Villar Rojas at the Met

Adrián Villar Rojas has transformed the Cantor Roof of the Metropolitan, with 16 sculptures that fuse human figures with replicas of nearly 100 objects from the museum’s collection.

Adrián Villar Rojas, <i>The Roof Garden Commission: Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance</i>. Installation view, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Courtesy of the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery; and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photo Jörg Baumann

Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas has created a site-specific installation for The Met’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. The Roof Garden Commission: Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance will be on view through October 29, 2017 (weather permitting).

Villar Rojas – known for his large-scale installations – has transformed the Cantor Roof. Sixteen sculptures that fuse human figures with replicas of nearly 100 objects from the Museum’s collection, occupying a new black, white, and gray tiled floor, the installation also encompasses an environmental transformation of the space, including an extension of the existing pergola and new plantings, public furniture, and a newly designed bar.

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Adrián Villar Rojas, The Roof Garden Commission: Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance. Installation view, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Courtesy of the artist; Marian Goodman Gallery; and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photo Jörg Baumann

“The Theater of Disappearance seeks to dialogue with the vision and division of The Met’s patrimony. An entire cartography of human culture seems to emerge from the Museum’s wings and rooms”, explains the artist. “Rather than a mirror of facts, the Museum becomes a version of them: America’s map of human activity on earth, a scale-model account of who we are and how we got here.”

To realize the project, Villar Rojas immersed himself in the Museum’s history and collections, holding conversations with individuals across the institution, including curators, scientific researchers, objects conservators, and imaging specialists. He has also reconciled the Cantor Roof’s many functions as a gallery, a bar, and a popular vantage point from which to view Manhattan’s expansive skyline. The artist integrated these aspects of the space into his installation by working each element – from the floor to the bar – into the conceit of a fantastical event in which white tables are punctuated by black sculptures, all coated in a layer of dust.

In accepting the commission, the artist encountered a history of human culture that emerges from the Museum’s galleries. The Theater of Disappearance presents a story of objects presented without historical interpretation. Using 3D scanning and advanced imaging techniques, the Museum scanned and replicated objects from the collection. In parallel, using the same technology, human figures were also scanned; the models’ bodies and gestures captured as if they were objects. The 3D models were then spliced together with the artifacts to form sculptural amalgamations, resulting in sculptures that absorb and re-present the imagery of Museum objects, being held and touched, unconstrained by demarcations of culture or time. In probing the Museum’s role in framing historical truth, Villar Rojas succeeds in questioning its traditional presentations, allowing for the reactivation and a reinterpretation of art and human culture.

until 20 October 2017
The Roof Garden Commission: Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance
Curators: Beatrice Galilee, Daniel Brodsky
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York

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