Tinguely & Landy. Homage to New York - Performance - Destruction

EYE presents an evening around the artist Jean Tinguely in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, which currently devotes a major exhibition to the Swiss-born artist. Jean Tinguely achieved fame with his playful yet robust machine art and explosive performances. Everything had to change, everything had to be in motion.

On 17 March 1960 Tinguely staged his notorious sculpture-performance Homage to New York in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The machine destroyed itself in just 27 minutes. British artist Michael Landy has been fascinated and inspired by Tinguely all his life.

Landy is well known for his Break Down Project (2001), during which performance he proceeded to destroy all of his possessions in a department store on London”s Oxford Street. This evening Landy will talk about the significance and relevance of Tinguely”s work for his own artistic practice.

Margriet Schavemaker, Manager Education, Interpretation & Publications of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, will introduce the evening and interview Michael Landy.

“My machines have nothing to do with Swiss precision, everything is meant to fall apart." - Jean Tinguely

Programme:

Breaking it up at the MuseumD.A. Pennebaker (US 1960)An interview with Jean Tinguely and a demonstration of his famous self-destructive machine, which was blown to pieces in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in 1960 during a performance called Homage to New York.

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Homage to Tinguely's Homage to New YorkRobert Breer (US 1960)A tribute to the creation of Tinguely”s ingenious kinetic sculpture, which destroyed itself in the garden of MoMA.

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H.2.N.Y.Michael Landy (UK 2008)Michael Landy”s reenactment of Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York. For this project the British artist traced people who attended Tinguely”s original performance in MoMA. Some still cherish fragments of Tinguely”s machine.