NOTE: You must RSVP to [email protected] to attend the opening.

X is a new not-for-profit organization that will exist for one year and present exhibitions and programming in four phases. X will open on March 7th, 2009. X is located at 548 West 22nd Street.

X is an initiative of the global art community, with a goal to inspire and challenge us to think about new possibilities for experiencing and producing contemporary art. In the creation of X, artists, curators, museum professionals, gallerists, collectors, art historians and critics are reaching across traditional boundaries to form a consortium interested in responding quickly to the major philosophical and economic shifts impacting culture.

Organized into four phases during Spring, Summer and Fall 2009 and Winter 2010, the programs at X will feature durational artist interventions, site-specific projects, historical in-depth exhibitions, one-night performances, lectures and weekly events. Questions posed in the form of programming will address relevant and pressing issues pertaining to the changing landscape of contemporary art.

X will be free and open to the public during the hours of 11am-6pm, Wednesday through Saturday.

Phase one of X will include exhibitions by three artists of different generations.

On the ground floor, Mika Tajima will present The Extras, an installation that is part film set, stage, greenroom, and prop house. This “mise en scène” will comprise a selection of works, past and new, including sculptures, performances and video. Three new works specifically produced for the project will incorporate images quoting Dan Graham’s pavilions, one of which was situated on the rooftop of the building when it was the Dia Center for the Arts.

On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors, X will showcase an extensive survey of the work of Derek Jarman, one of the most radical figures of British independent cinema. The exhibition will feature 18 super-8mm films rarely seen in the US. Jarman was a visionary who crossed a range of media boundaries including literature, painting, set design, gardening and activism. He produced over 80 films from the early 1970’s until his untimely death of AIDS in 1994.

On the roof, Christian Holstad will elaborate from his infamous site-specific installation, Leather Beach. This new work, entitled Light Chamber (Part 2) features a colonic machine and useable tanning bed. Part bunker and part high-end spa, the piece investigates contemporary society’s obsession with the body in its relation with nature and its worship.

In addition to these three exhibitions, the renowned, site-specific light work untitled by Dan Flavin will be reinstalled in the stairwells of the building. Created in 1996, the work is on loan from Dia Art Foundation and will be on view for the duration of X.

During each exhibition phase, an artist will commission a site-specific work for the façade of the building to redefine its transition into a new kind of art center.

X has been spearheaded by Elizabeth Dee of Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York in collaboration with an advisory board composed of international art colleagues and Jenny Moore, gallery Director and Project Curator of the initial phase of programming. The organization has appointed Cecilia Alemani, independent New York and Milan based curator, as Curatorial Director.