From May 1 to 13, The Shed will present our pre-opening program A Prelude to The Shed, a free arts event, at 10th Avenue and 31st Street in Manhattan, one block from our permanent home opening in spring 2019.
A transformable structure is as vital to the architecture of Prelude as it is for The Shed, a building designed to flexibly accommodate multiple artistic disciplines under one roof. Kunlé Adeyemi of NLÉ Works has collaborated closely with artist Tino Sehgal to design a temporary space in which dancers move and reconfigure the structure in a fluid integration of architecture and choreography.
A stroll through the fun palace presents an influential but unrealized project developed in 1961 by architect Cedric Price and theater director Joan Littlewood: The Fun Palace, a key reference for The Shed’s permanent building.
Each afternoon, and into the early evening, Sehgal’s work This variation will be enacted in alternation with choreographer William Forsythe’s Pas de Deux Cent Douze, a radical reimagining of the central duet from his seminal 1987 ballet In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated specially commissioned for Prelude.
D.R.E.A.M. Ring dance battles, organized by Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray, take place early evenings. The D.R.E.A.M. Ring dancers are part of The Shed’s pre-opening commission FlexNYC, whose participants (elementary through high-school age) explore social issues and self-expression through flexn, a form of street dance with roots in Jamaican Bruk Up.
Schema for a School is a two-week-long experimental course for students of varied backgrounds taking place throughout Prelude. Developed by Asad Raza, together with Jeff Dolven and D. Graham Burnett, Schema aims to enact more embodied models for teaching and learning. The main thematic focus of this course is “We”—the first-person plural. It will be open to the public on Saturday, May 5, and Saturday, May 12, from 11:30 a.m.
On multiple evenings Prelude will feature a series of live solo concerts by Atlanta-based R&B singer-songwriter ABRA; Venezuelan electronic music producer, DJ, and songwriter Arca; and New York-based rapper and singer-songwriter Azealia Banks.
Prelude’s series of evening conversations on new institutional models for the 21st century considers the politics of ritualized gatherings and the role of art and culture in social connectivity. Dorothea von Hantelmann, Professor of Art and Society at Bard College Berlin, and Shed Senior Program Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist organized the talks; The Shed’s Chief Science and Technology Officer Kevin Slavin served as an advisor. Von Hantelmann has written an essay, specially commissioned for Prelude, that considers new ritual forms for the 21st century. Von Hantelmann’s booklet will be distributed freely at the Prelude site.
If you are interested in participating in Schema for a School please apply here.
