63. Landscape and Memory at Madison Square Park
Beginning on June 1, Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias will present in collaboration with the Madison Square Park Conservancy the immersive installation Landscape and Memory, which seeks to unearth the forgotten terrains and geographic history of Madison Square Park. The installation features five bronze sculptural pools, gently flowing with water arriving in different sequences, into the park’s Oval Lawn, as a form of harkening back to when Cedar Creek—which now remains buried underneath—coursed across the park’s land. The river’s former waterways now lay host to communication cables and infrastructure pipes. Each bronze sculpture also contains a bas relief made of invented rocks and roots, evoking the old riverbed in both an organic and fictional manner. This juxtaposition between fictional nature and the park’s real landscape imbues the audience with a sense that the installation represents both a memory of what was and an image of what could be in the future.
Complementing the installation will be interdisciplinary public programs, free and open to all, including a summer music series curated with Carnegie Hall and performance programming organized in conjunction with The Kitchen. Landscape and Memory will remain on display until December 4, 2022. “Madison Square Park has a rich history, witnessing and participating in several hundred years of New York City’s growth and evolution,” said Madison Square Park Conservancy Executive Director Keats Myer. “Iglesias’ commission digs deep into this history, evoking an era that predates even our centuries-old park, to reconnect today’s visitors with the natural wonder of the original site.”
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