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Venue: Art Basel 2013
Creators: Tim Nye, Curatorial Assistance, and Punchdrunk Theatre Company

1969 is a new art exhibition and theatre project conceived by curator and art event producer Tim Nye in partnership with Curatorial Assistance.

For Art Basel, the world’s most important art fair, Nye and Curatorial Assistance have envisioned an immersive exhibition and art performance experience. Staged inside an elegant Swiss villa, 1969 will take its audience into a curated environment populated by authentic works of art, vintage architectural objects, and the brave new gadgets of the 1960s era, and will tell the story of one of the most culturally explosive decades in recent history.

Art Basel’s gossamer performance event will be the 1969 opening celebration that will be attended by the elite from the worlds of art and commerce. Guests will step inside the intriguing world of two fictional art impresarios of the 1960s, Walter and Vivian Koolhaus. As innovative and daring style mavens, the Koolhauses are at the cultural epicenter of late 1960s avant-garde.

The performance space will hold an exhibition of the Koolhaus Collection, consisting of 1960s masterworks by Los Angeles artists Larry Bell, John Baldessari, Billy Al Bengston, Wallace Berman, Judy Chicago, David Hockney, Robert Irwin, Craig Kaufman, Ed Kienholz, John McCracken, Ed Moses, Bruce Nauman, Ken Price and Ed Ruscha, among others. Immersed in the performance space, guests will discover that the event is populated by many of the artists and influential figures of the period, acted perfectly in style and persona by professional actors. Performers will mingle with guests, never breaking from character. See Truman Capote adore Brigitte Bardot, Diane Arbus attack Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson confused by Andy Warhol, Woody Allen casting Jim Morrison in his next film.

Though trysts, turns, and inspired by the devil-may-care spirit of the art innovators of the 1960s, the immersive environment will allow each guest to experience an individual imaginative journey and a vivid return to the spirit of this game-changing moment of the late 1960s. Following the opening event will be seven days of additional performances, enabling all Art Basel visitors to experience the 1969 event and to further explore the world of the Koolhauses.

further information

Esquire Magazine: The story of Walter and Vivian Koolhaus
Project Proposal

Press coverage, Tim Nye
• Los Angeles Times
• Village Voice
• New York Times Online
• New York Times
• New Yorker