Effective revolutionary tactics

Despite the seemingly endless supply of contemporary art on view at Art Basel Miami Beach, the must-see event was "Don`t Trust Anyone Over Thirty," an hour-long puppet show conceived by artist Dan Graham, with assistance from fellow artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and Rodney Graham, produced by Sandra Antelo-Suarez of Trans>, a New York-based non-profit foundation and Francesca Habsburg`s T-B A21 in Vienna. Night after night, swarms of collectors, curators and others packed the tiny theater of the Miami Botanical Garden across the street from the convention center to see this homage to 1960s psychedelic paranoia that seemed perfectly timed for this election year.

Based on the 1960s B-movie, Wild in the Streets, the puppet-rock opera traced the political ascent of Neil Sky, a flower child turned rock star, who runs for president on the platform of lowering the voting age to 14. After taking office, he sends all the oldsters?the thirty-somethings?to LSD-dispensing internment camps, proclaiming, "Man, you don`t want to live to be 30. Thirty`s death, baby, pure death." Of course, he is ultimately up-ended by an ambitious kid who stages a coup on the government by declaring, "Don`t trust anyone over 10!" All of this is accompanied by songs supplied by Sonic Youth and Graham, performed by the rock duo Japanther.

Created by a cadre of baby-boomer artists who have long-passed their 29th birthdays, "Don`t Trust Anyone Over Thirty" might be a metaphor for the current American presidency in which George W. Jr. seems merely a puppet, especially in comparison with the life-like artistry of the marionettes in this show, designed by master puppeteer Philip Huber. On another level, however, the show is a response by Graham and friends, now Old Masters of contemporary art, to a younger generation of artists who are far less radical and far less ambitious than their elders. Over at the fair, the booths were packed with works by artists well under thirty years of age, but few seemed ready to advance the revolutionary tactics of these more mature artists or equipped to achieve the evocative results of this hauntingly effective multimedia event.

Don´t Trust Anyone Over Thirty,
Performance-Puppentheater-Rockoper
Welturaufführung: 1. Dezember 2004, Art Basel Miami Beach
Regie: Dan Graham
Videos: Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler
Musik: Rodney Graham
Im Auftrag von TRANS> koproduziert von Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary,
Wien und Foundation 20 21, New York und Walker Art Center, Voom/ALB

Barbara Pollack