In 2010 the Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramović performed a nearly 3-month, daily, 8-hour session at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, seated silently behind a wooden table, making eye contact with anyone who sat down opposite her.
She wrote of the experience: “Nobody could imagine…that anybody would take the time to sit and just engage in mutual gaze with me,” Abramović explained. In fact, the chair was always occupied, and there were continuous lines of people waiting to sit in it. “It was [a] complete surprise…this enormous need of humans to actually have contact.”
Coming out of the pandemic, slowly, I think we are all trying to come to terms with what exactly happened last year.
For me, it has felt like emerging from a very private and personal chaos, only now to feel something of the trauma – the joy of seeing other people again… but simultaneously, only now feeling the sadness of everything that was lost.
I can’t explain it, exactly – but either way, jumping right back into a larger portfolio tasting in the city didn’t feel right. I have always greatly admired the humanity of Abramović’s work, and her performance “the artist is present” seemed like the perfect model for a sort of vom Boden reintroduction to the world.
Either way, I want to see you, or to meet you, and to say thank you for the support last year that kept us, very literally, in business and able to support our tiny ecosystem of growers.
So, with the generous support of the Four Horseman in Brooklyn and Compagnie in Manhattan, I am taking inspiration from Abramović’s performance and hosting one-on-one meetings.
I will be at Four Horsemen next Wednesday, June 2nd, from 10am until 3:30pm. The next day, June 3rd, I will be at Compagnie from 10:30am until 5:00pm.
THIS IS NOT AN OPEN TASTING! This is me, sitting alone, all day with 12-18 bottles. I want to see you – but YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!
It can be for you alone – or for you and members of your team, up to three people at a time maximum.
Each “tasting” will take about 30 minutes. I will have between 12 and 18 bottles of wine to taste. Obviously I want you to taste the new stuff, but I also want it to be about seeing people again, and about exploration and learning – so I will bring wines from my own cellar that I think have something to add to the conversation.
If you want to come by but only have 10 or 15 minutes, please ask. If I can make time for you, I would like to.
So, if you are interested in meeting, please email me directly at stephen@vomboden.com and give me the widest window of dates and times you are available. I will then come back to you with a specific appointment, time allowing.
Thank you for your patience with this – I’m hoping it is a deeper, more meaningful way of seeing people… of tasting wines, together, closer than six feet and not wearing masks. I am fully vaccinated, I hope you will be too.