The Last Supper
The Last Supper (part of For Art’s Sake), 2007
Presented at the U.S. Custom House, One Bowling Green, as part of PERFORMA07 and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council 10th Anniversary
Project Manager: Radhika Subramaniam
Twelve artists/curators gathered at one table with Nicolás Dumit Estévez in a reflection of the relationship of art to ritual. This is the culminating event of For Art’s Sake, a series of pilgrimages conceived of, and undertaken by Estévez over the past three years. Evoking the pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain where Catholic devotees travel to the reliquary of St. James the Apostle, Estévez’s secular twist has taken him on pilgrimages to museums in the New York metropolitan area, each time with a new penance – on his knees, walking backwards, spreading the “word of art”. The guests at the table bring their own audio-visual and performative double-take on these journeys. Participants include Rocío Aranda, Nao Bustamante, Alexander Campos, Deborah Cullen, Juliana Driever, Jonny Farrow, Tom Finkelpearl, Olivia Georgia, Alanna Lockward, Yasmín Ramírez, Frank Haines standing in for Linda Many Montano, Sara Reisman, Kamala Sankaram, Claire Tancons, and Martha Wilson.
The Last Supper was part of the celebration of ten years of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency and part of the Centennial Celebration of Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. Estévez developed For Art’s Sake while in residence at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2004 in collaboration with Franklin Furnace. Presented as part of PERFORMA 07.