By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER EAST SIDE — The three men sitting with their laptops around a desk discussed the first issue of their weekly newspaper, scheduled to come out next week.
"First thing's first," one editor said to the others. "We need interns."
But these interns won't be heading to a Midtown newsroom.
Instead, they will be going to an "office" on the Bowery situated in the middle of a public gallery at the New Museum to produce one of two newspapers as part of the museum's latest exhibition.
For "The Last Newspaper," which opened Wednesday, the New Museum transformed into a space where objects are not only displayed, but ideas are make it to the printed page.
Writers and editors in residence will create two weekly newspapers from within the gallery walls, which are lined with artwork inspired by the news.
One paper will document the events and discussions that take place as part of the exhibit, and the other, called The New City Reader, will cover architecture and public space in New York City.
"The idea was to create a weekly paper that won't be read by one person at a time reading their own copy of the paper," said New City Reader's executive editor, Joseph Grima.
"We're going to post it in public on the walls to be read collectively, because we're interested in the way that cities and communities have developed around information."
The art pieces on display in "The Last Newspaper" explore artists' own reactions to stories that have made headlines in recent decades, like late artist Dash Snow's collection of 20 front pages — covered in glitter and semen — from the Daily News and the New York Post about the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
In Emily Jacir's "Sexy Semite," the artist peppered the Village Voice with personal ads for Palestinians looking to settle down in Israel with Jewish mates. One asks, "Do you love milk & honey? I’m ready to start a big family in Israel. Still have house keys." Another, more pointed ad, reads: "You stole the land. May as well take the women! Redhead Palestinian ready to be colonized by your army."
"Our primary fascination was with artists who were using and often deconstructing the format of the newspaper — they were not just pulling apart the physical properties, but were interested in confronting forms of top-down power that seemed to have the agency to say ‘this is what the news is,'" the exhibit's co-curator, Benjamin Godsill, said in a published interview.
"The artwork included in the exhibition is always an assault on the newspaper, but also an homage."
