Barbara Pollack, Model UN 
May 21–Jun 25, 2006 
 
PARTICIPANT INC presents Model UN, an exhibition of new photographs and videos by Barbara Pollack. Like much of Pollack's work, Model UN is a collaboration with her son, Max Berger, now 18-years-old, with whom she has been making work since he was a small child. Model UN takes as its subject the annual international conference of Model UN, a program in which high school students from around the world convene and test their skills as diplomats. Model UN examines the impossibility of utopian models of internationalism within the very structure that embodies this belief system: the United Nations headquarters in New York City. In 2004, Pollack was granted permission to photograph in this historic and highly security- conscious site. The resulting images of teenagers filling the General Assembly or voting on propositions in the Security Council provide a portrait, at once poignant and humorous, that reflects a current moment in which world peace and international cooperation seem not only unlikely, but potentially futile pursuits. Also on view is War Dance, a video in which Max and his friends, amidst their simulation of a mosh pit, enact an unfortunately familiar tableau of images from Abu Ghraib. Together, Model UN and War Dance can be seen as the culmination of an intensive, long-term collaboration that portends its logical resolution with the onset of Max’s adulthood and increased agency as a collaborator. A video made by Max alone will also be on view, Everything In Its Place, which envisions the world that might have been had the Columbine massacre never occurred.