Philippe Parreno’s H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS (pronounced “hypnosis,” just to confuse us all) is bewildering. Staged in the Park Avenue Armory’s massive drill hall, it’s an installation that involves film, sculpture, music, and performance. It takes at least two hours to get through, and feels as slow and frustrating as the traffic on Broadway during rush hour. But weirdly enough, for patient viewers, H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS ends up being a rewarding experience.
With H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS, Parreno overwhelms visitors with information. Could anyone really understand everything Parreno shows over the course of these two hours? It’s better to just let it all sink in—to be reminded, time and again, that visitors are here with many other people, in a large drill hall, in the Park Avenue Armory, in New York City.