MILES — OFFICE MAG

Written By Michel Oscar Monegro


Miles Greenberg meets me on the street outside his Chinatown studio, carrying an unwieldy 4-ft wide curved computer monitor. “Sorry I’m late, the pickup window for this got pushed back a bit,” he apologizes, fishing out his keys from a deep pocket. As I help him unlock the doors and hold them so he can carry the monitor inside, he explains the reason for the purchase. “I’m editing three- and four-channel videos right now, and it took about ten hours just to do the first three minutes of what I’m working on. It’s helpful sometimes to see everything I’m working on all at once.” 

On the walls of his studio, relics of past works intermingle with ideas-in-progress and reminders for the future. A print of his performance Late October (2020) at Galleria Continua, on the outskirts of Paris, hangs above a leather sofa; to its right are an assortment of pinned-up sketches, notes, and images. A floor to ceiling mirror across the room lists Greenberg’s 2024 exhibitions and performances written in dry erase marker; the stacked calendar includes the Venice Biennale in Italy and the Yokohama Triennale in Japan, as well as a solo show at Buro Stedelijk in the Netherlands.

Greenberg can approximately be described as a performance artist, though as he explains to me later in our conversation, he finds the term “artist” alone more accurate. His work can also be understood as a form of sculpture, shaping moments and scenes with human bodies in site-specific durational works that often stretch across hours and hours. Born in Montreal and raised by his mother, who was an actress in a Russian absurdist theater troupe in his early life, Greenberg was exposed to a wide range of art and artists from a young age. At 17, he dropped out of school and began experimenting with different forms of performance; by 20, he was invited to study with prolific Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović. Now 26, he has completed residencies and shows at prestigious institutions all over the world, including Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France and the Watermill Center in New York. Last year, he was invited to stage and record his work Étude Pour Sébastien (2023) at the Louvre. 

One oft-discussed element of Greenberg’s practice is the rigorous physical training and diet required to condition his body for the strain of durational works, and the particularly strict physical regimen that he undergoes as a ritual in the two weeks before a performance. Given the supernatural themes of office Issue 21, I ask if he has any corresponding spiritual rituals for preparation ahead of performance. A grin spreads across his face. “I do, but I don't want to tell you about it.” I ask him if he believes in ghosts (he does, though he declines to say more) or the afterlife (he passes on that question.) 

“What about God?”

ARTICLE LINKED HERE

 Read the rest of this cover story in Issue 21. 

Michel Oscar Monegro
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