Vito Acconci Retrospective Closes at MoMA PS1 After 30-Year US Hiatus

The first US retrospective of Vito Acconci in thirty years closed today at MoMA PS1 in New York. Titled "Where We Are Now (Who Are We Anyway), 1976" after one of his seminal works, the exhibition is part of the museum's fortieth-anniversary programming. It focuses on Acconci's early works that have become art-historical landmarks. The American artist, born in New York in 1940, has deliberately abandoned fine art in recent years to pursue design and architecture. Despite his profound influence on subsequent generations and contemporary art practices, Acconci's elusive nature and refusal to be pinned down have kept him at the margins—more a mythical figure than a real artist. A video released by MoMA shows Acconci and his wife Maria working alongside director Klaus Biesenbach and staff on the exhibition, a long and tormented process in which the artist confronted a past he no longer feels is his. "I never liked museums," Acconci told the New York Times. "They always seemed artificially distant from real life. But somehow you have to be seen, and I never gave much importance to that. Maybe I should have." The article was written by Valentina Tanni, an art historian and curator specializing in art and technology.