Vito Acconci

ESSAY
CHECKLIST
EXHIBITION BROCHURE
INSTALLATION VIEWS
CONVERSATIONS AT DIA:BEACON: Nancy Holt, Joan Jonas, Anthony Ramos, and Paul Ryan with Lori Zippay
PRESS: New York Times, Frieze Magazine, Bullett
PHOTOS: Circa 1971 Gallery Talk with Lori Zippay, February 2012

Dia Art Foundation presented Circa 1971: Early Video & Film from the EAI Archive at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries. Circa 1971 brought together 20 moving image works from EAI's collection of over 3,500 media artworks. Celebrating EAI's 40th anniversary, the exhibition was organized by guest curator Lori Zippay, Executive Director of EAI.

Circa 1971 included pieces by Vito Acconci, Eleanor Antin, Ant Farm, John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Shirley Clarke, Dan Graham, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matta-Clark, Nam June Paik, Raindance, Anthony Ramos, Carolee Schneemann, TVTV, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and others.

Taking the year of EAI's founding as its point of departure, the exhibition set in dialogue a series of diverse works created in and around 1971, which are linked by alternative artistic and activist impulses. Circa 1971 exposed the generative encounters among these artists and influences and initiates unexpected correspondences between seemingly disparate works.

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special project for Times Square. In partnership with the Times Square Alliance and MTV, EAI brought artists' visions to the MTV 44½ LED Screen. Marking EAI's 40 years of support for moving image art, EAI in Times Square celebrated video art's rich history of creative intervention in one of the world's most dynamic media landscapes.

From April 13 to 19, EAI highlighted the remarkable creative media interventions of artists on a spectacular scale. Works by Vito Acconci, Dan Asher, Phyllis Baldino, Dara Birnbaum, Gary Hill, Shigeko Kubota, Takeshi Murata, Nam June Paik, Martha Rosler, Stuart Sherman and William Wegman were seen daily on MTV 44½'s large-format LED screen.

EAI participated in The NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, organized by Printed Matter. EAI's project space, installed in MoMA PS1's basement vault, featured STAGED DIRECTIONS, a special ongoing program of early and recent videos by artists, including rarely seen works drawn from EAI's extensive archive. STAGED DIRECTIONS featured conceptual videos that involve rules, instructions, or tasks, incorporating the script or the instruction manual into the action and placing the artist's directions on stage and in front of the camera. The screening program included works by Vito Acconci, Cory Arcangel, John Baldessari, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, VALIE EXPORT, Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Joan Jonas, Mike Kelley, Kristin Lucas, Kalup Linzy, Shana Moulton, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Seth Price, Anthony Ramos, Martha Rosler, Carolee Schneemann, Stuart Sherman and Lawrence Weiner, among others.

EAI presented 45 Years of Performance Video from EAI, a survey of four decades of artists' engagement with video and performance. This project is presented in conjunction with 100 Years, an exhibition on the history of performance art organized by P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Performa 09.

EAI is pleased to present two seminal but rarely screened feature-length works from the 1970s by artist Vito Acconci: The Red Tapes (1977) and My Word (1973-74). The Red Tapes is a three-part epic that is a key work in video art history. My Word is a feature-length silent film that is unique in Acconci's artistic practice. This September, visitors to the EAI Video Project Space at X will have the opportunity to engage with these complex and absorbing works in an intimate screening environment.

"Cinema On Air" featured an evening of projected silent video works, selected from the EAI Collection, accompanied by two simultaneous sound performances heard through radio headphones. Audience members could tune in to either of the two live soundtracks, watch the works in silence, or sample all three experiences.

This event was co-presented by Electronic Arts Intermix, free103point9, and Socrates Sculpture Park. "Cinema On Air" was the concluding event of Socrates' "Summer Solstice" programs.

During the PERFORMA07 performance biennial, EFA Gallery was transformed into a video lounge to host Electronic Arts Intermix's Viewing Room, a program that provides free public access to one of the foremost collections of video art in the world. Visitors to EFA Gallery were able to choose from a curated selection of major performance-based video works by over 30 artists from the EAI Collection. Viewers were able to watch these seminal performances and contemporary classics at their own pace in a comfortable viewing environment. During the opening reception on Friday, November 2nd, programs featuring selected works were installed throughout the gallery.

Dia and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) presented a day-long screening of video works from EAI's collection. The videos screened featured works by artists who participated in collaborative programming presented by Dia and EAI at Dia:Chelsea from the mid-1990s until 2004. Artists included Marina Abramovic , Joan Jonas , Gordon Matta-Clark , Kristin Lucas , Mike Kelley , and Dan Graham , among others. Admission was free.

On the occasion of ediciónmadrid, EAI was pleased to present a selection of titles from the late 1960s and the 1970s. These early works represent the diverse art-making strategies of the time including body-based performance tapes, conceptual exercises, the video journal, and early image processing. Presented in three programs, works by Bruce Nauman, Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Shigeko Kubota, John Baldessari, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Nam June Paik will be featured.

As the keystone of EAI's 30th anniversary events, Museum of Modern Art presented First Decade: Video from the EAI Archives, a major retrospective that looked at the early days of video through EAI's historical collection. Featuring 60 works, the twelve-part program explored themes and issues ranging from performance and the body; narrative; cultural essays; activism, and poetics.

Artist Vito Acconci gave a reading and slide presentation/performance as part of an event that also launched a series of Acconci's early conceptual audio works, which were newly restored and released as CD's by EAI. This event was part of EAI's summer series of collaborative events at the Dia bookshop.

Mediated Presence: Three Decades of Artists' Video from Electronic Arts Intermix is a three-part survey, spanning the years 1967 to 1997, that explores the rich and diverse modes by which artists use video to investigate self. Tracing how artists have articulated a mediated relationship with the viewer and technology, this program re-visits notions of performance and gesture within the framework of three decades of artists' video, and provides a historical context for recent works.