May Makki

May Makki is an independent curator and writer specializing in performance, moving-image, and sound-based practices. Focusing on new commissions and working closely with living artists, she is particularly invested in the infrastructural possibilities of exhibition-making and considering the communities, economies, and technologies that develop alongside works of art.

She is Co-Curator of the 2026 Diriyah Contemporary Biennale, where she commissioned public works by Agustina Woodgate and Yussef Agbo-Ola and stewarded major loans by artists including Petrit Halilaj, Nour Mobarak, Nancy Mounir, and Daniel Lind-Ramos.

From 2022 to 2025, she was part of the curatorial team of the Department of Media and Performance at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she curated exhibitions and screenings such as Martin Beck: Last Night, An Evening with Haig Aivazian, and the collection display of works by Tala Madani.

Previously, she served in curatorial and research roles at Abrons Arts Center, the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, and MoMA PS1. She holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a BA from the University of Chicago.

may.makki@gmail.com

Martin Beck: Last Night

June 1-2, 2024
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Martin Beck: Last Night presents the artist’s eponymous film work for one day only, on June 2, 2024. Acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 2022, Last Night (2016) revisits the records that musical host David Mancuso played on June 2, 1984, at one of the last parties at the 99 Prince Street location of the legendary New York dance party known as the Loft.

Beginning on Valentine’s Day 1970, Mancuso regularly held invitation-only dance parties at his home, which later became known as the Loft. In this intimate yet vibrant communal space, high-quality sound and exquisite music were central to the atmosphere, and defined the Loft’s lasting influence on dance culture.

Taking a cue from Mancuso’s signature style of playing each song from beginning to end, no matter their length, Beck films the records spun on June 2, 1984, in full and in sequence, using 10 different camera angles in a pattern based on the Golden Ratio. Unfolding across 13 and a half hours, the work offers communion with that singular night, while simultaneously implying distance from the original event.

June 2, 2024, will mark exactly 40 years since the evening Last Night commemorates. Installed in MoMA’s Kravis Studio on this anniversary, the presentation creates the conditions for memory, contemplation, and celebration—highlighting the communities and exchange of ideas that develop alongside works of art.

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