On January 10th, John Miserendino will begin work on his project, Pavilion, as part of Recess’s signature program, Session. Session invites artists to use its public space as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation.

For Pavilion, Miserendino will reinterpret Dan Graham’s original plans for his architectural structures. The artist, who sees himself as a collaborator with Graham and other prominent players—who may remain unaware of the joint venture—will stage a series of three reenactments inside his Pavilion to translate existing artworks into personal terms.

Using discarded studio materials from several well-known artists, Miserendino will use Pavilion as a recording studio to make an audio facsimile of Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, an album he has never heard personally. He will rely on visitors’ descriptions of the band and their memories of the music to approximate the album.

Pavilion will also become the set for a third version of Michael Haneke’s film, Funny Games. Miserendino worked as a PA for Haneke’s shot-by-shot 2008 American remake of his own movie, originally shot in 1997 in Austria. Using the original film as his guide and sourcing trashed costumes from the 2007 version, Miserendino will serve as actor, director, production designer, and editor for his 2012 iteration.

Finally, Pavilion will be used a stage for the artist to learn discarded choreography from the Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Miserendino will work with a dancer from the cast to learn dance sequences that have been cut from the present version of the musical.

In each case, Miserendino hopes to capture a discarnate likeness of the existing artworks, providing an additional layer of commentary to the original productions through new collaborations.

Artist Bio:

About the Artist: John Miserendino was born in 1980 in New Jersey and now lives and works in New York City. He received a BA in architecture from Cornell University in 2003. Earlier this year, his project “A Selection of Snapshots taken by Felix-Gonzalez Torres and John Miserendino” was published for Printed Matter in New York. Miserendino’s work has been included in several group exhibitions including Nouveaux Monstres, Theatre National de Toulouse; LIFE, St. Naraire; Garden of Earthly Delights, Tape Modern, Berlin; lille3000, Lille, France; and EXIT Festival, MAC, Paris.