MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center today announced the acquisition of two interdisciplinary artworks: the installation STAGED: Slugs' Saloon (2018) by the American jazz pianist Jason Moran (b. 1975) and the live installation STAGING: solo (2017) by the Cypriot choreographer Maria Hassabi (b. 1973). Commissioned by the Walker, Moran and Hassabi's works have been presented across the museum's galleries, stage and building spaces as part of the ongoing three-and-a-half-year Interdisciplinary Initiative, supported by a generous $1 million grant awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Interdisciplinary Initiative supports the Walker's commitment to experimentation with artists working at the intersection of performing arts and visual arts, while raising new questions and approaches to the documentation, conservation and acquisition of interdisciplinary artworks. The acquisitions mark the first works by Moran and Hassabi to enter a museum's permanent collection.

"These two acquisitions represent a tremendously exciting step for the Walker and its collection, one which recognizes how leading artists today are proactively blurring the lines between visual and performing arts; between object, body and sound; and between the past and the future," said Philip Bither, McGuire Director and Senior Curator for Performing Arts. "Jason Moran and Maria Hassabi are two of the leading innovators in their respective fields of jazz and dance, expanding and reimagining how those disciplines might live in our times and the times ahead".

Jason Moran's installation, which was exhibited at the Walker as part of the artist's 2018 solo exhibition, pays homage to the iconic New York jazz club Slugs' Saloon (1964-1972). Complete with instruments, furniture, a jukebox and a stage, it faithfully reimagines the club's interior to memorialize a lost cultural space. Speaking of the STAGED series, Moran remarked: "considering America's desire to raze cultural landmarks, why not fabricate those spaces as well. Architecture continues to inform music, from the vast ballroom to the tiny corner stage." STAGED: Slugs' Saloon is a discreet installation that doubles as a stage for concerts, with musicians invited to perform at the artist's discretion during his lifetime, and afterwards according to determined guidelines. At the opening of Moran's recent exhibition at the Walker, the artist inaugurated the installation with a performance by Moran and legendary American saxophonist Charles Lloyd (b. 1938), who frequently performed at the original Slugs. STAGED: Slugs' Saloon remains a centerpiece of Moran's first museum survey, which following its premiere at the Walker, tours nationally to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Since the early 2000s, Maria Hassabi has developed a distinct choreographic practice involved with the relation of the body to the image, defined by sculptural physicality and extended duration. A live installation performed by a single dancer, STAGING: solo (2017) unfolds as a progression of highly formal choreographies, composed of stillness and decelerated movements in space. Oscillating between dance and sculpture, subject and object, live body and still image, the work tests conventional forms of viewership. The acquisition of STAGING: solo was developed in close collaboration with the artist, ensuring the integrity of Hassabi's choreographic voice, will also setting forth a plan for future training of the work by the artist and a group of her trusted collaborators. In addition to the live dance, Hassabi also conceived of archival and sculptural iterations of the work, which can be exhibited independently of the dance. STAGING: solo is the third live work to enter the Walker's permanent collection, following acquisitions of work by Tino Sehgal and Ralph Lemon.

Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts, remarked: "Building on the Walker's historical commitment to acquisitions of works by interdisciplinary artists, including Trisha Brown, Meredith Monk, Nam June Paik, as well as the Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection; the acquisitions of Moran and Hassabi's challenge the very nature of our collection, forcing us to reconsider and reimagine our collecting practices. As the museum field increasingly turns to collecting performance and dance, we believe these acquisitions carry the possibility of redefining and testing the limits of how museums produce, present, acquire and conserve artworks."