The house, which should be open 24-hours-a-day, challenges the meanings of such things as ownership rights, openness, responsibility, trust and even vandalism, by literally, consciously, and deliberately making the space vulnerable, and open to everyone. Information and gathered knowledge about urban developments and the idealized New York art scene of the 1960s and 1970s can be brought into focus in this space, thereby establishing connections with the recent past, as well functioning as a laboratory for new ideas and practices of the future.
FOOD was the name of the restaurant opened in 1971 by Gordon Matta-Clark, Caroline Goodden, Tina Girourd, Suzanne Harris and Rachel Lew at 127 Spring Street, New York. To show and document their work, to support themselves and others, these artists organized themselves into a cooperative community network which led to FOOD becoming the meeting place and centre of discussion.
The group was also responsible for the founding of the magazine Avalanche, the performance and exhibition space 112 Greene Street (from which later White Columns developed) and the think-tank Anarchitecture Group.
The location of the house diagonally opposite P.S.1 is perfect.
P.S.1 developed directly from the history and practices of alternative spaces: in the 1970s, the strategy of the Institute for Art & Urban Resources, which Gordon Matta-Clark was closely involved with, occupied empty spaces in the city and made a major contribution in that period to a highly active and inspiring artistic climate. GOOD raises the issue if such a climate is still possible today. While asking it may stimulate the emergence of such a climate.