NEW YORK, May 14 — Now in its 79th instalment, the Whitney Biennial opens on May 17, bringing together 75 artists and collectives who offer a snapshot of contemporary art in America. Whitney curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley focused on emerging talents, as roughly 75 per cent of the participating artists are under the age of 40.

Here is a selection of four performances and installations to check out:

Alexandra Bell’s No Humans Involved: After Sylvia Wynter, floor five of the Whitney Museum of American Art

This series features a series of oversize mock-ups of newspaper articles, including the New York Daily News, with editorial notes and annotations meant to expose biases in mainstream media. Bell’s prints especially interrogate how journalism can perpetuate racialised violence through language.

“I think everything is about race. Black communities, gay communities, immigrant communities, feel a lot of media representations to be inadequate, biased,” said Bell, who holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, in a statement.

Korakrit Arunanondchai’s With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4, floor five of the Whitney Museum of American Art

The Thai artist will present the video performance With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4. Opening with footage of Arunanondchai’s grandmother, the film interweaves autobiographical elements, allusions to current events in Thailand and the United States, as well as hypnotic post-apocalyptic visions.

With history in a room filled with people with funny names 4 is the fourth episode in a series where Arunanondchai investigates the entanglement of spirituality, technology, nature, and memory.

Meriem Bennani’s MISSION TEENS: French School in Morocco, floor five of the Whitney Museum of American Art

MISSION TEENS: French School in Morocco is centered on the lives of teenagers at a French school in Rabat, Morocco. As in much of Bennani’s work, the film draws on the aesthetic and narrative conventions of documentary, reality television, advertising and digital animation.

For the Whitney Biennial, MISSION TEENS will be incorporated into a large-scale installation that Bennani calls “a video-viewing garden.” It will comprise planters and futuristic, absurdist seating.

Brendan Fernandes’ The Master and the Form, floor five of the Whitney Museum of American Art

This installation sees Fernandes exploring the dynamics of mastery and discipline as embodied by ballet. It will be animated by a group of dancers, testing their endurance and self-control around five structures, 10 hanging ropes, and a central cage. When the dancers are absent, the installation includes recorded sound of the performers.

Fernandes has likened the project to S&M culture, noting that they each place “an emphasis on trust and confidence within a space where roles of mastery and submission are in play.”

The Master and the Form will be on view on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The Whitney Biennial will run from May 14 through September 22 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York. Additional information about this year’s programme can be found here. — AFP-Relaxnews