Site Matters: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's World Trade Center Artist Residency 1997-2001

From 1997 to 2001, over 140 artists set up studios in temporarily vacant space provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the upper reaches of the World Trade Center's Tower 1. In an atmosphere of conceptual risk-taking, they produced a broad range of work, from panoramic cityscapes and discrete sculptural objects to physically integrated site-specific projects and new media performance. The residency was initiated to serve emerging and mid-career artists and encouraged conceptual and aesthetic experimentation. In this program retrospective, Site Matters documents an exceptional and atypical breadth of projects by some of today's significant young artists, including Stephen Vitiello, Paul Pfeiffer, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Monika Bravo, Gelatin, Patty Chang, John Pilson, Nadine Robinson, Sanford Biggers, Lucky DeBellevue, Emily Jacir, Jennie C. Jones, Kristin Lucas, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy and Olu Oguibe. Punctuating art documentation are residents' snapshots of daily life at the World Trade Center, offering a more intimate portrait of the Twin Towers post-9/11. The residency program is currently located on unused floors in the historic Woolworth Building, also located in Lower Manhattan.