Marianne Boesky is pleased to present “Estate”, a project by Lucie Fontaine. While in English the word “estate” denotes things like real estate, the estate of a dead artist and so forth, in Italian the exact same word stands for summer. Following those combined interpretations and continuing her modus operandi between fiction and reality, collectivity and singularity, Lucie Fontaine and her employees will live in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s New York Upper East Side gallery space at 118 East 64th Street, a historical functioning three-story townhouse. They will occupy the house on August 15 and will leave on October 15.
The starting date August 15 corresponds to when Italians celebrate “Ferragosto” [August holidays], which is historically connected to the middle of the summer and the end of the hard labor in the fields. The idea is to create an immersive environment inspired by figures like Florine Stettheimer and Isabella Stewart Gardner as well as by museum houses in Milan – where Lucie Fontaine has an exhibition space – such as the Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano and the Villa Necchi Campiglio. In the first month Lucie Fontaine and her employees will invite artists to live with them in the space and display their works within this frame, which – enriched by furniture selected by antique dealer Jon Howell – will be partly domestic and partly commercial. The works will be gathered in a way that is deliberately spontaneous and therefore the list of the artists included will be released only on the day that Lucie Fontaine will open to the public on September 15. After that date, Lucie Fontaine will return to her French hometown Colmar, leaving her employees to take care of the house and the works included in the project. At the same time the space will reopen to the public after the summer break and it will have usual opening hours from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 am to 6 pm. In this scenario, the cohabitation between the gallery staff and Lucie Fontaine’s employees will generate a mixture between public and private, underlining how in the field of contemporary art the notion of leisure and working time are ever more blended and interchangeable.
ARTISTS, MOTIFS, WEEKLY EVENTS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS
ARTISTS AND MOTIFS
Domesticity: kitchen and hallway
Adriano Altamira, Riccardo Beretta, Lupo Borgonovo, Vittoria Chierici, Patrizio Di Massimo, Cleo Fariselli, Enza Galantini, Corrado Levi, Marcello Maloberti, Alice Mandelli, Marcello Martin, Daniella Isamit Morales, Alek O., Alessandro Roma, Matteo Rubbi, Santo Tolone, Marcella Vanzo and Mauro Vignando.
Salon: living room, studio and bathrooms
Kim Abeles, Ali Banisadr, Lucas Blalock, Marco Boggio Sella, Paul Branca, Judith Braun, Valerio Carrubba, Aline Cautis, Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Radu Comşa, Jen DeNike, Fendry Ekel, Lucie Fontaine, Lucio Fontana, Heather Guertin, Giorgio Guidi_Marta Pierobon (Draok), Peter Halley, Eric Helvie, Alfi Jumaldi, Kimberly Kay Charles, Anya Kielar, Brad Killam, Hannah Kirby, Miranda Lichtenstein, John Newsom, Amalia Piccinini, Lisi Raskin, John Riepenhoff with Michelle Grabner, Matalon Rose, Bruce Sherman, Alberto Tadiello, Josh Tonsfeldt, Georgi Tushev, Daniel Turner, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Johannes VanDerBeek and Entang Wiharso.
Bouquets: bedroom, second floor
Fia Backström, Mauro Bonacina, Ann Craven, Camille Henrot, Tom Holmes, Maria Loboda, Ylva Ogland, Mamie Tinkler and Alice Tomaselli.
Father Figures: bedroom, third floor
Joshua Neustein and David Robbins.
Children of Babel: bedroom, third floor
Rita Ackermann, Sonia Almeida, Harold Ancart, Ana Cardoso, Esther Kläs, Linda Matalon, Amir Mogharabi, Sarah Ortmeyer and Rita Sobral Campos.
Please note that some of the artworks have been repeated in more than one motif or displaced during the installation process, please see labels on display.
WEEKLY EVENTS
'We Own the Night : Nightlife in New York', Friday, September 21 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Art critic Julie Boukobza will organize a symposium called We Own the Night : Nightlife in New York. The speakers are Spencer Sweeney, Johnny Misheff, Glenn O’ Brien, Sophia Lamar, Todd P and Marie Karlberg.
Entang Wiharso, Sunday, September 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Indonesian artist Entang Wiharso will present a performance in collaboration with Burlesque dancer Miranti.
Heather Guertin, Wednesday, September 26 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Artist Heather Guertin will perform her iconic stand-up comedy.
Poetry reading, Friday, September 28 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
A poetry reading by Sylvia Gorelick and Roger Van Voorhees.
Gretchen Bender, Thursday, October 4 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Urbanist, surfer and RIPPMAG creative director Jacqueline Miró and RIPPMAG co-founder Erin Knutson will facilitate a panel discussion on the legacy of artist Gretchen Bender (1951-2004) on the occasion of her retrospective at The Poor Farm. The panelists are: Philip Vanderhyden, curator of the retrospective at The Poor Farm and Chris Dorland, artist and curator of Data Trash.
Portuguese dinner, Friday, October 5 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Artists Ana Cardoso and Rita Sobral Campos will prepare a dinner for the inhabitants of the house and a few special guests. October 5th marks both the day that Portugal became sovereign under the Treaty of Zamora in 1143 and the establishment of the Portuguese Republic, 767 years later, in 1910. October 5th is also the birthday of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California (1955) and the establishment of the city of Anaheim itself by 50 German families (1857). The 767 is a passenger plane developed by Boeing in the 80s to service Germans, Portuguese, and especially Mickey Mouse. Cardoso and Sobral Campos will prepare a fish stew.
The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, Sunday, October 7 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm
Chef Megan Kimball invites you for a special afternoon tea inspired by The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.
MotorPark, Wednesday, October 10 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Artists Kimberly Charles Kay and Lisi Raskin will present their project MotorPark. MotorPark is a hub, a workshop and a think-tank on wheels. An eccentrically modified school bus replete with a wood burning stove, two lofts and a back porch, MotorPark will take thinkers and makers on road trips to cross-pollinate and create together. Info: motormotorparkpark.com
Night for Listening: Estate, Sunday, October 14 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Curator Alhena Katsof invites a handful of musicians, poets and artists to prepare and perform in succession, a version of Bruno Martino and Bruno Brighetti’s song, Estate, made famous by João Gilberto. The performers are Daniel Arnow & Batya Sobel, Frank Lyon, Michael O’Neill, Ellery Royston & Adam Bach and Geo Wyeth.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Cleo Fariselli, Untitled
Wednesdays September 19, September 26, October 3 from 3:00 to 6:00 pm
Saturdays September 22, September 29, and October 6 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
Artist Cleo Fariselli will present a selection of her sculptures through action: the works are passed from hand to hand and then stored. No documentation will be produced, being involved in the action is the only way to see the pieces. (Maximum 6 people at a time)
Terry Iacuzzo: Clairvoyant, Terry Iacuzzo, seeing beyond the range of natural vision and extraordinary insight, will discreetly and discerningly reveal psychic messages to randomly selected guests of her own choosing. Her appearances at the salon will be frequent, but unannounced.
Guided tours on demand: Visitors can request a 30-minute guided tour of the house, please contact Lucie Fontaine’s employees at employee@luciefontaine.com. RSVP is essential, and space is limited – please contact Lucie Fontaine’s employees at employee@luciefontaine.com to confirm your attendance. The event will start promptly.
Lucie Fontaine is an art employer who lives and works in Colmar, France. Describing herself as an “art employer,” Lucie Fontaine avoids harnessing her practice to a specific figure of the art field, preferring to cultivate a modus operandi driven solely by her relationship with her employees, a concept of self-generated labor similar to the Master-Slave dialectic presented by Hegel in The Phenomenology of Spirit. Her art employees like to define her as the Jamie Lynn Spears of contemporary art: “pregnant and in search of easy success.”