MoMA PS1 took their annual "Warm Up" series of weekly summer dance parties virtual last year because of COVID, and while the series won't return in full force this summer, they have announced an abridged edition, happening online and in person (with limited capacity) over three Saturdays - August 7, August 14, and August 21.
Rashid Johnson's Stage exhibition, located in the PS1 courtyard, will be the location for this year's events. Here's more about Stage:
Stage is a participatory installation and sound work that draws on the history of the microphone as a tool for protest and public oratory, while recalling the metonymic references to microphones in hip-hop lyrics from the 1980s to the present. The work features a yellow powder-coated stage, with Johnson’s signature markings, on which stands of varying heights hold five SM58 microphones, the legendary model that has become a music industry standard since its introduction to the market in the mid 1960s. Echoing unofficial sites of public intellectual and cultural life, such as Speaker’s Corners in London’s Hyde Park and Harlem’s 135th Street and Lenox Avenue, the installation offers a place for the public to speak their mind. In this moment of vast uncertainty and widespread protest, the work also points to the tension between the power of the voice as a tool for change, and fear of the voice as a potential transmitter of illness.
Lineups for this year's Warm Ups are still to be announced. Stay tuned.
