MoMA PS1 Warm Up: Holding Pattern by Interboro Partners

July 7, 2011

One of the New York City's best–and certainly one of its liveliest–summer traditions kicked off last Saturday with the launch of MoMA PS1 Warm Up always-a-blast  music and dance party. Here's how it works: every Saturday between now and September 3, from around 2:00 in the afternoon until 9:00 at night, MoMA PS1 turns its excellent courtyard space into a welcoming, family-friendly super-sunny dance club. There are bands and DJs who perform all day and night, including some of the biggest names on the ones and twos. There's a largish stone dance floor, with concrete "bleachers" at one end leading up to the stage, the perfect perch from which to indulge in some serious people watching. There's plenty of beer and food for sale, and the whole museum's open, so MoMA PS1 Warm Up is also a great time to wander around the shambling, one-time school and take in a whole bunch of contemporary art with your fellow party-goers.

Every year one of our favorite parts of this MoMA event is the unveiling of the new courtyard installation, designed and constructed by the winner of the museum's annual Young Architect Program competition. Now in its 12th year, the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program solicits entries from architectural school students, recent graduates, as well as design and architecture firms who are experimenting with new materials and techniques, that will transform the multi-roomed, triangular courtyard space into a kind of urban oasis, providing seating, shade, water, recreation, and visual interest to party goers. 

This year's winner of the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program was Brooklyn's Interboro Partners, whose Holding Pattern installation, while perhaps a little light on design pyrotechnics, nicely takes reusability to its logical extreme by only using items and materials that can be donated to (and, in fact, were requested by) neighboring Long Island City institutions at the end of the summer. And so Interboro Partners made the little room off the MoMA PS1's main courtyard become a mirror room, with the strategically placed floor-to-"ceiling" mirrors going to a nearby dance studio in September; and the big room near the entrance sprouts a mini-forest, with 84 trees planted into a labyrinth of hay bales (and mulch), all of which will be given to local community gardens. The foosball table, the ping pong table, the benches, the throne-y lifeguard chair, the tubs, all of it, even the ropes from which hang the fabric, skeletal-like structure that drapes the entire courtyard, has been earmarked for reuse once summer is gone.          

Anyway, the music at the MoMA PS1 Warm Up party has always noteworthy, and this year is no exception, with a nice mix of experimental bands and internationally renowned DJs. There's no bad week on the schedule, but this Saturday, July 9, with Four Tet headlining looks pretty hot, as well as the Black Dice-led lineup on August 13, and the closing night with The 2 Bears sounds like a great way to end the summer. As far as the art goes at MoMA PS1, there are several interesting shows here, but the ones not to miss are Laurel Nakadate: Only the Lonely (only through August 8 and the entertainingly elaborate viewing rooms of Ryan Trecartin's seven-part movie, Any Ever. 

MoMA PS1: Warm Up 2011 and Holding Pattern Details 

MoMA PS1 is located at Jackson and 46th Avenues in Long Island City, near the E, 7 and G trains.  Holding Pattern will be up through September 26, and Warm Up happens every Saturday through September 3. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For lots more information about all of the above, please see the MoMA PS1 website, here.

MoMA PS1 Warm Up Events

Posted in NYC Events | Tagged holding pattern • interboro partners • moma events • moma long island city • moma ps1 • moma ps1 warm up • MOMA Warm Up