Hard Return:
9 Experiments
for this Moment

With Jesus Benavente, Daniel Bozhkov, Emily Coates and Alix Pearlstein. Moderated by Kate Gilmore and Jonah Westerman.

This conversation hosted by Skowhegan and the Neuberger Museum of Art brings together the curators and four artists participating in the exhibition Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment (February 1 – May 7, 2023). Hard Return features a series of durational, performance-based works by nine artists, each of whom transform the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase into an active site of collaboration and investigation for one week.

Diverse in form and aim, the collective works ask fundamental questions about art, life, and convening in the present, in particular following the global Covid-19 pandemic during 2020. Hard Return asks: How have our senses of intimacy and community been transformed over the past years? How have ideas about what makes life sustainable been challenged? What does it take to begin again? These same questions animate the possibilities and challenges of what we experience at the School each summer. For this performance, participating artists work collaboratively with Purchase students and faculty, as well as the visiting.