89 seconds at Alcázar

the long version

89 Seconds at Alcazar is a restageing of Diego Velasquez's masterpiece, Las Meninas, as a video. Sussman's video premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, March - May 2004, and is currently showing at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art, in New York. This new project, by the artist, brings Vels̀quez's 1658 painting Las Meninas to life in High Definition video. The video installation captures the action leading up to and immediately following the events in the Spanish court painter's masterwork. 89 Seconds at Alcazar was recorded over four days in May of 2003, in a garage studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The piece shows actors in full period costume, designed by Karen Young, on a set that reproduces the room in the painting. It shows the artist Velasquez standing, in the painting, at his easel, with members of the royal household dispersed throughout the painting.