13
Kitt Johnson and Vincent Mantsoe, July 17 through 20
Buglisi/Foreman Dance, July 24 through 27
Jo Strømgren Kompani, July 31 through August 3
Irma Omerzo, August 7 through 10
Akram Khan Dance Company, August 14 through 17
Compagnie Felix Rückert, August 21 through 24
Twyla Tharp will be coming to the Pillow straight from her hit Broadway show Movin’ Out. María Pagés will be familiar to audiences from Riverdance and the Carlos Saura films Carmen and Flamenco. The Mark Morris Dance Group just performed here in Boston (Marcia Siegel’s review starts on page 10 of the Arts section). Aspen Santa Fe Ballet artistic directors Jean-Phillipe Malaty and Tom Mossbrucker formerly danced with the Joffrey Ballet; their Pillow program will include Moses Pendleton’s Noir Blanc and a world premiere by Italian choreographer Jacopo Godani.
In 2000, Rennie Harris brought his hip-hop take on Romeo and Juliet, Rome and Jewels, to the Pillow; this year he’ll be bringing a " rousing new work of hip-hop and spirituality " called Facing Mekka. Those who remember fondly Jardí tancat, the Nacho Duato piece that Boston Ballet staged in 2001, will be eager to see CND2, which he created as a training institution for Madrid’s national dance company, Compañía Nacional de Danza. He’ll be at the Pillow for CND2’s US debut. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company will be celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Pillow. Expect a program of " complete works, dance excerpts, and new work, " with live music performed by company musicians, and original sets by Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.
Batoto Yetu ( " our children " in Swahili) offers the world premiere of Ngola Nzinga ( " King Nzinga " ), a dance drama about an African princess who leads her father’s kingdom to freedom in the 16th century; the company is made up of more than 40 Harlem dancers ages six to 18. The Stephen Petronio Company has over its 18-year history collaborated with Yoko Ono, Michael Nyman, the Beastie Boys, Cindy Sherman, and Manolo and has created works for the Lyon Opéra Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, and the Deutsche Opera Ballet in Berlin. Its Pillow program will include City of Twist, with an original score by Laurie Anderson. And Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will be celebrating its 25th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of its Jacob’s Pillow debut.
Jacob’s Pillow subscriptions are on sale now and will be through May 30; single tickets will go on sale April 29. Call (413) 637-1322 extension 37, or visit www.jacobspillow.org.
