The High Line has announced its 2021 series of commissioning. Gathered under the banner The Musical Brain, the elevated park in New York will feature sculptural and sound installations by Rebecca Belmore, Vivian Caccuri, Raúl de Nieves, Guillermo Galindo, David Horvitz, Mai-Thu Perret, Naama Tsabar and Antonio Vega Macotela.
Ibrahim Mahama and Hannah Levy will also have work on show from April, commissions which were to be installed this year but were delayed due to the pandemic shutdown. If 2020 proved a difficult year for many, the new commissions seem chosen as a welcome distraction, with Cecilia Alemani, the project’s chief curator (and curator of next year’s the 2022 Venice Biennale) describing them as ‘playful, thoughtful and hopeful’.
Following the inauguration of an annual plinth commission last year, with a monumental sculpture by Simone Leigh, the organisation will also show the submitted models for the next round, by shortlisted artists Iván Argote, Nina Beier, Margarita Cabrera, Nick Cave, Banu Cennetoğlu, Rafa Esparza, Teresita Fernández, Kapwani Kiwanga, Lu Pingyuan, Pamela Rosenkranz, Mary Sibande and Andra Ursuta. Two out of the 12 shortlisted proposals will be selected as the third and fourth High Line Plinth commissions, to be installed in 2022 and 2024 respectively.
