An ambitious and overdue retrospective seeks to bring the work of a legend to life. How do you do justice to decades of performance and teaching in an exhibition?
As the generation that pioneered performance in the 60s and 70s approaches (or passes) the octogenarian stage of life, a series of retrospectives has swept across Europe to honour their lifelong achievements or give (over)due recognition.1 The latest is ‘Meredith Monk: Calling,’ which opened this fall to great fanfare at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, the city’s oldest building and, since 2016, a major hub for contemporary art.
The show is a co-production between the Hartwig Art Foundation and Oude Kerk, curated by Hartwig Art Foundation director Beatrix Ruf in close collaboration with Monk herself and the House Foundation for the Arts, the organisa…
