Downtown New York

During the 60s and 70s, a unique artistic climate reigned in New York that captured the imagination. The boundaries between conceptual art, music and performance became blurred. Encouraged by the experiments of John Cage, in the metropolis a music style was born that strongly dissociated itself from the mainstream music culture and the institutionalised modernism of the academic world. For its admirers, this new ‘downtown’ music scene was a beacon of cultural resistance. With a lofty vision of artistic and spiritual liberation, it wanted to bring an end to consumerism and bureaucratic rationalism. Others saw in this musical avant-garde the mirror image of the market society: an expression of America’s increasing dehumanisation, an early model for the utopianism of Silicon Valley. Reactions varied enormously. 

But what united the various art movements, from conceptualism to minimalism to performance art? How did downtown artists view the social developments of the era? And how did this 60s subculture and the neoliberal revolution influence their work?

For a whole weekend, we focus on the music and legacy of protagonists such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Julius Eastman, Petr Kotik and Laurie Anderson. What can ‘downtown music’ teach us today? We'll find out together.