A Live Event on the Flight Deck of the
Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum
 
An off-site component of the
Whitney Museum of American Art
2000 Biennial Exhibition

April 21, 2000 from 19:30 - 21:00

Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum
46th Street and 12th Avenue

Vanessa Beecroft and the US Navy worked together with the Public Art Fund and Deitch Projects to bring this extraordinary live event to the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York City. An off-site component of the 2000 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum, Vanessa Beecroft's VB42 Intrepid featured 35 sailors from the Undersea Warfare Community standing in ceremonial formation on the flight deck of the Intrepid in service dress blues. The event took place in the evening, from 19:30 to 21:00 (7:30 to 9:00 pm) with New York City's glowing skyline as a dramatic backdrop.

Vanessa Beecroft's VB42 Intrepid was her second project in a series devoted to capturing a portrait of the US Navy. VB42 Intrepid honored the US Navy's Undersea Warfare Community on the occasion of the Submarine Centennial anniversary. The live portrait represented an intersection of military rules and aesthetics with those of the world of art.

An additional element of this project was a "museum within a museum" -- onboard the Intrepid a reproduction of the UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, FL was displayed. Curated by Vanessa Beecroft and produced by Deitch Projects, this exhibition featured film and photographs of objects from the UDT-SEAL Museum collection that were projected inside a scaled-down inflatable reproduction of the UDT-SEAL Museum building.

Artist Bio
Vanessa Beecroft was born in Genoa, Italy in 1969. She began studying painting and architecture there in 1983, and stage design in Milan in 1988. Her work is neither performance nor documentary, but something in between. Her live events are recorded through photography and film, but her conceptual approach is actually closer to painting. Beecroft sets up a structure for the participants in her live events to create their own composition, presenting themselves according to their own internalized aesthetic system.
 
VB42 Intrepid was Vanessa Beecroft's forty-second live event. Her work has been exhibited at international venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (1999), Spiral Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo (1999), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1998), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1998), Venice Biennale (1997), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1997).

Sponsorship
VB42 Intrepid was a project of the Public Art Fund in collaboration with Deitch Projects and made possible with the cooperation of the United States Navy and the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum.
 
About US NAVY Undersea Warfare: The Navy's Undersea Warfare community is composed of submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, and the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System. Maritime patrol aircraft, in conjunction with the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, continually monitor the world's oceans, making long range detection of submarine and surface ship contacts to provide real-time reporting of surveillance information to theatre commanders. The US Navy Submarine Force celebrated 100 years of service to the Nation in the year 2000.
 
VB42 Intrepid was also an off-site component of the Whitney Museum 2000 Biennial Exhibition. Special thanks to the UDT-SEAL Museum Association, Inc.

Location
The Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum is located at 46th Street and 12th Avenue.