©THOMAS DEMAND, VG BILD-KUNST, BONN/ARS, NEW YORK/COURTESY MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY, NEW YORK
Grace Farms announced today that it has commissioned works by Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Susan Phillipsz, and Teresita Fernández for its new, SANAA–designed building, which will open on October 9. Next year, Eliasson and Beatriz Milhazes will also show new work.
Located in New Canaan, Connecticut, Grace Farms is a 75-acre space that is open to the public and features a gymnasium, a library, and an amphitheater. The SANAA building, the Japanese architecture firm’s first project since winning the Pritzker Prize in 2010, will be transparent, so that it will appear to blend in with its natural surroundings.
Yuko Hasegawa, the chief curator of Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, consulted with Grace Foundation Farms on the site-specific commissions, which will be shown in SANAA’s building. “The concept of Grace Farms is unique,” Hasegawa said, in a statement. “I believe it will serve as a great example of how art, architecture, nature and meaningful programs can all come together to inspire people.”
A press release briefly described each artist’s project. Demand will take photographs of SANAA’s models for their building, as is typical for the German photographer, who is known for his images of architectural models that look uncannily like the finished product. Eliasson will make a textile work for 2015, though his project for next spring, a light work, seems more in line with the Icelandic artist’s past work. (The spring Eliasson work will be shown at the same time as a Milhazes collage.) Phillipsz, known for her sound–based work, will make an outdoor sound installation. Fernández, who has an outdoor sculpture opening next month in Madison Square Park, will make a mural.
“I was moved by Grace Farms’ vision of an inclusive, non-commercial space to create a work of art that resonates with the architecture, the surrounding parkland and the people who breathe life into it,” Eliasson said, in a statement. “My work will offer visitors an ephemeral experience dedicated to embodied spirituality.”
Correction, 5/1/15, 2:50 p.m.: An earlier version of this article stated that Eliasson and Milhazes’ commissions for the spring will interact with each other. The two works are two separate commissions.