Shimon Attie

press release: The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) will present Shimon Attie: The Crossing, a video installation in the Imprint Gallery that will be open to the public from April 20 through September 29, 2019. This exhibition is the result of a partnership between MMoCA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Art History course, “Design Thinking for Exhibitions” taught by professor Anna Campbell. The MMoCA Opening celebration for Shimon Attie: The Crossing, and for the students who curated the exhibition, will be held on Friday, May 3, 2019 from 6 to 9 pm as part of Gallery Night.

Currently based in New York, Shimon Attie is an internationally renowned visual artist. Through his public site-specific installations, as well as photography, single and multi-channel video, and new media, Attie explores the ways in which memories cast their light onto particular places or communities. “Shimon Attie’s work, which focuses on human rights and the long legacies of trauma, is especially urgent at this time,” stated professor Campbell. “Students have been diligent and thoughtful in creating a curatorial framework to help bring the timeliness of Attie’s work to a broader Madison public. It’s been thrilling to be able to collaborate with Attie himself, and with Leah Kolb and the staff of MMoCA, to make this exhibition a reality.”

The Crossing (2017) is an eight-minute video installation that muses on the current global refugee crisis. The film opens with several gamblers sitting around a slowly-spinning roulette table. The room is quiet and the players hold motionless poses. Each places a bet and then, one by one, the gamblers disappear from the table. At the end of the film, only a single player remains. Poignantly, the film eventually reveals the actors in this work are not actors at all, but Syrian refugees.

The refugees featured in The Crossing had recently arrived in Europe, some having crossed the Mediterranean Sea on rafts. While the game unfolds on screen, the sounds of wind and water can be heard in the background, a constant reminder of the life-threatening journey refugees undertake to reach Europe. According to Attie, “The Crossing reflects the extraordinary risks migrants are forced to take in times of crisis, literally gambling for their lives.” This new exhibition at MMoCA is timely, coming at a time when many immigrants all over the world are attempting to seek refuge. It also points to the broader reality that human existence is subjected to the uncontrollable forces of life and death.

The graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in Professor Campbell’s course worked closely together to develop this exhibition over the course of the spring semester. Graduate students served in mentorship roles, while all students took on curatorial duties and engaged in extensive dialogue and collaboration with key staff at MMoCA. A Skype interview with Shimon Attie himself was also held in the process of planning for the exhibition. “It was incredible to be able to have a kind of one-on-one conversation with a high-profile artist such as Shimon Attie,” stated Anwar Pruitt, a graduate art student taking the class. “Opportunities like this don’t happen too often, and I think we were all grateful for Attie’s time and kind words, as well as to Professor Campbell for arranging the conversation for us.”

To fully document Shimon Attie: The Crossing, the student curators are producing an exhibition catalogue that includes full photographic documentation, as well as several short essays written by those taking the class. With all English texts translated into both Spanish and Chinese, the trilingual publication aims to be accessible to museum visitors of different backgrounds and histories. Students have also created a social media platform for those interested in seeing how Shimon Attie: The Crossing was produced and following their current progress. Follow @designthinkingforexhibits to stay updated and “like” their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/330131827644652/

Shimon Attie currently lives and works in New York City. He has received degrees from San Francisco State University, Antioch University in San Francisco, and the University of California-Berkeley. Attie has received 11 significant visual artist fellowships, including from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Academy in Rome (The Rome Prize), The National Endowment for the Arts, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and Kunstfonds (Germany’s NEA equivalent). His work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world, including at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Miami Art Museum, Florida; and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; among many others.

EXHIBITION EVENTS

Intersections of Identity with Shimon Attie’s The Crossing

Tuesday, April 30 • 5:30–7:30 PM

Shimon Attie’s The Crossing abstractly grapples with and interrogates the gamble Syrian refugees take when deciding to leave their country and pursue life in new lands. The refugee-immigrant experience knows not one country, time period, or ethnicity. America has a complicated history of being a safe haven for refugees and immigrants, as well as an agent of injustice for these groups.

This panel will explore the American experience of refugee-immigrants and that of their descendants, as lived by UW undergraduates. Panelists reflect a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds, from African Americans post-Great Migration to the influx of Hmong people to Wisconsin in the 1980s. The ways immigration and fleeing specifically affect young undergraduates, their subsequent lives in America, and their experience at UW-Madison will be explored.

MMoCA Opening

Friday, May 3 • 6–9 pm

The MMoCA Opening celebration for Shimon Attie: The Crossing, and for the students who curated the exhibition, will be held on Friday, May 3, 2019 from 6 to 9 pm as part of Gallery Night. The evening will also celebrate the opening of mixed-media artist Tyanna Buie’s solo exhibition, including an artist talk at 6:30 pm. This MMoCA Opening includes a talk at 6:30 pm by the artist, along with lively music and passed hors d’oeuvres from Fresco. This event is free. Seating capacity in the lecture hall is limited.

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Housed in a soaring, Cesar Pelli-designed building, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art provides free exhibitions and education programs that engage people in modern and contemporary art. The museum’s four galleries offer changing exhibitions that feature established and emerging artists. The Rooftop Sculpture Garden provides an urban oasis with an incredible view. The museum is open: Tuesday through Thursday, noon-5 pm; Friday, noon-8 pm; Saturday, 10 am-8 pm; Sunday, noon-5 pm; and is closed on Mondays.