No gods only flowers

Poncili Creación

Aug 11 – Oct 10, 2022

  • Past
  • Installation
walter-wlodarczyk-2022-07-30-WWRB9631 (1).jpg
Poncili Creación. No gods only flowers. 2022.
Photo credit:
Steven Paneccasio

Conjuring the spirit of a weed bursting through cracks in the pavement, Poncili Creación’s sculptural installation No gods only flowers takes up residence in MoMA PS1’s double-height Duplex gallery. Comprising an anthropomorphic flower that towers over a gardener collapsed amongst a shrunken cityscape, the installation is the second life of these massive forms. They once danced as puppets, suspended by boom cranes, over the museum’s Courtyard as part of a performance of the same name in July 2022.

Since 2012, the collective—brothers Pablo and Efrain Del Hierro, and their collaborators—have made spontaneous processions and performances around the world, informed by their prior work in dance and experimental theater, and articulated through colorful and manipulable sculptural forms handmade from salvaged polyurethane foam, fabric, and cardboard. In both their performances and installations, they upend standard operating procedures by re-energizing the detritus of industrialized urban life.

By infiltrating public and semi-public spaces and enacting dramatic scalar shifts, Poncili Creación question what forms of growth and development society privileges—and where. A history of unsanctioned occupation of spaces informs their work. Like the small sculptural “dwellers” they have also placed around the museum (and sites beyond it), this installation nods to, in their words, “the countless squatters of time immemorial that have made creative use out of the surplus of the capitalist rubble.”

Dates

August 11–October 10, 2022

2022-08-11
2022-10-10

Location

MoMA PS1

22-25 Jackson Avenue Queens, NY 11101

Credits

No gods only flowers is presented as part of Life Between Buildings, organized by Jody Graf, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.

Project collaborators: Danae Brissonet, Lord Blobbie, Paco Cathcart, Connor Celeste, Alexandra Chaves, Daniela Fabrizi, Raymond Hernandez, Lee Kuanchen, Krystle Lee, Louis Mastrangelo, Alex Millan, Kevin Emilio Pérez, Krystal Quiles, Lulu Varona, Charlie Dore Young.

Sponsors

Life Between Buildings is made possible by Allianz, MoMA’s partner for design and innovation.

Allianz is proud to support a series of programs at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 that share new visions for a more sustainable future.

Significant support is provided by the Contemporary Arts Council of the Museum of Modern Art, with additional support provided by Jane and John Comfort.

Performances of No gods only flowers supported by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

Installation Images