Time on the Bowery: 1965 - 1966;

Vito Acconci’s (b. 1940) design and architecture comes from another direction: a background first in writing and then in art. His performances in the 70’s helped shift art from object to interactions between artist and viewer; his installations treated visitors to the gallery/museum not as viewers but as inhabitants of and participants in a public space. By the late 80’s his work had crossed over, and he formed Acconci Studio: their operations come from computer-thinking, and mathematical and biological models. Acconci Studio treats architecture as occasions for activity – making spaces fluid, changeable, portable. They recently completed a person-made twisting island in Graz and a clothing store as soft as skin in Tokyo; they are working now on a retractable bridge that coils like a snake in the north of France and housing folded within a terraced mountain in the south of France.