On the occasion of Marta Minujín’s solo exhibition Making a Presence at kurimanzutto New York, the gallery presents a live conversation between Minujín and Darsie Alexander
Together, they will discuss Minujín’s multifaceted career spanning six decades, with a focus on her formalist period starting in the late 1950s and her transition into new languages.
The conversation is the seventh chapter of the FUTURE DIALOGUES series hosted by kurimanzutto and Casa Dragones. Inspired by kurimanzutto’s intergenerational program defined by a rich history of artistic collaborations and Casa Dragones’s dynamic tradition of exploration and inquiry, FUTURE DIALOGUES focuses on the exchange of knowledge and ideas for the artists and creatives of tomorrow.
The series has featured pioneering artists and authors: Minerva Cuevas & Alfredo Jaar, Abraham Cruzvillegas & Julie Mehretu, Carlos Amorales & Joan Jonas, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane & Rirkrit Tiravanija, Roberto Gil de Montes & Joey Terrill and Daniel Guzmán & Mónica de la Torre.
About Marta Minujín
Marta Minujín studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and at the Escuela Nacional Prilidiano Pueyrredón in Buenos Aires. In 1961 she received a scholarship to study in Paris, where she made her first performance The Destruction, in 1963. When she returned to Buenos Aires in 1964, she received the Torcuato Di Tella Institute National Award for the work Revuélquese y viva, her first interactive installation. In 1965 she presented La menesunda, a multi- sensorial experience through the use of lights, colors, sounds, smells and textures, at the Di Tella Institute with artist Rubén Santantonín. In 1966 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New York. There she began working on two major media projects: Simultaneity in Simultaneity (1966), with Allan Kaprow in New York and Wolf Vostell in Berlin; and Minuphone (1967). During the 1970s she lived and worked between the United States and Argentina, exhibiting her work in important institutions and creating performances and events such as Interpenning (1972) and Kidnappening, both at the Museum of Modern Art (1973), followed by La academia del fracaso, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, CAYC (1975) and Comunicando con tierra, Centro de Arte y Comunicación, CAYC (1976).
Among Minujín’s most famous works are the large-scale “monuments” to public participation developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including El obelisco acostado, Sao Paulo (1978), Carlos Gardel de fuego, Medellín (1981), El Partenón de libros, Buenos Aires and Kassel ( 1983 and 2017, respectively), Big Ben lying down, Manchester (2021). In 2023 she had two retrospectives: one at the Jewish Museum in New York and another at the Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo.
Her works are part of international public collections, such as those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC; Olympic Park, Seoul; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and MALBA, Buenos Aires; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Minujín lives and works in Buenos Aires.
About Darsie Alexander
Darsie Alexander, Senior Deputy Director and Susan and Elihu Rose Chief Curator, joined the Jewish Museum in 2018. Previously she served as Executive Director of the Katonah Museum of Art; Chief Curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Senior Curator at Baltimore Museum of Art; and Assistant Curator at Museum of Modern Art, New York. She has served on visiting committees and foundation panels, including the Terra Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts & Humanities, ArtsWestchester and the Williams College Museum of Art. Alexander’s curatorial credits include Marta Minujín: Arte! Arte! Arte! (with Rebecca Shaykin, 2023), Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art (2021), Martha Rosler: Irrespective (2018), and International Pop (2015-16).
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May 2nd, 5 pm
kurimanzutto, New York
516 West 20th Street New York, NY 10011