FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



DANIEL ARSHAM, JONAH BOKAER, JUDITH SÁNCHEZ RUÍZ:

  A TWO-WEEK ENGAGEMENT AT THE NEW MUSEUM

REPLICA PERFORMANCES DEC 10, 11, 17 AND 18, 2009 AT 7 PM



Set design and video by Daniel Arsham

Choreographed by Jonah Bokaer with Judith Sánchez Ruíz

Original commissioned music by ARP/Alexis Georgopoulos



NEW YORK – Artist Daniel Arsham has created the set and video for  
REPLICA, a collaborative performance art piece making its New York  
debut on December 10 at 7 PM. REPLICA will highlight a two-week  
residency at the New Museum, taking place from December 7 through  
December 20. Imagined with and featuring choreographers/dance  
performers Jonah Bokaer and Judith Sánchez Ruíz, REPLICA explores  
movement, memory and amnesia through the use of E.M.D.R. (Eye  
Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) testing technologies.  
Additional performances will be held on December 11, 17 and 18 at 7 PM.

REPLICA’s two-week engagement will feature a series of artistic,  
intellectual and educational events designed by the performance’s  
collaborators.  This includes a 1,000-word essay on REPLICA by  
neuroaesthetician Dr. Michael Maizels; a panel discussion on  
Neuroscience, Memory and the Performing Arts moderated by J.D.  
Talasek, Director of Cultural Programs at the National Academy of  
Science (December 11); and a two-day workshop in improvisation  
conducted by Judith Sánchez Ruíz (December 16 & 17).  A limited  
edition poster of 250 designed Arsham for REPLICA will be available  
for purchase in the museum gift shop.

Daniel Arsham’s set design, featuring wall erosions and sculpted  
cavities symbolizing memory loss, also serves as a screen to present  
video using "creative geography" to achieve yet another level of  
consciousness. Watching the dancers on previously recorded video and  
simultaneously witnessing them interact with Arsham’s design in the  
live performance, the audience experiences a conflation of real and  
fictional time.  Arsham, known for his “architectural  
interventions” and expansive collaborative practice, has worked with  
such luminaries as Merce Cunningham, Robert Wilson, Hedi Slimane,  
Friends With You and Snarkitecture, among others.

The work received its world premiere at the Instituto Valenciano de  
Arte Moderno in Valencia, Spain on May 28, in the exhibition  
Fronteras curated by Aaron Betsky, Francesca Pietropaolo, Robert  
Storr and Robert Wilson. This was followed an American premiere on  
July 1 at the Harman Center in Washington, DC, and a performance at  
Le Carré d’Art in Nîmes on October 12.  Commissioned by the  
Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS),  
Washington, D.C. with support from the Harman Center, REPLICA is the  
Academy’s first choreographic commission.  Additional presentation  
support is being provided by the New Museum, Carré d’Art de Nîmes,  
Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council,  
and USArtists International, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts  
Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts,  
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Purchase tickets in advance online at http://www.newmuseum.org/events

To preview a clip from REPLICA visit: http://vimeo.com/7522734



Daniel Arsham

Daniel Arsham rethinks the surfaces that define a space: floors,  
walls, and ceilings. His multifaceted practice and penchant for  
collaboration spans the fields of art, architecture and performance.  
Arsham’s work challenges the traditional expectation of space; white  
walls are malleable and open up the possibility of fluid, impermanent  
architecture.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio and raised in Miami, Florida, Arsham  
graduated from Cooper Union and received the Gelman Trust Fellowship  
Award in 2003. In 2004 he participated in the group show “Miami  
Nice” at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin (Paris), which began to represent  
Arsham 2005. As one of the founders of the seminal Miami artist-run  
spaces “The House” and “Placemaker,” his interest in  
collaboration began early.

His work has been shown at PS1 in New York (Greater New York 2005),  
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, The Athens Biennial, Mills  
College Art Museum in Oakland, California and Carré d’Art de  
Nîmes, France. Arsham’s five-year collaboration with the late  
modern dance choreographer Merce Cunningham established the basis of  
his collaborative work for the stage. His expanded practice has  
included collaborations with Hedi Slimane, Robert Wilson, Jonah  
Bokaer, Friends With You and Snarkitecture. Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin  
Paris/Miami and Ron Mandos Gallery Amsterdam/Rotterdam represent  
Arsham, who has an upcoming solo in March 2010 at Galerie Emmanuel  
Perrotin Paris.  A monograph of Arsham’s work was published in 2008  
by the French Centre National des arts plastiques and is available in  
the New Museum Bookstore.



Jonah Bokaer

Originally from Ithaca, NY, Jonah Bokaer trained in dance at Cornell  
University, and subsequently graduated from North Carolina School of  
the Arts as a North Carolina Academic Scholar (Contemporary Dance/ 
Performance, 2000). Recruited for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company  
at the unprecedented age of eighteen, Bokaer pursued a parallel  
degree in visual and media studies at The New School (2003-07), where  
he received the Joan Kirnsner Memorial Award. Additional studies in  
media and performance occurred at Parsons School of Design, NYU  
Performance Studies, and through self-taught explorations into  
digital media and 3D animation. This education led to the development  
of a rare, multidisciplinary approach to choreography, addressing the  
human body in relation to contemporary technologies. Bokaer, in  
collaboration with John Jasperse/Thin Man Dance, founded Center for  
Performance Research (CPR), a 4,000 square foot arts facility in  
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which provides affordable rehearsal and  
performance space, innovative arts programming, education and  
pedagogical engagement with artists in New York City and abroad.

Bokaer has worked with Merce Cunningham (2000-07), John Jasperse  
(2004-05), David Gordon (2005-06), Deborah Hay (2005), Tino Sehgal  
(2008), and many others. He has also interpreted the choreography of  
George Balanchine as restaged by Melissa Hayden. Bokaer’s work has  
been presented widely throughout venues in the United States and  
abroad, including Cornell University, Dance Theatre Workshop,  
Danspace Project, Dixon Place, La Mama ETC, P.S. 122, Symphony Space,  
the ISB (Bangkok), Naxos Bobine, Studio Théâtre de Vitry, and La  
Générale (Paris), Les Subsistances (Lyon), La Compagnie (Marseille),  
La Ferme Du Buisson (Marne-la-Vallée), De Singel (Beligum),  
International Tanzmesse NRW (Germany), PSi (Copenhagen), Kunsthalle  
St. Gallen (Switzerland), and others. Upcoming engagements in 2009  
include the Attakalari Performance Biennale (Bangalore), Salon Tudor  
(Santiago), and a new commission from the National Academy of  
Sciences (Washington, DC).



Judith Sanchez-Ruiz

Born in Havana, Cuba, Judith Sanchez-Ruiz joined Danza Abierta  
Company, the major exponent of Cuban avant-garde dance with whom she  
toured extensively, teaching and performing in Latin America  
(1991-96). The choreographic works she has created and performed  
since that time include On Walcott, which was based on poetry by  
Caribbean-born Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott and featured the  
musical direction of Henry Threadgill at Aaron Davis Hall in 2001.  
Her work has been has presented in Cuba, Argentina, Spain, and the  
US. In New York her work has been shown at P.S. 122, Movement  
Research at Judson Church, P.S.1 (MoMA), Joyce SoHo, Aaron Davis  
Hall, The Kitchen, Queens Museum of Arts, New School University,  
Danspace Project St. Marks Church, and the Whitney Museum of American  
Art. Sanchez Ruiz currently resides in New York City and has been a  
member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company since 2006. She was recently  
awarded "Mujeres Destacadas 2008" by El diario, a Spanish-language  
newspaper in New York.


LOCATION:

The New Museum

235 Bowery

New York, NY 10002

Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday 12-6 PM

Thursday & Friday 12-9 PM



SCHEDULE:  DECEMBER 10–18, 2009



REPLICA, December 10, 11, 17, 18 at 7pm

Collaborators and performers: Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham and Judith  
Sánchez Ruíz.



Publication of Essay, December 1

Essay on REPLICA by neuroaesthetician Dr. Michael Maizels,  
commissioned by J.D. Talasek, Director of Cultural Programs at the  
National Academy of Sciences.



Poster, December 1

250 limited edition posters designed by Daniel Arsham will be  
available in the New Museum bookstore.



Neuroscience, Memory and the Performing Arts Panel Discussion,  
December 11, 4pm

Discussion moderated by J.D. Talasek and facilitated by Suzanne  
Anker, Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual  
Arts. Panelists include Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham, Judith  Sánchez  
Ruíz and Michael Maizels.



Improvisation and Composition Workshop, December 16 & 17, 1pm

Directed by Judith Sánchez Ruíz.  Participation in the two-day  
workshop is open to the public at $15 per student.



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Press Contact:

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Susan Grant Lewin Associates

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