This August, Callie’s will host The Fifth Place: A Room with New Rules, a series of absurdist gatherings conceived by resident Michael Portnoy.

In Portnoy’s roving event series, social interactions are governed by a list of rules drawn up by the artist as the “Director of Behavior” and shaped by each participant’s individual involvement. Uniting calculated absurdity with conceptual anarchy, the series builds and bends worlds while offering guests alternative models of behavior and exchange.

Please note, these events are invitation-only. To receive an invitation, please respond to the five prompts you’ll find on the website of The Fifth Place. Participants will be selected by the artist and contacted via email if their application is successful.

Michael Portnoy was born in 1971 in Washington, USA. With a background in movement and comedy, Portnoy’s performance-oriented practice spans installation, sculpture, painting, and writing. His work has been shown at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Documenta 13, Kassel; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne; and Block Universe, London. He lives and works in New York.