This Artist Transformed the New Museum into a Swap Meet

As a part of her upcoming first solo museum show in New York, Pia Camil is turning the New Museum into a swap meet.

Last Thursday, the Mexico City-based artist invited guests to bring objects “of power, of aesthetic interest, and of poignancy,” to the museum, where they were exchanged for a limited edition sweatshirt she designed. The visitors’ possessions will be used in a new piece called a “A Pot for a Latch,” which has been specifically designed for the New Museum lobby. Inspired by vendors, Camil has transformed the lobby with hooks and shelves like those for commercial shops. Items collected during Thursday's exchange will play an integral role in the exhibit once it opens in January, for on specific days throught its run, participants will again be invited to exchange their belongings for ones previous attendees had brought. This, according to New Museum Associate Curator Margot Norton, renders the composition in flux, constantly altered by its visitors.

In this way, the gallery will turn into a store where the only currency is the aesthetic and personal value of the items exchanged. Hopefully, this will deaccelerate "the frenetic pace of mass commodification so prevalent in contemporary society," as Norton writes. The installation takes its name from the term potlatch, the name of a gift-giving festival of some Pacific Northwestern Native Americans. This isn’t Camil’s first work that involves participants in sharing and exchange; early this year she distributed capes as “habitable paintings” for attendees at the Frieze New York Art Fair. "A Pot for a Latch" will run from January 13th through April 17th, 2016.

For more informatio on Pia Camil's work, click here.

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