Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom
Courtesy of MOCA and © Paul Pfeiffer. Courtesy the artist
LOS ANGELES—The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) proudly opened on November the 12th of last year. Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, the multidisciplinary artist’s first U.S. retrospective. From era-defining early videos to recent, genre-breaking works in photography, installation, and sculpture, the exhibition brings together more than thirty works spanning Pfeiffer’s career, establishing him as one of today's most influential artists. The exhibition is on view at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA from November 12, 2023, to June 16, 2024. Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom is 1 organized by MOCA Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs Clara Kim and Curatorial Assistant Paula Kroll. The exhibit closes June 16th of 2024
“It is a great pleasure to organize Paul’s first U.S. retrospective at MOCA, where The Geffen Contemporary spaces will provide a dramatic backdrop for his mesmerizing art and allow audiences to move from intimate viewings of his work to grand, immersive encounters for the first time,” said Kim. “Fundamentally, Pfeiffer gets at the undercurrents of what holds contemporary society together–our collective desires, fears, and sense of belonging. MOCA’s rich history of embracing innovative contemporary art and its commitment to fostering dialogues that resonate with the pulse of our times make it the ideal venue to present Pfeiffer’s thought-provoking explorations of modern society.”
Widely regarded as a pioneer of video art in the digital era, Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu; lives in New York) examines how media creates spectacle in sports and entertainment and its subtle but powerful impact on our experiences of belonging and difference. Meticulously taking video footage apart frame-by-frame and subjecting it to digital erasure, repetition, and looping, Pfeiffer’s earliest works influenced generations of contemporary artists in his wake. Such simple techniques revealed critical but subtle features inherent to the production of images and the construction of collective memory, while reflecting the artist’s longstanding interest in the mechanics of movie-making. The exhibition title, Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, is drawn from a critical moment in American media history: Cecil B. DeMille’s opening remarks introducing his epic religious drama, The Ten Commandments, the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release in 1956.
The Long Count (Rumble in the Jungle) , 2001 Standard-definition video (color, silent; 2:51 minutes), painted 5.6-inch LCD monitor, and metal armature 6 x 7 x 36 in. (15.2 x 17.8 x 91.4 cm) © Paul Pfeiffer. Courtesy the artist; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; carlier | gebauer, Berlin/Madrid; Perrotin; and Thomas Dane Gallery, London Photo: Luke A. Walker
“Paul’s work has a global reach and gives us a profound sense of the technological landscape we live in. Yet Los Angeles offers an ideal setting for this long-awaited, ambitious exhibition of Paul’s work,” said Johanna Burton, The Maurice Marciano Director of MOCA. “Occupying more than 20,000 square feet at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and set in the entertainment capital of the world, a city singularly poised to create–and manipulate–dreams, symbols, and mythologies, this show will have deep resonance here.”
Pfeiffer’s quintessential LCD video pieces will anchor Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom. Iconic basketball games are the starting points for Fragments of the Crucifixion (After Francis Bacon) (1999) and John 3:16 (2000), while Muhammed Ali’s most famous boxing matches are featured in the trilogy of works titled The Long Count (2000–01). The exhibition also features the artist’s long-duration and live-feed video works and immersive video and architectural installations, such as The Saints (2007), an audio-visual recreation of the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany, and Vitruvian Figure (2008), a room-size model of a million-seat arena inspired by the Sydney Olympic stadium.
Justin Bieber Head, 2018 Gmelina wood and paint 16 1/4 x 8 1/8 x 8 3/4 in. (41.3 x 20.6 x 22.2 cm) © Paul Pfeiffer. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery, London Photo: Ben Westoby
For this retrospective, MOCA commissioned Pfeiffer to expand on his Incarnator series (2018–ongoing). The artist worked in collaboration with “encarnadores” (from the Latin word meaning ‘“to make into flesh”), sculptors in the Philippines, Spain and Mexico who are known for their production of santos, nearly-life-size wood carvings of cultural and religious figures that are used in Catholic churches and private homes. These works were modeled after Justin Bieber and transform the pop star—who had recently declared himself a born-again Christian—into a contemporary embodiment of Jesus Christ. The production of these sculptures traces colonial trade routes that date back to the sixteenth-century, illuminating the labor and artistry behind centuries-old religious traditions and their ties to the history of global networks that continue into the present day.
Installation view of Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, November 12, 2023–June 16, 2024 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Zak Kelley
MOCA’s presentation brings together Pfeiffer’s immersive, large-scale pieces and many of his smaller scale works for the first time in the U.S.. In close collaboration with the artist, Büro Koray Duman Architecture has developed an innovative, site-specific design for the exhibition that capitalizes on the cavernous warehouse space of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the artist’s longstanding interest in the highly fabricated and labor intensive process of Hollywood filmmaking. Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom is accompanied by a full-color monographic catalogue co-published by the museum and MACK, with new scholarship and critical readings of Pfeiffer’s work that offer a much-needed overview of the artist’s impact and influence. The monograph includes contributions by Lawrence Chua, Tom Gunning, Julie Mehretu, Marian Pastor Roces, and Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol. Available Spring 2024, the catalogue will also include documentation of Pfeiffer’s installation at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Paul Pfeiffer was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and spent his teenage years in the Philippines. Museum solo shows and projects include Inhotim Institute, Brazil, 2018; Bellas Artes Outpost, Manila, 2018; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2017; Honolulu Museum of Art, 2016; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, 2015; Artangel, London, 2014; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, 2012; Sammlung Goetz, Munich, 2011; and Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, 2009. Pfeiffer has presented work in major international exhibitions, most recently the Performa Biennial and the Honolulu Biennial in 2019 and the Toronto Biennial and Seoul Mediacity Biennale in 2022. The artist lives and works in New York City. Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom is organized by Clara Kim, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Paula Kroll, Curatorial Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Lead support is provided by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Aileen Getty Foundation. Major support is provided by MOCA Projects Council in honor of Mandy Einstein, and Jamie and Robert Soros. Generous support is provided by [Paula Cooper Gallery and PERROTIN
Additional support is provided by Jam Acuzar and Christopher Ax, carlier | gebauer (Berlin/Madrid), Marcel Crespo, Thomas Dane Gallery, Eder-Zobel de Ayala Family, Jill and Peter Kraus, Elaine Forsgate Marden, Amy and John Phelan, Anton Ramos, Maria Taniguchi, and Fernando Zobel de Ayala. Supporters of the exhibition catalogue include The Katherine S. Marmor Award and the Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley. Exhibitions at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Exhibitions with generous funding provided by Jordan S. Goodman + The Goodman Family Foundation and The Earl and Shirley Greif Foundation. The carbon emissions from this exhibition have been measured and reduced as a part of MOCA’s climate commitment. Support provided by the MOCA Environmental Council.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART (MOCA)
Founded in 1979, MOCA is the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively short period of time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth; a world-class collection of nearly 8,000 objects, international in scope with deep holdings in Los Angeles art; hallmark education programs that are widely emulated; award-winning publications that present original scholarship; groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with new modes of media production. MOCA is a not-for-profit institution that relies on a variety of funding sources for its activities.
For more information about this exhibit and other exhibits, please visit the MOCA website here.
