In conjunction with the exhibition, Maja Bekan: Hold it Together. (We Have Each Other), ISCP will host an online conversation between the artist; her collaborators on this project Pon-Pon Yeh, Mandy Morrison, Juliana Cope, Daniela Chaparro and Susan Hapgood; and independent curator and ISCP Senior Advisor Kari Conte. 

They will discuss Bekan’s ongoing artwork, the use of gossip and conflict as a possible route to emancipation, and the potential outcomes of processual and durational artmaking practices, which the artist sees as “a method to decolonize time.” This event rounds up a year and a half of collaboration that occurred online and sometimes in physical proximity between the artist and five New York troublemakers, and their ongoing research into trailblazing women who are hard to love.

Prior to their conversation, the audience will be able to view a short excerpt of one of their live rehearsals.

Please register here to receive a secure link to this Zoom session, and tune in on Thursday, October 21 at 3pm EDT.

On the following day, October 22, sporadic constructed situations or “rehearsals ” as they have been called in Hold it Together. (We Have Each Other), will be happening unannounced around the city of New York, starting from Lower East Side and concluding in Hudson River Park. After numerous online meetings in 2020 and in-person sessions during the six months of the exhibition, these final live rehearsals will be a culmination of an ongoing process between Maja and her five collaborators who have adopted the identities of PARTISAN, SPY, POLITICIAN, (House)WORKER, and ARTIST/KILLJOY. They will engage in unscripted discussion and activity, inviting visitors to join them if they so choose. 

If you see something, post something, #togetherness.

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, Juliana Cope, Susan Hapgood, Daniela Chapparo, 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.”

This event 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.

• 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.