Brujas Training Facility

Performance Space New York, May 25–June 9, 2018.

Jenny Schlenzka, artistic director of Performance Space New York, commissioned this installation for a three week residency by the NYC-based feminist skate collective and streetwear brand Brujas. The installation functions as a skate spot for open skate sessions, and also as a social hub for lectures and workshops hosted by Brujas. Having lived in the East Village for many years, Schlenzka used to watch the skaters at Thompkins Square Park (referred to within the NYC skate community as Training Facility) on weekends, and wanted to bring the energy see saw there into Performance Space New York, which is also located in the East Village. Skateboarding is prohibited in most street skating destinations in NYC, so Brujas Training Facility offers a cop-free environment for skaters. The facility is also air-conditioned with a theater-quality sound system accessible to skaters via bluetooth. The set design re-purposes theatrical staging equipment–normally used by Performance Space New York for stages and seating platforms–into a series of flat and angled ledges and manual pads. Pink concrete slabs secured to the tops of the staging platforms transform them into skate-able and grind-able surfaces. Since Brujas started in 2014 they have used the color pink to establish gender neutrality within skateboarding culture. The use of pink concrete co-opts the traditionally gray and industrial skate obstacle, introducing warmth and reducing the objects into a series of horizontal pink planes in a black space. 
Brujas Training Facility was also used to host Brujas’s Anti Prom III, the gender-queering party described by the New York Times as “an effervescent celebration of people usually sidelined by traditional prom culture,” or as Brujas co-founder Arianna Gil described it, “the Met-Gala of the underground.”

Brujas Training Facility
  1. Boat
  2. Boat
  3. Boat
  4. Boat
  5. Boat
  6. Boat
  7. Public Benches
  8. Public Benches
  9. Public Benches
  10. Public Benches
  11. Rennsport Reunion 7
  12. Rennsport Reunion 7
  13. Rennsport Reunion 7
  14. Skateboard
  15. Skateboard
  16. Skateboard
  17. Skateboard
  18. Skateboard
  19. Skateboard
  20. Skateboard
  21. Skateboard
  22. Skateboard
  23. Skateboard
  24. Skateboard
  25. Skateboard
  26. Square Chair
  27. Kvadrat Flagship Showroom, NYC
  28. Kvadrat Flagship Showroom, NYC
  29. Kvadrat Flagship Showroom, NYC
  30. Kvadrat Flagship Showroom, NYC
  31. Kvadrat Flagship Showroom, NYC
  32. Blum & Poe Book store
  33. Blum & Poe Book store
  34. Blum & Poe book store
  35. Blum & Poe Book store
  36. Plywood and Cork Screens
  37. Plywood and Cork Screens
  38. Plywood and Cork Screens
  39. Hem San Francisco
  40. Hem Pop-Up San Francisco
  41. Hem Pop-Up San Francisco
  42. Camper Store
  43. Camper Store
  44. Camper Store
  45. Camper Store
  46. Camper Store
  47. Granite Benches
  48. Granite Benches
  49. Brujas Training Facility
  50. Brujas Training Facility
  51. Brujas Training Facility
  52. Solid Textile Screen
  53. Solid Textile Screen
  54. Solid Textile Screen
  55. Concrete Petanque Terrains and Aluminum Bench
  56. Realgar
  57. Twill Weave Daybed
  58. Room for a Daybed
  59. Selected Works
  60. Vitra Presents Work
  61. Sunset
  62. Longing
  63. Longing
  64. Longing
  65. Aluminum Bench / Sainsbury Gallery
  66. Aluminum Bench / Sainsbury Gallery
  67. Twill Weave Daybed
  68. Twill Weave Daybed
  69. Aluminum Bench, Volume Gallery
  70. Vitra Workspace
  71. Vitra Workspace: An Office Perspective
  72. Photo by David Van Severen
  73. Dog
  74. Olivares Aluminum Chair
  75. Aluminum Bench
  76. Aluminum Bench
  77. Source Material
  78. Source Material
  79. Delivery
  80. Aluminum Chair
  81. Aluminum Chair
  82. Olivares Aluminum Chair
  83. Aluminum Chair
  84. An Exploded View
  85. An Exploded View
  86. Library and social hub
  87. Library and social hub
  88. Joint
  89. A Small Museum for the American Metaphor
  90. Polyurethane Seating Platform
  91. Polyurethane Seating Platform
  92. Smith
  93. Smith
  94. Smith
Info
  1. Contact
  2. Biography
  3. Website