Exhibition
April 13–October 22, 2021

Maja Bekan: Hold It Together. (We Have Each Other)

Maja Bekan: Hold It Together. (We Have Each Other) is a solo exhibition by ISCP resident Maja Bekan concluding a year-long collaboration with New York City residents Pon-Pon Yeh, Mandy Morrison, Marie Christine, Juliana Cope, Cynthia Berkshire, Susan Hapgood, Alison Kuo and many others.

As Bekan puts it, the exhibition itself “is an (art) work in process, it is a spatial proposal for a future event, a work in a state of waiting.” Thus, the gallery is presented as a combination of performance stage, recording studio, and rehearsal space for visitors to contemplate Bekan’s choreography for human connection in a time of separation. The artist’s collaborators and audience are implicated in her call to prepare “to assemble again and exercise togetherness.”

Bekan’s sphere of intervention is often inspired by her own biography, art institutions, and the relationships she forms while doing artwork through collective activities. She is interested in the transformative force of the performance—the performance not bound as a category of temporality and disappearance, but seen as a space of becoming, not only understood as an aesthetic category, but also as a mode of political power. The protagonists of Bekan’s work are often women: artists, activists, students, retirees, and people seeking a place for themselves in difficult circumstances.

The work made for this exhibition was forced by the safety restrictions of the pandemic into an online platform. It became a bi-weekly “happening” of sorts that prompted more questions than answers, questions like, “How can we be collective if we are all in (Zoom) squares of our own? How do we mobilize (imposed) slowness? How do we create a collective intimacy without possibility to touch, to move, or to breathe in the same/shared space? What friendships do we need now and how do we become friends online? Who among us can actually slow down and who is asked to accelerate 24/7?”

A printed take-away with an essay by Thyrza Goodeve will be available in the gallery in July, 2021.

Maja Bekan is currently an artist-in-residence at ISCP sponsored by the Mondriaan Fund. She is a co-founder and developer of the Rotterdam based artists’ initiative ADA, Area for Debate and Art. In 2008 she began the long-term research project ‘P for Performance,’ as a method to initiate situations, use performance as a both a tool to investigate collective intimacy, and a stage for knowledge production. Bekan has exhibited work at Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Kunsthaus Graz; Casco Art Institute, Utrecht; Artikum, Rovaniemi; IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv; The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík; SMBA Amsterdam; Witte de With, Rotterdam; The Art Gallery, KCB, Belgrade; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Institute for Provocation, Beijing, among others.

This exhibition is coordinated by Alison Kuo, ISCP Arts Residency Manager, with exhibition assistant coordinator, Daniela Chaparro.

Special thanks to Vesna Bijeljic, Kari Conte, Juliana Cope, Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadóttir, Moko Fukuyama, Stine Hebert, Boris Krga, Frances Maggio, Angela Serino, and all the participants of the P for Performance reading group.

This exhibition is supported by Dutch Culture USA program of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; Mondriaan Fund; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stroom Den Haag; Teiger Foundation; Willem de Kooning Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.

By visiting ISCP, you agree to abide by the following health and safety policies. Please make sure to plan ahead for your visit.
  • Four visitors are allowed in the galleries at a time, and appointments are required. Please write to info@iscp-nyc.org to schedule an appointment.
  • All visitors are required to maintain social distancing, keeping six feet from anyone not in their party.
  • Masks or face coverings are mandatory.
  • Hand sanitizer will be available for visitors.
  • If you have fever, chills, cough, muscle pains, headache, loss of taste or smell, or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19 prior to your visit, please contact us to reschedule.
  • An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 and other infectious conditions exists in any public space where people are present. Those visiting the International Studio & Curatorial Program voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19, other infectious conditions, and other hazards that may be present in a public space.
Open Hours: By appointment on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, from 12-5pm.
Download Press Release (PDF)Download the essay written by Thyrza Goodeve (PDF)

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
March 16, 2021

Alban Muja, Kari Conte and Dr. Ksenia Nouril discuss Family Album

In conjunction with Alban Muja’s first solo exhibition in the United States, Family Album, ISCP presents a virtual talk on Zoom with artist Alban Muja, exhibition curator Kari Conte, and the Jensen Bryan Curator at The Print Center, Philadelphia, Dr. Ksenia Nouril.

The three will discuss the artist’s work, which traces the stories of several children living in Kosovo during the time of the Kosovo War in 1998 and 1999. Muja’s Family Album considers the aftermath of collective trauma and pain and how it is processed and passed on to younger generations. The work also lays bare the limits and failings of the media by uncovering the stories and complexities behind images that were exploited and thus rendered one-dimensional to the viewer.

Opening remarks will be made by Ambassador Frymëzim Isufaj of the Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo in New York.

  • Date and Time: Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 1–2pm EST
  • Location: Register here for the Zoom session. This event will be recorded.

Alban Muja lives and works in Pristina and Berlin. His work takes the form of video installation, short films and documentaries, drawing, painting, and performance and is largely influenced by the ongoing processes of social, political and economic transformation in his native Kosovo and across the wider region of the Balkans. Through his practice, he investigates history and sociopolitical themes, and links them to his life in Kosovo today.

Kari Conte is a curator and writer focused on global contemporary art. She is a 2020-21 Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Istanbul. From 2010-20 she held the position of Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York, where she is currently Senior Advisor.

Dr. Ksenia Nouril is the Jensen Bryan Curator at The Print Center in Philadelphia and a specialist in global contemporary art. She has organized exhibitions at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich; Lower East Side Printshop, New York; MoMA, New York; and Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick. She lectures widely and frequently writes for international exhibition catalogues, magazines, and academic journals.

This program is supported by The Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo in New York; Hartfield Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; Teiger Foundation; VIA Art Fund; Willem de Kooning Foundation; and William Talbott Hillman Foundation. 

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
February 16, 2021, 4-5pm

Artists at Work with Tommy Kha on Instagram Live: Return to Sender

For this Artists at Work, resident Tommy Kha will screen a selection of his life-long project, Return to Sender. Since 2010, he has invited friends, strangers, actors, and ex-lovers to kiss him while not returning it. Through collaboration, Kha allows kissers to direct themselves and control their images in these short-lived performances. 

Through the framework of the self portrait and the family album, the artist looks at the relationship between performance and photography, and how the camera has influenced the way othered bodies have been imaged and perceived. As Susan Sontag put it, “Essentially the camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.” Kha is interested in post-immigration experiences and snapshots left out of the family album, often utilizing humor to approach themes of racial identity, sexuality, and representation. 

Tune into the Instagram Live here on Tuesday, February 16 from 4-5pm EST.

The screening will last for seven minutes followed by a conversation between the artist and Arts Residency Manager Alison Kuo. 

Tommy Kha has exhibited work at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland; International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion, Hyères, France; Baxter Street at Camera Club of New York, among others, and his photographs have appeared in the New Yorker magazine. He has just been named a Foam Magazine Talent of 2021. 

This program is supported, in part, by Celebrate the Studio; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; Hartfield Foundation; Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; and VIA Art Fund. 

4-5pm

Participating Residents