Celebrating its 25th anniversary of its popular summer benefit, The Watermill Center raised $2.2 million through ticket and art auction sales, reported its umbrella organization, the Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation. "TIME BOMB," held on Saturday, July 28, 2018, honored the late Pierre Bergé, a key figure in shaping French culture and politics, the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent, founding benefactor of The Watermill Center and a close friend of Robert Wilson.
Over 1,000 guests turned out sip cocktails and witness the durational art performances unfolding across the 10-acre grounds of The Watermill Center that the benefit has become known for.
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©Laura Brichta. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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Guests included Marina Abramović, Lisa Anastos, Jackie Astier, Joan Bankemper, Ariane Batterberry, Christopher Beckman, Danny Bennett & Hadley Spanier, Katharina Otto-Bernstein & Nathan Bernstein, Brodi Borchardt and Gregory Borchardt, Sonja & Martin Brand, Michael Braverman, Christine Wächter-Campbell & William I. Campbell, Bianca Casady and Sierra Casady (CocoRosie), Lady Liliana Cavendish, Bob Colacello, Madison Cox, Blair Voltz Clarke and Mel Dogan.
Also attending were Lisa & Sanford Ehrenkranz, Charles Fabius, Wendy & Roger Ferris, Jürgen & Anke Friedrich, Amanda & Glenn Fuhrman, Addis Goldman, Brett Helsham, Anne Huntington, Jean Philippe Kadzinski and Adrianne Kadzinski, Johanna Keimeyer, Walid Layadi-Marfouk, Nina & Daniel Libeskind, Maggie Magerko, Edward Mapplethorpe and Michelle Yun, Masako Miki, Delanique Millwood, Igee Okafor, Jon Oringer, Maxwell Osborne and Inga Maren Otto.
The guest list also featured Lisa and Richard Perry, Kembra Pfahler, Kathy Prounis, Polina Proshkina and Yan Assoun, Gustavo Pandolfo and Otavio Pandolfo (OSGEMEOS), Othon Prounis and Kathy Prounis, Duke Riley, Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, Isabella Rossellini, Georgia Sagri, Amy Sall, Anastasiya Siro, Jay Sugarman & Kelly Behun Sugarman, James Taylor, Olivia Tedesco, Shen Wei, and Shirley Young.
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©Neil Rasmus. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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The art performances were curated by Noah Khoshbin and Ivan Cheng and sited across the wooded pathways, courtyard and entranceways.
Contributing artists included Kira Alker & Elke Luyten, Laurie Anderson, Davide Balliano, Yto Barrada (courtesy the artist & Pace Gallery), Bäst, Oliver Beer, Tania Bruguera, Anne Carson, CocoRosie, Inga Galinyte, Miles Greenberg & Nile Harris, A.M. Homes, Jenny Holzer, Dawn Kasper (courtesy David Lewis Gallery), Amy Khoshbin and Christopher Knowles.
Also, Baboo Liao with Adrian Damian & Mariano Marquez, Wangechi Mutu, NoodleRice, OSGEMEOS, Anna Papathanasiou, Cleon Peterson, Flavio Pezzotti, Reynold Reynolds & Patrick Jolley, Georgia Sagri, Annamaria & Marzio Sala (Courtesy Kolumba, Köln) and Stephen Shanabrook.
Naomi Shihab Nye, Shoplifter A.K.A. Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, Paul Thek, Tassy Thompson, Naama Tsabar with Kristin Müller, Basco Vazko, Carlos Vela-Prado, Nari Ward (courtesy the artist & Lehmann Maupin, New York & Hong Kong) also provide art.
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CocoRosie, Lying Awake: Our Lady of the Flowers (clarinet: Doug Wieselman, chorus: Watermill Summer participants). ©Maria Baranova. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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Shoplifter / Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, Lonely ©Laura Brichta. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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After the cocktail hour, 600 guests retired to the dinner tent adorned by draped lights and hand lit lanterns. The silent auction featured works by William Quigley, Miya Ando, Les Rogers, Ross Watts, Dawn Kasper, Rachel Lee Hovnanian, Richard Barnes, Michael Dweck, Marja Samsom, Katherine Bernhardt, Dinesh Boaz, Kembra Pfahler, Jo Ann Callis, Edward Mapplethorpe, and Leila Jeffreys among others, and objects from The Watermill Collection.
Auctioneer Simon de Pury led the live auction and offered such prizes as dinner with Marina Abramović--a lot so popular it went twice--a trio of Keith Haring prints, courtesy Tony Shafrazian Foundation, and works by Peter Beard, Nan Goldin, Roy Lichtenstein, Masako Miki, Duke Riley, Tseng Kwong Chi, as well as a Robert Wilson video work.
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Simon de Pury and Marina Abramović. ©Maria Baranova. Courtesy The Watermill Center.
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OSGEMEOS skillfully DJed the After Party and illycaffè provided sweet palate closers for the vibrant evening.
Continue scrolling to see scenes from the 2018 Watermill Center Summer Benefit.
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Tassy Thompson, Lys Klår ©Maria Baranova. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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Noodle Rice performs. Photo ©Laura Brichta. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Jorge Brinkmann performs at Watermill Center. Photo ©Chloe Bellemere. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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OSGEMEOS, Giants ©Maria Baranova. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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The Watermill Center is an interdisciplinary laboratory for the arts supporting young and emerging artists through its year-round Artist Residency Program and International Summer Program. Set on 10 acres and featuring a 20,000 plus square-foot building, The Watermill Center offers programming year round with tours of Wilson's library and collection of contemporary and ancient global art and artifacts. It was founded by avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson in 1992.
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Robert Wilson. ©Ryan Kobane. Courtesy of The Watermill Center.
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The public has their chance to experience Watermill Center for themselves on August 12, 2018 from 3 to 6 p.m. for Discover Watermill Day where art installations, performances, tours and workshops will unfold across the Watermill Center campus. Admission is free. No reservations required.
The Watermill Center is located at isit www.watermillcenter.org.
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