The Temporary Contemporary
To celebrate the reopening of MOCA’s Temporary Contemporary, which closed in 1992 due to nearby construction, the museum invited New York-based movement artist Elizabeth Streb and her nine-person ensemble, STREB/Ringside, for a five-week residency.
For ACTION OCCUPATION, Streb presented three new works, one commissioned by MOCA, and six older pieces alongside open rehearsals, workshops, and educational events. Sets for the performances were installed throughout The Temporary Contemporary’s gallery space and included padded platforms, small towers, beams, and a scaffolded trampoline. UP (1995) premiered at the exhibition and featured six Ringside acrobats leaping from towers onto the trampoline, occasionally jumping high enough to grab overhead bars—or other performers on the bars—thereby forming human chains. Other works included Breakthru (1995), in which a performer crashed headfirst through a glass square, and Lookup! (1993), which saw four harnessed dancers suspended horizontally against a wall.
The Temporary Contemporary is the original name of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.