Tuesday night, my loft served as the venue for a small, private dinner party to benefit More Art, a not-for-profit organization that connects groundbreaking artists with local communities by bringing dynamic works to the public. Hosted by artist Marina Abramovic, whose highly anticipated retrospective at MOMA opens 3/14—a must see, the event was the first in a series of private fundraisers that reflect More ART’s desire to create intimate art experiences as a means of promoting creative efforts.
Marina Abramovic, Laura Michaels
Guests (who consisted of curators, collectors, writers and artists) were asked to wear white lab coats and feasted on a sumptuous menu of food (pork, specifically, and fish for the vegetarians) and wines prepared by Chef and Artist Keil Borrman who is pictured in the painting behind the cutting board in a pretty compromising position (LOL). The painting served as the menu and Keil would appear as each course was served to talk about energy transformation as it related to each course, which was the theme for the evening.
Marina Abramovic hosts a benefit dinner for More Art
Before dessert, Marina had us drink 24 carat gold water from beautiful glassware and meditate for 3 minutes, which was a wonderful experience.
Guests at the More Art benefit dinner
Everyone received a special, pre-edition copy of Marina Abramovic’s Energy Blanket. Made in collaboration with More Art, the Energy Blanket is a unique art object that depicts the artist’s body and energy lines, and contains magnets carefully situated to improve circulation. It is designed to instill a profound feeling of wellness, and judging from how well I slept last night, it succeeds in doing just that. It will be available for sale at the MOMA next month.
2010 promises to be an exciting year for More ART. Upcoming projects include collaborations by Kimsooja with the Hudson Guild Senior Center, Paul Pfeiffer with Liberty HS, Andrea Galvani with NYC welders, and Joan Jonas with Clinton MS. Plus, the new moreart.org web site will be launching in the next few weeks – as I write this, the designers and developers at Fusebox are hard at work on its redesign!