Watchful Eyes

Photo credit: James Ewing

The Preservation League of New York State
presents 

 Watchful Eyes

Monday, June 12, 2017
Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
New York City

6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

The Park Avenue Amory

Completed in 1881, the landmark Park Avenue Armory – part palace, part fortress – combines a rich social and military history with an extraordinary ensemble of 19th-century period rooms.  The magnificent interiors, designed by masters of the American Aesthetic Movement, have been hailed as “the single most important collection of 19th century interiors to survive intact in one building” while the expansive drill hall is considered a monument in the history of American engineering.  Today, the Armory is dedicated to supporting unconventional works in the visual and performing arts and since 2007 has opened its doors to visionary artists, directors, and impresarios who provided extraordinary experiences in a range of art forms. The building is simultaneously undergoing a $210-million renovation designed by Herzog & de Meuron with Platt Byard Dovell White Architects.

Hansel & Gretel 

A new commission that is both object and environment. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with artist/activist Ai Weiwei explore the meaning of public space in this surveillance-laden world, referencing the story of Hansel and Gretel in which the children lose their way and feel a sense of menace in a space they know and trust.  The artists (perhaps best known for their collaboration on the Beijing National Stadium, aka the Bird's Nest, designed for the 2008 Summer Olympics) take advantage of the openness of the Drill Hall, creating a 21^st century public space in which the environment is disconcerting, the entrance is unexpected, and every movement is tracked and surveyed by drones and communicated to an unknown public.