New Museum

• News
• Saturday, July 19, 2008

The New Museum in the Bowery has an exterior design resembling gigantic building blocks stacked up haphazardly serving as a reminder that there is still an edge in modern art that didn't stop with Andy Warhol. The museum is "New" because all its art is bleeding edge and there's no permanent collection.  In addition to the galleries' ever-changing exhibits, the Museum as Hub on the 5th floor, serves as the museum's educational center and exhibits institutional partnerships with Insa Art Space (Seoul, South Korea); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City, Mexico); Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art (Cairo, Egypt); and Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands). Throughout 2008, each institution is exploring the concept of "neighborhood" as it relates to their home city.  This month, Antikhana, presented by Townhouse Gallery examines Cairo beyond simple geographical designations on a map. Photos reveal neighborhood streets as surreal amalgamations of car mechanics' garages, coffee shops, and modern markets clustered around the neglected nineteenth-century Said Halim's Palace. Despite what appears to be disorder in this vast patchwork of architectural designs from different eras, a common identity is forged through a symbiotic coexistence between the artists, writers, intellectuals, and conservative office workers who live in the Antikhana district. Through this multimedia exhibit, you can see that the neighborhood is really a microcosm of Egyptian society which often consists of inherent contradictions.  The adage: "things are never what they seem", is again proven correct.