Nina Berman’s interest in the human stories behind war and global conflicts is the inspiration and motivation behind her searing photographs of contemporary warfare. By creating portraits of individuals transformed by war, she seeks to make the conflict “more intimately felt by a civilian audience.” Join her as she brings the war home in a unique format for a night of dialogue and interaction.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

Michael Asher’s 2010 work, No Title, opened the Biennial continuously to the public twenty-four hours a day from Wednesday, May 26 at 12:00 am through Friday, May 28 at 11:59 pm. This video features surveillance footage—taken in the Museum’s lobby—of the first ten seconds of every hour during the project.

In this video, 2010 artist Ari Marcopoulos brings together musicians from the electroacoustic improvisation scene, including Orphan and Yellow Tears, for a night of performance and noise.

In this video, 2010 artist Theaster Gates is joined by The Black Monks of Mississippi, an order of musicians and singers who temporarily submit themselves to ideals of musical restraint and semi-strict adherence to the blues form, which the artist believes to be the most important root in the American musical tradition.

Filmmaker Kerry Tribe takes the elusive nature of memory as her subject matter in work that investigates subjectivity and representation. Through carefully crafted footage and interviews she reveals the power and influence of film and video in shaping beliefs and perception. This evening, Tribe stages a performative reading of Hollis Frampton’s classic film, Critical Mass (1971).

Filmmaker Kerry Tribe takes the elusive nature of memory as her subject matter in work that investigates subjectivity and representation. Through carefully crafted footage and interviews she reveals the power and influence of film and video in shaping beliefs and perception. This evening, Tribe stages a performative reading of Hollis Frampton’s classic film, Critical Mass (1971).

The first part of the performance was a verbatim reenactment of an argument originally improvised for Frampton’s Critical Mass. The second part was a reenacted reading of the finished film, complete with Frampton’s highly stylized editing. For this performance, the role of Frankie was played by Reed Windle and the role of Barb was played by Jasmine Woods.

This performance contains language that may not be suitable for children.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

An artist and a writer, Emily Roysdon uses language and text to explore questions of civic engagement, public speech, politics, and history. Her work spans mediums—from performance and video to photography and printed matter—as she bridges visual art and writing. For this program, Roysdon brings together performing artist MPA and the post-punk duo Light Asylum for a mix of movement and sound.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

In this video, experimental choreographer Melinda Ring holds auditions for a fully imagined but never to be performed work specifically designed for Martin Kersels’s sculpture, 5 Songs .

The Black Monks of Mississippi are an order of musicians and singers who temporarily submit themselves to ideals of musical restraint and semi-strict adherence to the blues form, which Theaster Gates believes to be the most important root in the American musical tradition. The Black Monks strive to be holy, restrained, orderly, and disciplined, but they fall short. What they achieve instead is a very human response to displaced spiritual ecstasy, particularly in the flavor of the Black Church.

This event is one in a series of “monastic residencies” organized by 2010 artist Theaster Gates, who will collaborate with academics, artists, and street musicians in the Museum’s Sculpture Court throughout the duration of the Biennial.

In this video 2010 artist Julia Fish shares scenes from her Chicago home that inspired her paintings Threshold, SouthEast-One [spectrum: yellow], Threshold, North [spectrum: blue], and Threshold, SouthWest-Two [spectrum: green] featured in this video and on view in the Whitney Biennial.

From the act of peeling fruit to the theatrical staging of movement, Aki Sasamoto’s work explores the peculiarities of everyday life and gestures. She functions as storyteller and performer, drawing the viewer into her created narratives. Tonight she is joined by Culture Push, the arts organization she co-directs, to premiere a new series of experiential workshops, Storm Your Brain.

Culture Push is about hands-on learning, group problem solving, serious play, and interdisciplinary connections. Aki directs one of the company’s signature programs, DOING Symposium, in which invited specialists share their expertise with each other through hands-on experiences. Each participant brings activities that are specific to his/her field and shares in all the activies—there are no spectators!

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

In this video, 2010 artist Aki Sasamoto is joined by Culture Push, the arts organization she codirects, to premier a new series of experiential workshops.

In this video, 2010 artist Martin Kersels recreates seminal moments of performance art with Playmobil figures on a miniature model of his Biennial sculpture, 5 Songs.

In this video, vogue dancers and musicians perform in Rashaad Newsome’s multimedia performance FIVE.

In this video, 2010 artist Hannah Greely arm wrestles an opponent in one of the many bars that inspired her Biennial sculpture, Dual.

Sculptor Martin Kersels plays impresario for the evening, drawing on his interest in performance, movement, and space. His work investigates artistic process and often consists of pieces that reveal the method of their making. For his public program Kersels weaves together music, theater, poetry, and dialogue and allows the public to participate in the event’s creation.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

Ari Marcopoulos’s photographs and videos capture the rhythm and feel of diverse youth-oriented subcultures from snowboarding to underground music. His honest portraits depict, as he has stated, “something that just stands for life lived.” This evening, he brings together musicians from the electroacoustic improvisation scene, including Orphan, Mirror/Dash, and Yellow Tears for a night of performance and noise.

My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.

In this video, 2010 artist Curtis Mann demonstrates how he created After the Dust, Second View (Beirut) by appropriating images from photo-sharing sites like Flickr and using a process of varnish and bleach to abstract the original images.

In this video, 2010 artist Robert Grosvenor introduces the way in which his sculpture, Untitled, 2009, was installed in the Whitney Biennial.

The Black Monks of Mississippi are an order of musicians and singers who temporarily submit themselves to ideals of musical restraint and semi-strict adherence to the blues form, which Theaster Gates believes to be the most important root in the American musical tradition. The Black Monks strive to be holy, restrained, orderly, and disciplined, but they fall short. What they achieve instead is a very human response to displaced spiritual ecstasy, particularly in the flavor of the Black Church.

This event is one in a series of “monastic residencies” organized by 2010 artist Theaster Gates, who will collaborate with academics, artists, and street musicians in the Museum’s Sculpture Court throughout the duration of the Biennial.

In this video, Whitney members celebrate the opening of 2010, the Whitney Biennial.

This video includes footage of the 2010 VIP opening and the 2010 Whitney Biennial After Party hosted by fashion sponsor Tommy Hilfiger.

2010 artist Josephine Meckseper created Amalgamated with footage she took on her iPhone of the Whitney Museum’s building designed by architect Marcel Breuer.

2010 artist Thomas Houseago discusses the inspiration for his sculpture, Baby, and describes how the sculpture travelled from L.A. to the Whitney Museum for the Biennial.

Offering an intimate look into 2010 artist Dawn Clements’ studio, this video includes footage of Clements watching My Reputation (1945), the film that her drawing Mrs. Jessica Drummond’s (“My Reputation”, 1945) is based upon.

This audio guide highlights works from 2010, the Whitney Biennial, as curators and artists discuss the thoughts, process, and ideas behind the exhibition.

In this video, 2010 artist Kate Gilmore shops for the shoes that she will wear while performing her Biennial work, Standing Here.

2010 curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari discuss what happens between choosing the artists and opening the Biennial.

2010 curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari discuss how they chose this year’s Biennial artists.

Biennial artist Rashaad Newsome introduces three of the Vogue dancers he works with. Their improvisational performance was shot on-site at Ramis Barquet Gallery in New York, where the artist’s exhibition, Rashaad Newsome: Standards, was recently on view.

2010 curator Gary Carrion-Murayari visits the artist’s home to play a match of FIFA 10 soccer while Marcopoulos blasts a track from his lo-fi noise tape collection titled Nail Paint Mausoleum.

In a Brooklyn coffee shop, 2010 artist Aki Sasamoto introduces some of the questions and concepts explored in her upcoming Whitney Biennial performance.

2010 curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari share their ideas about the Whitney Biennial.

Curators Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari announce the artist list for 2010, the Whitney Biennial.