BEING MOVED
Maia Chao
Edward Hopper, Seven A.M., 1948. Oil on canvas, 30 3/16 × 40 1/8 in. (76.7 × 101.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase and exchange 50.8. © 2026 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy Maia Chao
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Floor 7
May 14, 16, 17 at 7 pm
Presented as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, this performance explores the theatricality and choreography of a museum visit in the galleries of the Whitney Museum's permanent collection exhibition, “Untitled” (America). Centering the visitor’s experience, BEING MOVED locates its subject not in the artworks themselves, but in the social rules, scripts, and patterns that condition our encounters with art. Tracing the gap between the fantasy of a profound encounter and the ambivalent realities of contemporary spectatorship, the work plays with the ordinary and minor dramas of a museum visit.
This performance was created in collaboration with the performers.
Credits
Concept & Direction: Maia Chao
Choreography & Assistant: Lena Engelstein
Performed by & Devised with: James Barrett, Kristine Bendul, Deja Rion, David Guzman, Anna Kohler, Ellen Maddow, Cory Seals, Nancy Slusser, Jo Warren, Paul Zimet
Sound Design and Composition: Ryan Gamblin
Synth Composition: Nina Ryser
Costume Design: Zoë Chao & Maia Chao
Producer & Stage Manager: Aoife Delaney
Creative Consulting Producer: Emma Orme
Developed with: Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre, Marin Day, Ben Hard, Ampersand Paris, Chloe Engel, Nate Repasz, Spencer, Isa Spector, Neva Guido, Miles Toth, Nora Raine Thompson
Special Thanks: Ethan Philbrick, Emma Bergman, Blanche Brown, Maggie Millner, Joanna Zhang, Parker Sera, Julian Chehirian, Lane Speidel, Sunita Mani, Kim Altomare, Zoë Chao
BEING MOVED was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial.
Maia Chao is an artist making anthropological work across performance, video, sculpture, and public practice. Chao has made commissions for Times Square Arts, the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden with Ethan Philbrick, and The Shed. Her collaborative projects have been presented at the RISD Museum, Bronx Museum, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Boston Center for the Arts, Smack Mellon, and Oregon Contemporary. She has completed fellowships and residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Pioneer Works, and Queer|Art, among others. Chao was a 2022 Pew Fellow and is a 2026 United States Artist Fellow. She is based in Philadelphia and is currently faculty of Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
