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14 | T UESDAY, JULY 30, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Culture

I’m inside a room that feels simulta-

neously clinical and whimsical. Black,

white and gray are the dominant col-

ors. Positioned throughout the space

are carefully crafted towers, boards,

grids and other familiar objects — they

look like oversize, slightly haywire

versions of games from my childhood,

including Connect Four, Battleship,

Simon and Jenga. A question mark

hangs in the air, though. I no longer

know the rules, and new ones haven’t

been provided. Doors and cabinets are

locked. I’m joined by six other people,

and we have 45 minutes — which are

ticking away on a countdown clock —

to figure out how to play in order to get

out.

We are in an escape room, a live-

action game where a group of people

must solve a series of puzzles to work

their way out of a locked room or se-

ries of rooms within a given time. In

many escape rooms, the back stories

are elaborate: You are traveling

through a broken space-time continu-

um. You are trying to avoid being

buried alive. You are scrambling to

save the world by shrinking yourself to

the size of a mouse.

In “The Privilege of Escape,” a new

public art project by Risa Puno at the

New York cultural center Onassis USA,

the escape room turns from a high-

stakes thriller into a disarming demon-

stration of social inequality. Whether

or not you succeed is largely beyond

your control. The experience is still

exhilarating, but it can also be psycho-

logically uncomfortable.

Ms. Puno is the winner of the first

open call by Creative Time, which has

earned a reputation for its inventive

approach to public art. Since the 1970s,

the organization’s work has taken the

form of performances and parades,

banners and billboards — even a selec-

tion of photographs of life on Earth

etched into a disc and launched into

space. And where most public art

tends to be physically static and stay

on ideologically neutral ground, Cre-

ative Time has always engaged out-

right with political and social issues.

That makes Ms. Puno’s project,

which aims to playfully illuminate the

concept of privilege, a good fit. It’s also

encouraging to see Creative Time

devoting substantial resources to the

work of a lesser-known artist. (The

open call was aimed at those “who

have not yet received a public commis-

sion or substantial support from a

major cultural institution.”) From 2007

to 2017, under the artistic stewardship

of Nato Thompson, the organization

leaned toward high-profile commis-

sions by big-name artists like Kara

Walker. “The Privilege of Escape,”

which will be on view through Aug. 11,

is the first project curated by the new

executive director, Justine Ludwig, and

it’s promising.

The experience at Onassis USA

unfolds beneath a big corporate atrium

in a building off Fifth Avenue. It’s the

perfect place to set a mock, non-

descript institute, which is supposedly

conducting a study for which I am a

subject. When I arrive, an attendant in

a lab coat greets me and asks, “Are you

here for the test?” After registering

the other participants for our session

and dividing us into two groups, he

brings us into an anodyne entry hall,

where he briefs us on the rules.

The institute, he says, is “dedicated

to the study of behavioral sciences”

and considers “structured gameplay” a

philosophical pillar of its work. Each

group will enter a different room and

have 45 minutes to complete an identi-

cal set of puzzles. Our progress will be

observed and compared, and at the

end we will reconvene for a brief anal-

ysis. As we position ourselves near the

doors, a countdown rings out. Go!

Before I’ve had time to fully register

our surroundings, someone in my

group confidently unrolls what looks

like a revamped Twister board (she’s

clearly an escape room veteran, I

think). Someone else picks it up and

swiftly locates its proper spot in the

room — in the process revealing a

code. We try various locks, but they

still won’t open. We redirect our atten-

tion to a corner with jumbo dice. After

a bit of frantic interpreting, we discern

another code, and this time it works!

We excitedly open a cabinet to find ...

a set of round discs with symbols and

colors on them. What do they mean?

It’s fairly obvious where they’re sup-

posed to go, but in what order?

This is how the time elapses: Each

puzzle we solve leads to another one,

each victory followed by more mys-

tery. Occasionally, a chime sounds and

a clue from our overseers appears on a

screen. The atmosphere is somewhat

tense, especially toward the end, but

also collaborative and congenial. I

don’t know any of my teammates, but

we’re riding a wave of adrenaline

together.

Forty-one minutes and 13 seconds

later, we emerge triumphant. The final

code we cracked has gotten us out the

door. It’s only when we finish, though,

that we realize something is off. (Read-

ers beware: A slight spoiler alert fol-

lows.) As we reunite with the second

group, we discover that they didn’t

escape in time — not because their

members lacked skills or intelligence,

but because of the room they were in.

Simply put, they were forced to play

with a major handicap, whose chal-

lenges they were unaware of because it

was presented as part of the game.

(When asked for feedback, someone

from that group jokingly called the

experience “hell.”) Meanwhile, we had

the privilege of perfect conditions,

which allowed us to achieve our full

potential and escape.

Throughout her career, Ms. Puno

has used games as a means to consider

human relations. In 2008, she built

“The Course of Emotions,” a mini golf

course with holes based on negative

feelings like jealousy and frustration.

Earlier this year, she created “Risk

Management,” an original carnival-

inspired game that makes its players

vulnerable to self-sabotage in their

attempts to beat one another and win.

For Ms. Puno, play spaces offer safe

environments for pushing people to

confront complex questions about how

we interact.

“The Privilege of Escape” continues

this inquiry. The project is an observ-

able and ultimately visceral demon-

stration of something that often goes

unrecognized or dismissed because it

operates invisibly. Members of domi-

nant social groups tend to believe that

society is a meritocracy; what we fail

to see is that the playing field was

never level to begin with. Ms. Puno

visualizes this by staging a test that’s

always rigged. If you’re placed in the

disadvantaged group, it will be harder

and more frustrating; if you’re af-

forded privilege, it will be easier and

more fun. And just as with race, class,

gender and ability, you don’t get to

choose the group to which you belong.

Given the liberal bent of the art-

going crowd, this lesson won’t be an

epiphany for many participants. But

knowing something in theory is differ-

ent from experiencing it firsthand.

Here, in the safe, neutral territory of

public art, Ms. Puno has created an

opportunity to assume different identi-

ties and compare and contrast the

outcomes with a certain dispassion.

My one critique of “The Privilege of

Escape,” which is impeccably designed

and executed, concerns the decision to

reveal the structural inequality at the

end of the game. That timing turns it

into more of a gotcha moment than a

prompt for reflection or action. When I

found out that my team had been given

an advantage, I felt guilty, as if we had

cheated — not an unreasonable reac-

tion, but not a constructive one, either,

and the facilitated discussion that

followed didn’t push me to consider the

experience more deeply or critically.

This is, I think, a missed opportunity.

After all, the most pressing question

regarding privilege isn’t “How does it

make you feel?” but “What can you do

about it?”

How level the playing field?

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

An art installation turns

a live-action game into a

display of social inequality

BY JILLIAN STEINHAUER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY VICTOR LLORENTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Clockwise from top: Risa Puno, designer of “The Privilege of Escape,” an art installa-

tion and escape room at Onassis USA in New York; trying a code on one of the doors;

and pulling Jenga-like blocks from a tower.

Just as with race, class, gender

and ability, you don’t get to

choose the group to which

you belong.

Founded in 1669 by Louis XIV, and with

a modern-day budget of over 200 million

euros, the Paris Opera is one of the old-

est and most powerful music-theater

companies in the world. But it has strug-

gled to find a successor to Stéphane

Lissner, its director since 2014.

That extended search has ended,

however, with an announcement by the

company that Alexander Neef, the gen-

eral director of the Canadian Opera

Company in Toronto, will take on the po-

sition starting in 2021.

“It’s a pretty emotional day, obvi-

ously,” Mr. Neef, who was born in Ger-

many, said in a telephone interview from

Santa Fe, N.M., where he is also the ar-

tistic director of Santa Fe Opera. “It’s a

big honor and a big responsibility.”

Widely admired for his work in Toron-

to, Mr. Neef, 45, is no stranger to the

Paris Opera, where he was casting di-

rector from 2004 to 2008, working under

his mentor, Gerard Mortier. He also held

positions alongside Mortier at the

Salzburg Festival and the Ruhrtrien-

nale, and during Mortier’s brief time

leading New York City Opera.

“What I really look forward to,” Mr.

Neef said, “is reconnecting with the peo-

ple” in Paris, where he will oversee both

the opera and ballet sides of the com-

pany.

The appointment was welcomed by

many in France.

“It is a very good choice,” Christian

Merlin, a critic for the newspaper Le Fi-

garo, said in an email.

“For the first time, it won’t be a posi-

tion for a man at the end of his career,”

Mr. Merlin added, saying that Mr. Neef’s

relative youth could allow for a long ten-

ure and for needed changes.

“The other advantage is that he

knows both the European and American

systems,” Mr. Merlin said, “so both gov-

ernment subsidies and private finance,

which is very useful today in our vulner-

able economic context.”

Mr. Neef helped make Toronto an op-

eratic destination, attracting top singers

like Sondra Radvanosvky and staging

ambitious productions. Last year, he

presented the premiere of Rufus Wain-

wright’s “Hadrian,” which tells the story

of the Roman emperor’s love affair with

Antinous, a young Greek man, and in-

cluded a gay sex scene, an unusual oc-

currence on the opera stage.

“It’s 2018, and it’s our job to tell these

stories,” Mr. Neef said at the time in an

interview with The New York Times.

Mr. Neef said in the telephone inter-

view, last Wednesday, that President

Emmanuel Macron of France inter-

viewed him for 45 minutes a few weeks

ago for the directorship, which is offi-

cially a presidential appointment.

“For someone who is running a coun-

try, I found it incredible he took so much

time,” he said.

He added that he wanted to expand

the company’s work on 21st-century op-

eras and new commissions, and also to

explore French operas.

“It's about identity, to really look at

the French repertoire,” he said. “Not in

an encyclopedic way, but showing the

right pieces and the forgotten pieces, to

keep that part of the heritage alive.”

Paris Opera names a director

The longtime overseer

of the Canadian Opera will

take on new role in 2021

BY ALEX MARSHALL

Alexander Neef has won wide admiration for his work in Toronto.

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