Midnight Showing
The Space is the Place III
Performance
March 14, 2009, 2 hours, Brooklyn, New York
Midnight Showing was an experimental performance held in a deserted Brooklyn studio, the third show in a series titled “The Space is the Place.” This series was conceived by artist J. Morrison, who, after stumbling upon empty—and unlocked—studios in his building, instinctively recognized their utility as performance spaces. The spontaneous events were held every other Saturday evening under covert means, for a selected audience, at an unsuspecting hour.
Maria Petschnig relocated her performance, normally done in the privacy of her own apartment, to a double room—a former recording studio—divided in half by a soundproofed wall with a window. The spatial partition defined the roles of the two chambers. Petschnig’s room functioned as the stage and the main space was designated as the “receiving area” for the viewers.
The guests were given an address prior, and upon arrival, were escorted by the doorman to the secret location inside the building. About 30 hand-tailored objects/sculptures were hanging on the walls, and each person was invited to pick one and wear it according to their imagination. Dance music filled the room as the guests considered their choices of pieces in front of a full-length mirror. The window remained hidden behind a large wooden plate, leaving the audience naïve to the main event approaching. A few minutes before the start of the performance, the curator turned off the lights and music and pulled away the plate to reveal a curtained window, dimly illuminated. Maria Petschnig drew away the curtains and appeared in front of the glass. The audience saw a mysterious living sculpture, a nude body costumed in misappropriated pieces of clothing. To neutralize the viewer’s gaze at a naked body, Petschnig covered her face and pubic area. Eight conceptual pieces were modeled over a length of 30 minutes.
