Arca, ABRA, Azealia Banks & more playing The Shed's pre-opening event

Nonprofit multi-arts center The Shed is coming to Manhattan in spring 2019, but before that, there’s a pre-opening event at an offsite location called A Prelude to The Shed, happening May 1-13 of this year. It’s totally FREE and it takes place one block away from The Shed at a vacant lot at 10th Ave and 30th St. Across the 12 days, there will be live solo concerts on multiple evenings by ABRA, Arca and Azealia Banks, works by William Forsythe and Tino Sehgal, and dance battles with director/choreographer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray and his D.R.E.A.M Ring dancers (Dance Rules Everything Around Me).

There will also be panels organized by scholar, writer, and curator Dorothea von Hantelmann, The Shed artist advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Chief Science and Technology Officer Kevin Slavin. The panels will focus on “new institutional models for the 21st century, the politics of ritualized gatherings, and the role of art and culture in social connectivity.” Additionally, Prelude will have an “experimental school” each morning, led by artist Asad Raza.

Here’s more info:

A transformable structure is as vital to the architecture of Prelude as it is to The Shed, where perimeters shift to accommodate multiple artistic disciplines under one roof. Architect Kunlé Adeyemi of NLÉ Works collaborated closely with artist Tino Sehgal to design a temporary space in which dancers move and reconfigure the structure in a fluid integration of architecture and choreography.

“A Prelude to The Shed is an exploration of architecture as an extension of human body, culture, and environment. Can architecture be more human? This curiosity led us to reconfigure a steel shed into a comfortable interface to interact with people physically; inside and outside, in light and darkness, individually and collectively,” said Adeyemi. “Using simple technologies, we made the structure so that it can be moved and transformed by people, enabling its participation in different formats of art, education, events, and public life.”

Events happen throughout each day over the course of two weeks, seamlessly connected by Sehgal:

This variation, an immersive dance/sound piece by Sehgal, will happen continuously throughout each afternoon, interwoven with a new work by William Forsythe. Commissioned for Prelude, it is a radical re-imagining of the pas de deux from his renowned In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated (1987).

Prelude is programmed by Alex Poots, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tino Sehgal, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Julia Simpson, Tamara McCaw, and Kevin Slavin. The site was donated by board member and founding supporter Frank H. McCourt, Jr.

Again, admission is totally free. You can reserve a spot at theshed.org beginning in April, or by walk-up at the site in May. More info at theshed.org.