About the Exhibition
Vanessa Beecroft (b.1969, Genoa, Italy) and the US Navy work 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 features 35 sailors from the Undersea Warfare Community standing in ceremonial formation on the flight deck of the Intrepid in service dress blues. The event takes place in the evening, from 19:30 to 21:00 (7:30 to 9:00 pm).
Vanessa Beecroft’s VB42 Intrepid is her second project in a series devoted to capturing a portrait of the US Navy. VB42 Intrepid honors the US Navy’s Undersea Warfare Community on the occasion of the Submarine Centennial anniversary. The live portrait represents an intersection of military rules and aesthetics with those of the world of art.
An additional element of this project is a “museum within a museum”—onboard the Intrepid a reproduction of the UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, FL is displayed. Curated by Vanessa Beecroft and produced by Deitch Projects, this exhibition features film and photographs of objects from the UDT-SEAL Museum collection, which are projected inside a scaled-down inflatable reproduction of the UDT-SEAL Museum building.
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 theater commanders. The US Navy Submarine Force celebrated one hundred years of service to the Nation in the year 2000.