MERIEM BENNANI TO CREATE A NEW PUBLIC ARTWORK FOR THE HIGH LINE, NEW YORK, CO-COMMISSIONED BY HIGH LINE ART AND AUDEMARS PIGUET CONTEMPORARY
The artist’s first public sculpture will premiere on the High Line this June as part of the High Line’s 2022-2023 commissions, This June, artist Meriem Bennani will reveal her first public sculpture, Windy (2022), co-commissioned by High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Installed on the High Line at 24th Street in New York City, the sculpture will be on view through May 2023. Windy marks the first time High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary are co-curating and commissioning a public sculpture.
Merging magical realism, farcical humour, and techniques from a wide range of moving image genres, Bennani creates videos—often housed in colourful geometric steel sculptures—that tell stories about human behaviour and our experiences both on and offline. 2 Lizards (2020), the artist’s most recent video series created at the start of COVID-19 in collaboration with filmmaker Orian Barki, became an overnight viral sensation as the work poignantly captured the experiences of quarantine and extreme isolation caused by the pandemic.
Windy on the High Line will present a shift in Bennani’s practice—marking her first public sculpture and her first stand-alone sculpture that does not include a video element. Inspired directly by the experience of being in New York City and walking on the High Line, Windy will maintain the artist’s characteristic absurdist humour and interest in animation while she focuses on the mechanics and kinetic energy of the sculpture itself.
The curators from High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary are working closely together with Bennani to develop the artwork. The collaboration highlights each programme’s parallel mission: to invite an artist to commission a new artwork which pushes them to think creatively and further develop their practice.
“In developing the concept for Windy, I knew it could not be
a static sculpture but needed to echo the dynamic and
constant movements of the High Line. I wanted to play with
New York City’s energy after the past couple years which
alternated between engaging with it and carefully hiding from
it. I also wanted to try something that presented me with new
conceptual and technical challenges in order to expand my
understanding of sculpture, moving image, and the creative
possibilities of their shared interaction. I’m grateful for the
support of High Line Art and Audemars Piguet Contemporary
and for this opportunity to take my work in a new direction,
on the occasion of my first public sculpture.”
Meriem Bennani Artist
