Marlene Dietrich
in Dr. No’s Ludovico
Clinic (Dr. Baby
Erzland), the 15th
Annual Watermill
Center Benefit,
raised a total of
$1.5 million for the
Center’s year-round
international artist
residencies and
education programs.
The event was
sponsored by LVMH
with beverages
generously provided
by Bacardi, Chateau
Mouton Rothschild,
Peroni and VOSS
artesian water from
Norway. Olivier
Cheng catered the
event.
The unusual title of
the gala is also the
name of a
site-specific
installation created
for the event by
noted young German
artist Jonathan
Meese. Over 1,000
guests viewed this
installation, which
took over many rooms
in the
usually-pristine
interior of Robert
Wilson’s Watermill
Center. Guests also
enjoyed
site-specific
outdoor
installations
throughout
Watermill’s wooded
grounds by an array
of international
artists including
avant-garde
performance group
Shakespeare’s Wild
Sisters (Taiwan),
noise-rock band
Japanther (U.S.),
drummers from the
U-Theatre (Taiwan)
and installation
artist Anita Dube
(India), who created
a red tent filled
with burning candles
and the word LOVE
spelled out in 4
foot high wax
letters. The
Center’s façade was
transformed into an
original Bollywood
film poster by the
Indian artist Baba
Anand. This year
for the first time,
the art
installations will
remain on view and
can be toured by the
public until August
10th.
A major contribution
to the evening was a
live and silent
auction of artwork
donated by the
international
artists’ community.
Highlights included
a VOOM Portrait of a
snow owl by the
Watermill Center’s
founder, Robert
Wilson, as well as
an original chair
stage prop from his
seminal theater work
Einstein on the
Beach, which set
a new auction record
for a Wilson chair
sculpture.
Other auction items
included a
portrait commission
from popular
singer/songwriter
Rufus Wainwright,
and works by
Jonathan Meese,
Matthew Barney,
Terence Koh, Lisa
Yukavage, Gao
Xingjian, Thomas
Ruff, and Enoc
Perez. A special
auction item this
year was Golden
Classix, a stunning
Palamino mare and a
descendant of the
legendary Bask. The
crowd was awed as a
beautiful horse, one
similar to Golden
Classix who was
allowed to stay home
at her Texas ranch,
was led through the
dinner tent to
inspire the bidding.
All of the artwork
was produced and
installed at the
Watermill Center
with the help of
over 100
participants from 30
countries in the
Center’s
International Summer
Program.
Guests at the event
included Kim
Cattrall, Rufus
Wainwright, Roger
Waters, Rachel Zoe,
Howard Stern and
Beth Ostrosky,
Marina Ambramovic,
Lisa
Dennison, Jonathan
Meese, Anne Hearst
McInerney and Jay
McInerney, First
Lady Michelle Paige
Paterson, Fabiola
Beracasa, Bob
Colacello, Beth
Rudin DeWoody,
Michael Govan and
Katherine Ross,
Debbie Bancroft,
Laura Harring, Lea
Carpenter Brokaw,
Lisa Anastos, Carter
Burden, Dalia
Oberlander, Hope
Atherton, Lisa de
Kooning, Jonathan
Safran Foer and
Nicole Krauss,
Somers and Jonathan
Farkas, Tatiana and
Campion Platt, Jane
Holzer, Lisa Perry,
Douglas Hannant,
Susan Baker and
Michael Lynch,
Audrey and Martin
Gruss, Louise T.
Blouin MacBain,
Chris Cuomo and
Christina Greeven
Cuomo.
For more information
on the Watermill
Center, please visit
www.watermillcenter.org
.