CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/10/2017

Merce Cunningham: Common Time

Reproduced from the Walker Art Center's stupendous 456-page catalog to Merce Cunningham: Common Time—which opens with concurrent shows at the Walker and MCA Chicago this week—this image is a composite of Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing Anniversary Event during Olafur Eliasson’s 2003 Weather Project at Tate Modern (interior) and MCDC performing Persepolis Event in highly volatile 1972 Iran (exterior). "What did it mean to perform in Iran in 1972, when the country was governed by an oppressive regime," Hiroko Ikegami asks, citing criticism by Jean Tinguely and others. From the point of view of composer and company musician Gordon Mumma, however, "'What could be viewed as a condoning action from outside the country can in reality be a subversive action if seen from within.'"