The eagerly-awaited, annual Warm Up series of concerts and events has launched, with an interactive setting provided by Minneapolis-based practice Dream the Combine, winners of this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architect’s Program competition. Titled Hide & Seek, the winning installation, featuring a large-scale, network of mirrors, will activate the courtyard through September, playing host to more than 75 musical artists. 

This year's construction, done in collaboration with Clayton Binkley of ARUP, features nine intersecting elements sprawled across the entire MoMA PS1 courtyard. Scriptive elements, ranging from trampolines to runways, invite visitors into performance and establish platforms for improvisation while the horizontal structures contain interactive mirrors, that move in the wind or with human touch.

Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers, founders of the experimental design practice, drew their inspiration for the project from performance artist Lorraine O’Grady, whose piece “Art Is. . .” is an exemplar in thinking about the ways in which bodies negotiate public space and the role architecture can have in that relationship. Earlier this year in an interview with Archinect, the duo said they "hope this project underscores our commitment to working meaningfully in service of people, their interactions, and their investment in public space."

"In recent years, Long Island City has become more vertical" said MoMA PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach, commenting on the program's relationship to its broader setting. "With this project, MoMA PS1 will engage horizontally, inviting the neighborhood and our diverse audience to participate in and engage with our programs at eye level. Dream The Combine’s proposal addresses this in both form and content, with participatory architecture to reflect, if not to literally mirror, the here and now in Long Island City and the country as a whole."

The Young Architects Program 2018 exhibition, showcasing the winning project alongside this year’s other finalists, has opened today and summer programming for the Warm Up series begins over the weekend.