Performance and conceptual art make a big splash at SOFA New York

WEISSPOLLACK Galleries has recently begun a new direction in sculptural art.
On the opening night one of our artists turned the entire fair into a living breathing sculpture.

Liuba, who came from Milan to perform, dressed in a black outfit and covered herself in oversized red sold dots. Walking around the fair she chose works and placed dots on the walls next to them. The piece is called "Virus" and has been performed with great success all over Europe. In fact she just finished a successful new performance at the Venice Biennal.

The point of this performance is to point out the temporary nature of these fairs and the difference between reality and fiction which we in the art world create with these fairs and in our everyday dealing. The sold dot is the most prominent marking and is universal in the art world so it is a great way to make a point about how we exist and what we believe.

One of the purposes of performance art and happening is the illicit different response from different types of people and to then capture them on film. She is in this way creating a portrait of an event or a period.
The films serve as documentation of her temporary creation and are sold as the final product. The SOFA NY footage quickly became one of her finest happenings. Many people loved what she stood for and what she was doing and you can see in the soon to be edited film and these still the excitement she created.

However, some became very upset for unknown reasons. Perhaps too much of the spotlight was going onto one artist. She was then escorted out of the building by military personnel. While she was outside the building she tried to film the floor mat at the entrance which ironically said "Welcome".
Even outside the building they found a reason why she shouldn't be filming.
The military men confronted her camera woman. They confiscated her ID and Passport and told her that she had to destroy the tape in the camera or they would keep her papers. Fortunately it was a new tape and nothing was really lost.

In the end the performance served a great purpose. It helped many people in this world of SOFA see another type of contemporary sculpture and it unwittingly helped drag the SOFA Exhibitions into the Fine Art Realm. Even when I was confronted by a SOFA employee and informed that, "This is SOFA its not Fine Art..." I still realized that in many ways the show promoters will ultimately benefit from that changes its youngest exhibiting galleries will ultimately have to make. The new types of works exhibited this year will help blur the line between SOAF and Fine Art. Lets continue to encourage this change.
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Thank you,
David Pollack

WEISSPOLLACK Galleries
Chelsea
521-531 West 25th Street
Ground Floor #9
NY, NY 10001
Tel.212.989.3708
Fax 212.989.6392
Cell 203.984.1398
david@weisspollack.com