9-5

Public Art

9-5

9-5 was a performance by Ernesto Pujol addressing themes of corporate labor, silence, and empathy. Eleven performers dressed in white arrived by public transportation each day, at the Brookfield Place Pavilion, silently taking their positions by the glass wall and writing all day about the people they saw. Pujol intended to evoke the repetitiousness of all labor through this silent meditative gesture and the transparency of the glass to foster a deeper observation of the human condition.
Artist
Ernesto Pujol
When

October 26 – 28, 2015

Where

Brookfield Place Pavilion, 230 Vesey Street, Lower Manhattan.
9:00am – 5:00pm daily

Events

Free Meditation Workshops + Artist Talk
Lunchtime meditation and mindfulness workshops were offered for free on the steps of the Brookfield Place Winter Garden

Monday, November 2 | “Embodied Meditation” with Valarie Samulski, Body Practice Teacher

Wednesday, November 4 | “Embodied Meditation” with Valarie Samulski, Body Practice Teacher

Wednesday, November 4 |  “The Art of Mindful Presence” A public lecture by Ernesto Pujol

Ernesto Pujol, 9-5, Brookfield Place Pavilion, 2015. Photo © Nisa Ojalvo 2015
  • Project description
  • About the artist
Ernesto Pujol, 9-5, Brookfield Place Pavilion, 2015. Photo © Nisa Ojalvo

In this site-specific performance produced and commissioned by More Art and presented by Arts Brookfield, social choreographer Ernesto Pujol traversed themes of labor, community, and empathy. Eleven performers dressed in white arrived by public transportation each day, silently moving to their positions adjacent the glass wall at the east side of the Brookfield Place Pavilion. Sitting formally between the glass partitions of the window, that mirrored the quintessential corporate office workspace, each performer wrote silently throughout the day about the people they saw, creating a literature of pedestrian life in the city.

Close your eyes
Take a deep breath
Open your eyes and look around
(Repeat this if necessary)
Take a deep breath with eyes wide open
Begin to see

Pujol sought to evoke the repetitiousness of all labor through this silent meditative gesture, while also fostering a deeper “seeing” of the human condition. The transparency of the Pavilion’s glass “cubicles” allowed for an open vision, a direct relationship with the environment, and the observance of the flow of humanity.

Read selections of the writings here.

9-5 featured performers Dillon de Give, Kate Harding, Young Sun Han, Sara Jimenez, Bess Matassa, Micaela Martegani, Ernesto Pujol, James Rich, Valarie Samulski, Caitlin Turski, Michael Watson, Joy Whalen, and Jayoung Yoon.

Download the press release

Partners

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Ernesto Pujol

Ernesto Pujol is a site-specific performance artist and public choreographer with a socially-engaged art practice. Pujol creates silent, durational, walking performances as collective portraiture within mythical landscapes and historic architecture, aiming to reveal their psychic underlay in the Jungian sense. Pujol is a student of the human condition, inhabiting dreams, secrets and visions as intangible but vital fragments to understanding and healing history. He is interested in contributing to greater collective consciousness through mindful presence, achieved through deep sight, profound inner silence, and considered gestures. His durational performances have often served as ephemeral mausoleums or monuments to forgotten, or remembered but unresolved social issues that have been mourned or reflected upon during the experiences. Pujol is the author of Sited Body, Public Visions: silence, stillness & walking as Performance Practice; as well being a contributor to publications such as Awake: Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art.

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