Within a riding arena repurposed from the former drill hall of the 10th Mountain Division infantry, Matthew Barney presents the new live performance TACTICAL parallax. Conceived specifically for the Mountain-West setting, the work collides—for the first time—characters, stories, movement, and visual vocabularies from the artist’s most recent major bodies of work concerned with the mythology of violence that lives in the American landscape. Barney interweaves the hunt iconography from his film Redoubt (2018), which follows protagonist Diana’s ritualistic pursuit of a wolf, with the pageantry and violence-as-entertainment depicted in SECONDARY (2023), a video installation inspired by a historic NFL hit that left one player paralyzed for life. Athletes, referees, zone defenses, hunters, and hunted come together to forge a link between the joint spectacles of American football and Western expansionism.

Matthew Barney is an American artist renowned for provocative explorations of the body and ritual across sculpture, installation, film, performance, and drawing. Since the early 1990s, Barney’s epic projects have addressed the complex spectacle of violence in American culture, merging references to classical mythology, modern history, sports, human anatomy, and popular culture. His films and ritualistic performances feature elaborate costumes, props often coated in viscous substances, and sets evoking military training camps, sports arenas, or medical facilities. Barney is perhaps best known for The CREMASTER Cycle (1994–2002), a series of five feature-length films and related sculptures and drawings that blend references to the human reproductive cycle with mythology and surrealism. His most recent major bodies of work, SECONDARY (2023) and Redoubt (2018), respectively explore the physical brutality of American sports culture and the nation’s myths surrounding landscape. Barney has presented large-scale solo projects at Fondation Cartier, Paris (2024); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (2019); and Haus Der Kunst, Munich (2014); among other institutions. He is an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as a recipient of the 1996 Hugo Boss Prize and the Aperto Prize at the 45th Venice Biennale, among other accolades.

TACTICAL parallax is written and directed by Matthew Barney, with music composed and directed by Jonathan Bepler. It is movement directed by David Thomson, assistant directed by Sarah Gyllenstierna, and produced by Isabella Achenbach. The work is performed by David Thomson, Raphael Xavier, Okwui Okpokwasili, Sandra Lamouche, Anette Wachter, isabel crespo pardo, Jeffrey Gavett, Matthew Barney, Shannon Greene, Kanoa Baysa, Aaron Ralston, Meg Ralston, Mac Benning, Camille Backman, Vincent Wong, Evan Jeffers, members of the Colorado Mesa University Drumline and Brass Bands, Ralston Ranch, and Celtic Moon Mushing.

TACTICAL parallax is curated by Vic Brooks, AIR Curator at Large, and Nicola Lees, Nancy and Bob Magoon Artistic Director and CEO, with Daniel Merritt, Chief Curator, Simone Krug, Curator, and Mariana Fernández, AIR Project Curator.

TACTICAL parallax by Matthew Barney is made possible through major support provided by Gael Neeson | Edlis Neeson Foundation.