MoMA Presents Pierre Huyghe's UNTILLED (Liegender Frauenakt) This Summer

The Museum of Modern Art presents Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt) [Reclining female nude] (2012), a recently acquired sculpture by Pierre Huyghe (French, b. 1962) in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden from today, June 16 to mid-August 2015.

Untilled consists of a cast concrete sculpture of a reclining woman and a living beehive that serves as her head, and, by extension, her brain. The collective thought processes of bees-their "hive mentality"-has long been studied in relation to human political and social organization. Untilled explores these affinities and emphasizes the ancient, symbiotic relationship between humans and honeybees, which, in building their hive, take part in the creation of the sculpture.

One of Huyghe's best known works, this is the first of the artist's sculptures to have entered MoMA's collection. The installation is organized by Laura Hoptman, Curator, and Margaret Ewing, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA.

Hoptman states: "Pierre Huyghe's work does something curious and rare for contemporary art at this moment; it pointedly brings the natural world to bear on what we assume to be the very human notion of creativity. A work like Untilled is not only curious in a museum context, it is very moving because it beautifully emphasizes the symbiotic cooperation between humans and other living creatures."

Over the past 25 years, Huyghe has created a remarkable body of work that includes video, sculpture, installation, and activities that playfully and poetically investigate the physical and temporal experiences of living beings, human and animal. Whether organizing an expedition to Antarctica or producing sculptures that incorporate living creatures, from dogs to hermit crabs, Huyghe has helped push the boundaries of art making and audience participation by transforming viewers from passive observers into participants who experience his work as it happens.

Originally created for Documenta 13 in 2012, Untilled has also been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Beekeeping services for this installation is provided by Andrew Cote of Andrew's Honey.

FILM SCREENING:
MoMA Presents: Pierre Huyghe's The Host and The Cloud
July 14-16, 2015
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 3
Set on the former site of an ethnographic museum on the outskirts of Paris, Pierre Huyghe's The Host and The Cloud-shot on the Day of the Dead, Valentine's Day, and May Day over the course of a year-features proceedings as varied as a coronation, a trial, and a Black Mass, interspersed with puppetry, animation, color-drenched musical interludes, and fairy tale characters. Themes of capitalism, technology, and mysticism are apparent throughout, pointing to the artist's wider interest in virtual realities and the blurred lines between reality and fiction. The screenings are organized by Sophie Cavoulacos, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film.

The Host and The Cloud, 2009-10. France. Directed by Pierre Huyghe. In French, English; English subtitles. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery. 122 min.
Tuesday, July 14, 7:00, T3
Thursday, July 16, 7:00, T3

Pictured: Pierre Huyghe. Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt) [Reclining female nude]. 2012. Concrete with beehive structure, wax, and live bee colony; figure: 29 1/2 x 57 1/16 x 17 11/16" (75 x 145 x 45 cm), base: 11 13/16 x 57 1/16 x 21 5/8" (30 x 145 x 55 cm), beehive dimensions variable. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © 2015 Pierre Huyghe. Photo: Pierre Huyghe.