This fall, the New Museum, in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the nightclub and arts space TrouwAmsterdam, has organized a special international, multi-venue dance-for-camera edition of AUNTS: “AUNTSforcamera.” Originating in Brooklyn, AUNTS is both a growing community of artists and a choreographic structure for organizing simultaneous performance and art activities in shared spaces. This new project for the New Museum constitutes nine dance-for-camera works that were created and filmed simultaneously through a shared open-studio process in the New Museum Theater (September 10–14, 2014). Originally presented as an immersive moving-image installation for the club environment of TrouwAmsterdam (November 6–30, 2014), these nine works have returned to the New Museum in New York where they can be viewed on monitors installed in a dispersed exhibition format in various interstitial non-gallery spaces throughout the building. This exhibition is on view December 16, 2014–February 15, 2015.

“AUNTSforcamera” presents new work by Cara Francis, IMMA/MESS, Vanessa Justice, Anya Liftig, Karl Scholz, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Gillian Walsh, Collective Settlement (Felicia Ballos, Jean Brennan, and T. Charnan Lewis), and collaborators Salome Asega, Chrybaby Cozie, and Ali Rosa-Salas. Select works include an interactive game utilizing hacked Kinect software that rewards players for learning the original Harlem Shake dance; an interactive social media platform that utilizes a downloadable app to accumulate eight-second viewer-generated dance videos into a single-channel loop (#auntsforcamera); a multichannel sculptural installation reconstituting the dancing bodies of its creators into a single “exquisite corpse” moving-image form; and a single-channel video combining hand-dance and interviews with aerial footage shot by an AR Drone flown inside the New Museum Theater. New material produced with artists and audiences at the New Museum and TrouwAmsterdam continues to accumulate over the course of the multi-platform project, with new content to be added throughout the duration of the exhibition at the New Museum.

An important component of the installation at the New Museum includes a series of nine artist-led tours, which have been organized using AUNTS’ chain-curation model. Using this model, tours are led by artists who have been invited by “AUNTSforcamera” artists to create a response to the exhibition in the form of a tour, which will be performed exclusively for participating audiences. In keeping with the spirit of AUNTS, the currency of exchange for attending these tours is not monetary. To participate, visitors must provide proof of submission to #auntsforcamera, an interactive work by Karl Scholz included in the “AUNTSforcamera” exhibition. For submission guidelines, tour dates, and further information, visit our website.

“AUNTSforcamera” is presented as part of the New Museum’s 2014 Fall R&D Season: Choreography, spearheaded by Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement. It is organized on behalf of the New Museum by Travis Chamberlain, Associate Curator of Performance and Manager of Public Programs, in collaboration with Laurie Berg and Liliana Dirks-Goodman, organizers of AUNTS. The project was originally commissioned by the Stedelijk Museum and TrouwAmsterdam as part of the “Trouw Invites…” exhibition series.