MoMA PS1 Turns 50 With a Party That Actually Felt Like One

May 14. MoMA PS1 threw its 50th anniversary gala at the Long Island City building that's housed it since 1976. The institutional anniversary party usually runs polite. This one didn't.

The courtyard filled early. DJ sets from Juliana Huxtable and Total Freedom ran overlapping, not sequential. Two sound systems at once means you pick a corner or you hear both bleeding together. Most people stayed in the bleed. The bar was outside, which meant the inside galleries stayed sparse until after ten.

Look 14 from the spring Eckhaus Latta show appeared three times in the first hour. The satin cargo with the dropped waist. It photographs well but it moves better, which is the point of wearing it to a party instead of hanging it.

The museum's director gave a short speech at 9:15. She thanked the board, acknowledged the neighborhood, noted that PS1 started as a rogue project in an abandoned school and is now part of the largest modern art institution in the country. She did not dwell on the tension there. She also did not need to.

By 11:00 the upstairs galleries were fuller than the courtyard. Pipilotti Rist's video installation in the back room had a line. The line was mostly people who'd been at the bar for two hours and wanted to sit in the dark for eight minutes. That's fine. That's what the room is for.

The party cleared out around 1:00, which is early for a weekend but late for a Wednesday. The institution turned 50. The party felt like it knew that meant something, but it didn't explain what. It just turned the music up.