Glenn D. Lowry
Director
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
January 20, 2009
Dear Glenn,
The best way I can think of introducing myself after the brief conversation with you tonight is to say that, besides being an artist, I'm also a lecturer an educator at MoMA. There’s no better presentation than that of being a MoMA employee since, as you know, we have high expectations about what we are able to accomplish and we do believe in this place.
It is because I believe in this place that I developed the project that I’m about to explain. And it is because of the important role that MoMA plays in the art world, that I handed this letter to you.
Most people think that MoMA is alive when it is open to the public; not that many know how the museum also breathes when it is closed; and just a few know how it has been breathing even faster during the last six months.
For the last six months I've been developing a project that has been taking place in the galleries on Tuesdays, when the museum was closed to the general public. During my free time I’ve been inviting artists from different fields to have a one-on-one conversation with me while surrounded by MoMA’s collection, of course, always following museum rules. The conversations that have been taking place weren’t documented by me, but our movements were recorded by MoMA’s security system. By now most of this footage will be gone. What remains will be erased since preserving images from the security cameras for artistic purposes interferes with current MoMA legal policy.
Artists, when allowed to experience MoMA’s collection in such privacy, expressed some of the most interesting comments and concepts for art projects one can imagine. The security of the building, the art works, and the intimacy of the space itself, permitted us to have conversations that couldn’t have taken place anywhere else. I can’t thank MoMA enough for that.
No one knows about this project but those who have been invited by me to be part of it or have been told about it by one of its participants. The names of the previous participants were only revealed once we were inside the galleries. I’ve included with this letter the names of those who were able to join me, and also the names of those who couldn't join me for various reasons, but whose positive responses kept me going.
As a lecturer in five art museums in the city, with the possibility of choosing where this project would be developed, I decided that if a new approach related to the better understanding and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art was to take place, it had to take place at MoMA. Therefore, and with all respect, I’m presenting to you an ephemeral and impossible to document project developed with an artist’s conviction that this journey would be very positive for the future of the arts, and also for MoMA.
Encouraged by your analogy of MoMA as "a laboratory where ideas can meet works of art; as an incubator of ideas generated by the art pieces," and recognizing that MoMA is a place where different sensibilities can talk to each other, I would like to invite you to be the very last participant of "Tell Me: Crisostomo on Tuesdays." I'm also inviting you because, based on my own experience, I have learned that you should take risks if you believe that what you are doing is the right thing to do; or, said with a little extra passion, if you believe you are doing what you were meant to do.
With best wishes for the New Year 2009 and looking forward to hearing from you,
Gema Alava 67-69 Alderton Street Rego Park, NY 11374
(718) 216-7331 gemaalava@gmail.com
Glenn D. Lowry
Director
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
January 20, 2009
Dear Glenn,
The best way I can think of introducing myself after the brief conversation with you tonight is to say that, besides being an artist, I'm also a lecturer an educator at MoMA. There’s no better presentation than that of being a MoMA employee since, as you know, we have high expectations about what we are able to accomplish and we do believe in this place.
It is because I believe in this place that I developed the project that I’m about to explain. And it is because of the important role that MoMA plays in the art world, that I handed this letter to you.
Most people think that MoMA is alive when it is open to the public; not that many know how the museum also breathes when it is closed; and just a few know how it has been breathing even faster during the last six months.
For the last six months I've been developing a project that has been taking place in the galleries on Tuesdays, when the museum was closed to the general public. During my free time I’ve been inviting artists from different fields to have a one-on-one conversation with me while surrounded by MoMA’s collection, of course, always following museum rules. The conversations that have been taking place weren’t documented by me, but our movements were recorded by MoMA’s security system. By now most of this footage will be gone. What remains will be erased since preserving images from the security cameras for artistic purposes interferes with current MoMA legal policy.
Artists, when allowed to experience MoMA’s collection in such privacy, expressed some of the most interesting comments and concepts for art projects one can imagine. The security of the building, the art works, and the intimacy of the space itself, permitted us to have conversations that couldn’t have taken place anywhere else. I can’t thank MoMA enough for that.
No one knows about this project but those who have been invited by me to be part of it or have been told about it by one of its participants. The names of the previous participants were only revealed once we were inside the galleries. I’ve included with this letter the names of those who were able to join me, and also the names of those who couldn't join me for various reasons, but whose positive responses kept me going.
As a lecturer in five art museums in the city, with the possibility of choosing where this project would be developed, I decided that if a new approach related to the better understanding and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art was to take place, it had to take place at MoMA. Therefore, and with all respect, I’m presenting to you an ephemeral and impossible to document project developed with an artist’s conviction that this journey would be very positive for the future of the arts, and also for MoMA.
Encouraged by your analogy of MoMA as "a laboratory where ideas can meet works of art; as an incubator of ideas generated by the art pieces," and recognizing that MoMA is a place where different sensibilities can talk to each other, I would like to invite you to be the very last participant of "Tell Me: Crisostomo on Tuesdays." I'm also inviting you because, based on my own experience, I have learned that you should take risks if you believe that what you are doing is the right thing to do; or, said with a little extra passion, if you believe you are doing what you were meant to do.
With best wishes for the New Year 2009 and looking forward to hearing from you,
Gema Alava 67-69 Alderton Street Rego Park, NY 11374
(718) 216-7331 gemaalava@gmail.com