PS1 MoMA will bring pole dancing to Long Island City this summer. Finally.

‘Pole Dance’ rendering from SO-IL for PS 1 courtyard, Long Island City – Photo

2009 whizzed by in a flash, and another summer in Long Island City will be here before we know it – at least that’s what we keep telling ourselves. Thankfully, PS 1 and its Young Architects Program once again give us something to look forward to: the annual summer installation in their courtyard, the setting of their storied Warm-Up parties.

This year, the winners of the coveted courtyard crown is Brooklyn architecture firm SO-IL. Their entry is called ‘Pole Dance,’ and although it seems oddly apropos given all the strip club drama in the hood lately, it’s actually “a metaphor for these uncertain times.” Interestingly, SO-IL’s pavilion is also “more pliant than anything yet staged” in PS 1’s courtyard, and the most expansive as well.

From Archpaper:

“Pole Dance begins with nearly 100 fiberglass rods measuring 2-inches around and 25-feet tall that will be anchored into the ground at 12-foot intervals. The flexible, free-moving poles are designed to rise above the courtyard walls, ‘to broadcast the activity inside to the city.’

Then, 14 feet up, at the height of the courtyard’s walls, a stretchy, trapeze-like net measuring about 9,000 square feet will be bungeed to the walls and poles. The mesh will also flex and droop, with holes cut strategically here-and-there [...] There is also a large hole in the middle of the main courtyard that is anchored to the ubiquitous pool – all projects must include water – that [architect] Idenburg said creates a special interior space just beyond the hubbub of the weekly parties.

Beyond providing structure to this languid object, the holes also help define it, as dozens of balls will move about and through the net, reacting as the poles are moved, creating a sort of game, though one without any rules, at least not yet.”

A game without rules. How perfect for LIC.

‘Pole Dance’ rendering from SO-IL for PS 1 courtyard, Long Island City – Photo

.

• Shaking up PS 1: SO-IL brings ‘Pole Dance’ to Queens [Archpaper]

• Attack of the 25-foot-tall pole dance in LIC [Curbed]

• PS 1 and MoMA choose a courtyard architect [NYT]

• PS 1 Announces ‘Pole Dance’ Winner of Young Architects Program [Gothamist]

• SO-IL – Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu [Website]

• PS 1’s Young Architects Program & previous winners [PS 1]

• Info on PS 1’s Warm Up parties [PS 1]

• Throwback: 2009’s ‘Afterparty’ in PS 1’s courtyard [liQcity]