Matthew Barney Moving to Fort Greene?

The New York Observer reports that Matthew Barney may have purchased a townhouse at 67 South Elliott Street in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. The two-family house was built in 1854 and sold for $1.99 million - apparently it is a "fixer upper" in need of renovation. The Observer could not confirm that the house was sold to the artist Matthew Barney (it could be a different person with the same name) but the same real estate lawyer representing this Matthew Barney coordinated Barney and Bjork's purchase of the $4 million Brooklyn Heights penthouse where they have lived since 2009. Bjork's name does not appear on the new deed, perhaps confirming rumors that the couple has split. If Bjork and Barney are, in fact, moving into the house on South Elliott, their neighbors on the block will include writer Jhumpa Lahiri and the offices of Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule film production company.

Tickets on Sale for New Matthew Barney Film at BAM

Tickets are now on sale for the premier of Matthew Barney's new film, River of Fundament, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The film, clocking in at nearly six hours (including two intermissions), will have a single daily screening from February 12 - 16. From BAM's web site:

"Visionary artist Matthew Barney makes his BAM debut with the world premiere screening of River of Fundament, a radical reinvention of Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera, reconstructing Mailer’s hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry.

The film’s central scene is an abstraction of Mailer’s wake, set in a replica of the late author’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights and featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Giamatti, Elaine Stritch, Ellen Burstyn, Joan La Barbara, and jazz percussionist Milford Graves. Alluring and intense, this epic, multidimensional experience is a sprawling allegory of death and rebirth within the contemporary American landscape."

Purchase tickets HERE.

Matthew Barney & Bjork Moving to Brooklyn, Selling Manhattan & Upstate Homes

The Real Estalker blog reports that Matthew Barney and Bjork are selling their homes in Manhattan and Snedens Landing, NY and moving to Brooklyn Heights. Their new apartment will be a 3,000 sq. foot pre-war penthouse on Henry Street with wrap-around terrace, fireplace, four bedrooms, and four baths. It is listed at $4.25 million.

In case you'd like to purchase one of the star couple's former homes, the Manhattan apartment is a one-bedroom on W. Houston Street (listed at $1.7 million) and the Snedens Landing house is a six-bedroom located only 30 minutes up the Hudson River Valley from New York City (listed at 1.8 million or available for lease at $7,000 per month).

According to The Real Estalker, the Manhattan apartment features a bedroom painted black, an updated (but tiny) kitchen, and a 500 sq. foot terrace. The Snedens Landing home (in a community dubbed "Hollywood on the Hudson" due to the large number of actors living there) has views of the Hudson River, a stone Master Bedroom, two patios, and an artists studio.

Martin Sastre at Momenta Art, Brooklyn

Madrid-based, Uruguyan-born artist Martin Sastre will be showing two new videos involving Matthew Barney at Momenta Art in Brooklyn, NY, from October 12 - November 12.

The first video, Bolivia 3: Confederation Next, is a science fiction adventure set in the year 2876 when South America has united and the United States no longer exists. Sastre portrays an underdog hero battling an evil empire embodied by Matthew Barney. The other video is an invitation from Sastre's grandmother to Matthew Barney and Björk to spend a traditional Uruguayan Christmas with her and her 6 children and 13 grandchildren. This video will be posted on YouTube as an open letter to Mr. and Mrs. Barney.