The Market of Toys by Akademia Ruchu Features Live Performance,Video, and Printed Material

Friday, November 8, and Saturday, November 9, 12:00–6:00 p.m.

Broadway Plaza between 46th and 47th Streets, Times Square

Presented by Times Square Arts in Partnership with the

Polish Cultural Institute New York and Performa

Times Square Arts, in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and Performa, presents a three-part exhibition by the seminal Polish artistic collective Akademia Ruchu in Times Square on Friday, November 8, and Saturday, November 9, 2013. The exhibition will include live performance, video, and printed material, the first time an exhibition featuring all three elements will be presented in the Crossroads of the World. The exhibition will be on view from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. both days, located at Broadway Plaza between 46th and 47th Streets.

The performance series, entitled The Market of Toys, was created specifically for Times Square. It is composed of four distinctive minimalistic single-element actions representative of Akademia Ruchu’s 40 years of experience working in the public realm. These austere, participatory interventions will simultaneously contrast and emphasize the vibrant character of Times Square and its multitude of visitors. The performances will be complemented by videos chronicling some of the collective’s seminal performances. These 30 second videos will play every 5 minutes on 10 CEMUSA newspaper kiosks located between 34th-48th Streets. A printed exhibition in the form of a newspaper documenting Academia Ruchu’s deep history of socially and politically driven public performances will be handed out to visitors.

Akademia Ruchu (The Academy of Movement) has been a political sounding board in Poland since its establishment in 1973 in Warsaw. Operating at the juncture of theater, performances, political actions, and anonymous interventions in the public realm which and with the involvement of spectators.

Sherry Dobbin, Director of Times Square Arts, said, “It is our mission to bring groundbreaking, contemporary performance art to the Crossroads of the World, and to experiment with how we play with exhibition in our chaotic space.  With Akademia Ruchu and Performa, we are able to present an exhibition that combines live demonstration, video documentation, and printed interpretation.”

RoseLee Goldberg , Founding Director and Curator of Performa, said,  "We are thrilled that Akademia Ruchu will be presented in both a contemporary and historical way in such an iconic and urban setting. This exhibition places one of Poland's most groundbreaking artist groups and their highly polemical work into the perfect American context.”

Jerzy Onuch, Director, Polish Cultural Institute, said, “For 40 years the legendary artistic collective Akademia Ruchu stages interventions in public spaces for which the point of departure is the social and political context inherent in the function of urban landscape and communication. Times Square is very distinct and representative of urban movement, where Akademia Ruchu’s injected actions will attempt to alternatively engage and intervene with its flow.” 

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Times Square Arts, the public arts program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Acting as a laboratory for contemporary art in the public realm, Times Square is a place where ideas are tested and new possibilities explored. Times Square Arts works with artists and cultural institutions to create dialogues with Times Square and all of its physical and mythological manifestations. Through the Square’s electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas, and popular venues, and the Alliance’s own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation, and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district’s unique identity. Generous support provided by ArtPlace America and ArtWorks. Visit www.TimesSquareNYC.org/arts for more information. Follow us on Twitter @TSqArts and Instagram http://instagram.com/tsqarts.

Founded in 2004 by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, Performa is the leading organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth-century art and to encourage new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. Performa 13 is the only biennial dedicated to commissioning, presenting and exploring new visual art performance. For three weeks, November 1–24, 2013, Performa and a consortium of innovative organizations will band together to transform New York City into an international platform for celebrating live art. New to Performa 13 is the Pavilions Without Walls™, an international initiative that forges strong exchanges between countries to foster a deeper level of conversation and artistic support. Pavilions Without Walls will be inaugurated this year with the countries Poland and Norway. More information at www.performa-arts.org. Follow Performa on Twitter @PerformaNYC (#Performa13) or like on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/PerformaBiennial.

Polish Cultural Institute New York is a diplomatic mission to the USA serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. The Institute’s mission is to build, nurture and promote cultural ties between the United States and Poland by presenting Polish culture to American audiences and by connecting Polish artists and scholars to American institutions, introducing them to their professional counterparts in the United States, and facilitating their participation in contemporary American culture. The Institute has been producing and promoting a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, the humanities, and visual arts. Among its American partners are such distinguished organizations as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Museum of Modern Art; LACMA; The Jewish Museum; The Metropolitan Opera; The PEN American Center; The Poetry Society of America; National Gallery of Art; Yale University; Columbia University; Princeton University; Harvard Film Archive; CUNY Graduate Center; Julliard School of Music; The New Museum; La MaMa E.T.C.; and many more. Visit http://polishculture-nyc.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @PLInst_NewYork  (#AkademiaRuchu and #PolishCultureNYC) or like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/PolishCultureNYC.

Founded and directed by Wojciech Krukowski, the collective's artistic director, Akademia Ruchu consists of artist members Janusz Baldyga, Jolanta Krukowska, Cezary Marczak, Jan Pieniazek, Zbigniew Olkiewicz, Jaroslaw Zwirblis, and Krzysztof Zwirblis. Known as the "theater of behavior," Akademia Ruchu has been a political sounding board in Poland since its establishment in 1973 in Warsaw.  Akademia Ruchu has presented its works at theatre festivals and on tour in almost all countries of Europe, the Americas and in Japan, at prominent institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, dOCUMENTA 8 in Kassel, NRL Live Art in Glasgow, MoMA PS1 in New York, Ludwig Forum in Aachen, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Museum of Modern Art in Yokohama, and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. www.akademiaruchu.com/

Media Contacts:

For Times Square Arts: Gia Storms (212) 452-5205 or gstorms@timessquarenyc.org or

Daniela Stigh, Rubenstein Communications, (212) 843-8269 or dstigh@rubenstein.com

For Performa: Jessica Massart, Communications Manager, (212) 366-5700 or

jessica@performa-arts.org

For Polish Cultural Institute New York: Robert von Leszczynski, (212) 239-7300 or robert.vonl@instytutpolski.org