Generation Y

Check out Yoani Sanchez blogging fro Cuba, even Obama answers her call for information....

"Generation Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start with or contain a "Y". Born in Cuba in the '70s and '80s, marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration. So I invite, especially, Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others who carry their "Y's" to read me and to write to me." ~Yoani Sanchez


http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/

FrenchMottershead First UK solo exhibition

This exhibition is the first solo show by artists Rebecca French and Andrew Mottershead and is the culmination of their two-year international SHOPS project bringing together a collection of intimate portraits of local shops and contemporary urban life.

21 Nov 2009 - 13 Feb 2010

Site Gallery

Frenchmottershead

Shops Project

Ice House Detroit

Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune plan to freeze one of Detroit's thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region.

NPR article on the project

About this project

Project page, check out the roll-over images of urbanisation returning to prairie: http://icehousedetroit.blogspot.com/

The International Privacy Ranking

www.privacyinternation.org

Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress

In February 2008, the President of the French Republic, Nicholas Sarkozy, unsatisfied with the present state of statistical information about the economy and the society, asked, Joseph Stiglitz (President of the Commission), Amartya Sen (Advisor) and Jean Paul Fitoussi (Coordinator) to create a Commission, subsequently called “The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress” (CMEPSP).
The report distinguishes between an assessment of current well-being and an assessment of sustainability, whether this can last over time. Current well-being has to do with both economic resources, such as income, and with non-economic aspects of peoples’ life (what they do and what they can do, how they feel, and the natural environment they live in). Whether these levels of well-being can be sustained over time depends on whether stocks of capital that matter for our lives (natural, physical, human, social) are passed on to future generations.
Another key message, and unifying theme of the report, is that the time is ripe for our measurement system to shift emphasis from measuring economic production to measuring people’s well-being.

Read it here

One & Other: Walking the Plinth

I have been really interested in Antony Gormley's piece happening at Trafalgar Square because it encompassed all the good things and bad things about working within a community context. For starters there's the shared authorship that creates a product that is difficult to critique from a historical perspective on aesthetics. From a material perspective this work seems like a departure for Gormley. I have read about how the work is boring, highlights mundanity, is patronising and so on... In many ways I don't totally disagree, but I was still drawn to the work as its a huge public art project about participation, and luckily I was able to stand in for someone who missed their flight from Belfast.
As I'm working on the Everyman concept for the next year, I thought this would be an interesting place to doing a small intervention, and what a venue. What I found ultimately remarkable was the spontaneous community that was developed in the street. I went on at 2am on a Thursday thus faced a large amount of drunken loitering and heckling which was great. I felt both empowered and vulnerable and thought this is exactly the risk Gormley has taken. It reminded me of working in the community garden in NYC and having all sorts of obscene interventions that added to the work. It's a healthy dose of reality that I would recommend to any skeptic of the work.
One interesting character in the real stage, the pavements below, was Captain John (you can see him at about 36:36 in the video link below). He was a plinther and had since returned daily becoming part of the routine there. One of the main questions people asked when I was up there was 'what does it mean?', and it was the first question posed to me when I got down... But I wonder, does it need to mean something?
Jenna went up as well at 1pm on Saturday to much more docile crowd of tourists and locals. Many people had no idea what the plinth project was at all, and it was great to overhear all the possible assumptions. I realise that the real work of One & Other was this spontaneous dialogue amongst strangers in the street. If you're just looking up at the plinth you're missing the real artwork....

Everyman Walks the Plinth Video

Images

One & Other is a live artwork by sculptor Antony Gormley.
2,400 participants representing every region of the UK each spend an hour alone on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square for 100 days and nights.

The Unavowable Community

The (first ever) Catalan Pavilion at the Venice biennale 'La Comunitat Incofessable' takes its title from Maurice Blanchot's 1983 book 'La Communauté inavouable' (The Unavowable Community), and from Blanchot's inquiry into the nature and possibility of community and interpreting communism as 'that which creates community'.

The project is divided into three parts: the exhibition taking Blanchot's reference to the library as a space for knowledge; the catalogue (with reprinted texts by Blanchot, as well as Jean Luc Nancy, Giorgio Agamben, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, etc.) as well as essays and interviews related to the artists projects by Gerard Horta, Iris Dessler, Jacob Lillemose, Manuel Delgado amongst others) and a website which will host a vast archive around the notion of communality.

The thread between the three projects is the questioning of the single authorship, as the artists constantly appropriate preexistent materials (photographs, data...) and reconfigure new archives, new readings of these materials.

Curatorial Text

Prize for Art and Social Change

The Creative Time Summit: Revolutions in Public Practice provides an opportunity to consider the work of more than 35 international cultural producers whose practice engages the public sphere on questions of social justice.
Their approaches intend to not only reflect, but also act upon moments of historic change, breaking the traditional barriers between art, culture, and politics.
The conference will open on the evening of Friday, October 23 with the presentation of the first, inaugural Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, honoring an artist who has committed their life’s work to social change in powerful and productive ways. This prize is the first award of its kind, honoring impact and commitment over market trends. This year, the Prize will be given to The Yes Men

The Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change is an annual $25,000 award named in honor of Mrs. Annenberg’s life-long dedication to supporting the artistic voice in our culture, and to the vital role of art in educating and expanding our cultural dialogue. The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. This legendary group of culture jammers is, through their longstanding practice of invading and subverting modes of corporate communication, at the forefront of a movement to produce substantive change in our world. They are well known for projects ranging from impersonating representatives of major corporations to the distribution of thousands of copies of a simulated edition of The New York Times featuring idealistic, progressive headlines.

Generosity is the New Political - Wysing Arts Centre

'Generosity is the new political' explores the complex and ambiguous concept of generosity. Rooted within a system that merits symbolic value over market worth, acts of generosity contradict the accepted notion of production and exchange.

Community-minded new commissions include a performance by the Freee Art Collective, who will ceremoniously rename Cambridge streets after 18th-century radical thinkers while dressed in period costume. ~ The Guardian

The Museum of Non Participation

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler conceived The Museum of Non Participation in 2007 when - during the Pakistani Lawyers movement in Islamabad - they viewed the protests and subsequent state violence from a window in The National Art Gallery. Since then they have pursued ideas connected to their position that day - through conversation, images, activities and narratives following strands of dialogue to different people, places and contexts.

That is what the press release says... I am always skeptical of work that is participatory but which involves funded western artists exploring the geopolitical outside of their own boundaries, as it can often be a form of neoliberal-colonialism, and probably because works like this parallel my own practice, interests and fears.

I arrived early at the Museum located in the back of one of the hairdressers dotting Bethnal Green Road. The hairdresser was buzzing away at a young Asian lad's hair while a group of older men sat in the waiting chairs chatting and socialising. I love the diversity of the East End, but am acutely aware of its lack of cultural integration. I walked into the shop as everyone turned around and we all smiled at each other, as I awkwardly tried to figure out where I was going. The exhibit is not immediately apparent and that makes entering this shop an intrinsic part of the experience of this piece. Walking through a back door into a courtyard I was greeted by the standard opening affair, small bar and some last minute setting up. I wandered into the exhibition space, a small white space and encountered a minimal information-based aesthetic, binders, slideshow, videos with headphones and beanbag cushions...

Spending some time with the work, it opens a window into a process that successfully engages participation and critique, honouring community yet presenting a critical aesthetic encounter. From the video of a solitary action of a woman in various sites in Karachi, to newspaper clipping '10 arguments against violent conflict' by Saeed Ur Rehman speaking about prioritising the cultural over the biological, the exhibition makes you think, rethink and consider. ...

Friday 25 September – Sunday 25 October 2009

Yaseen’s, 277 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6AH

Open Tuesday – Saturday 1pm-8pm Sunday 1pm- 6pm Closed Mondays

Free Entry

Everyman, an enquiry

We'll be hosting a discussion group at the Whitechapel Gallery that will kickstart a year of performance workshops building the new Lotos Collective event 'Everyman'. With invited guests from a variety of professions we'll be investigating the archetype of the Everyman across disciplines, attempting to decipher a universality of the urban citizen.

Discussion group is free and is part of The Nature of the Beast installation by artist Goshak Macuga.

The discussion will open to audience participation for the latter portion, come share your ideas!

Triangulated City: Beirut - Show Images

Site A: Zoukak (alleyway)

Site B: Central Parking, B7 (-7 underground)

Site C: Luna Park

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

مواعيد غامضة مع «المدينة المثلّثة» - Dates with a mysterious «tri-city»

نوال العلي

المسرحيّ روبرتو سانشيز كامو يدرك مفهومه عن المدينة المثلّثة. أمّا فهم بيروت، فيكاد يكون مهمةً مستحيلة له. ثمة فعل ورد فعل وشاهد على كل هذا. لهذا وقع الاختيار على الشكل المثلث، كهندسة نموذجية لتقديم شهادة عن الحياة. لماذا أتى هذا النيويوركي التشيلي إلى هنا ليطبق مفهومه عن الفن الحيّ والمسرح التفاعلي و«المدينة المثلّثة»؟ قال إنّه أتى مدفوعاً بتاريخ متشابه من أحداث دامية جرت في العاصمتين سانتياغو وبيروت. ورغم تقارب التاريخ وكونه دافعاً لاستكشاف هذه المدينة، يراد لهذا المفهوم الذي ابتكره سانشيز أن يترصد مستقبل المدينة لا كيف كانت.

Click for Google Translation

مدينة متلته Triangulated City عرض مسرحي تفاعلي في ثلاثة مواقع

English version down

الأصدقاء الأعزاء

مدينة متلته

Triangulated City

عرض مسرحي تفاعلي في ثلاثة مواقع

19-20-21 آب 2009 الساعة السادسة والنصف مساءً (الدخول مجاني)

ثلاث عروض في ثلاثة مواقع سرية في مدينة بيروت

للوصول إلى أي موقع، توجهوا إلى احد نقاط اللقاء التالية:

- موقف السيارات المواجه لمسبح اللونغ بيتش، المنارة.

- مقهى ومطعم البارومتر، مقابل مستشفى خوري، الحمرا.

- قارعة الطريق، مفترق سامي الصلح وفرن الشباك، العدلية.

لمزيد من المعلومات: info@zoukak.org ; www.zoukak.org

مدينة متلته / Triangulated city عرض مسرحي في "الفن الحي" يحقق في حركة الإشاعات والخرافات التي تنتشر في شوارع بيروت.

خلال ثلاثة أيام، في ثلاثة مواقع، ثلاثة عروض ستتالى في وقت واحد كل ليلة. الجمهور مدعو إلى ثلاث نقاط لقاء، حيث سيعطى كل فرد منهم إشارة تقوده إلى موقع العرض. هذا ما سيبدأ مغامرة تقود الجمهور لإكتشاف المواقع الثلاثة المتواجدة في مدينة بيروت، مستخدمين سلسلة من مفاتيح وشيفرات وأسرار وإشاعات تنتقل بهم وتنقلهم من مكان إلى مكان. كل موقع يتوافق مع العناصر الثلاثة التي تشكل بنية "الخرافة" Superstition -: الإقناع والطقس ونذائر النحس.

عملت فرقة زقاق المسرحية (لبنان) بالتعاون مع مجموعة لوتوس (لندن + نيويورك) ومجموعة من المشاركين على خلق عالم هذا العمل في المسرح الموقعي، المتعدد الوسائط الفنية. من خلال القصص والذكريات والأساطير المدينية، يكتشف الـ "مدينه متلته" السرد القصصي الساري في طرق الجغرافيا المدينية لبيروت وشوارعها. في حين يتنقل الجمهور في المدينة من موقع إلى موقع، يمتد العرض ليشمل الرحلة التي يقيمها كل فرد من الجمهور، مموهاً الحدود المتواجدة بين مواقع العروض والعالم الواقعي.

مدينه متلته/ Triangulated city تشجع الجمهور المشارك لمشاهدة المدينة في كل موقع كعرض حي ومكان للقاء والمواجهة.

Dear friends

Triangulated City
An interactive Live Art event in 3 locations

19, 20, 21 August 2009 at 18:30 - Free Entry

3 performances in 3 secret locations in Beirut. To disclose each location meet at any one of these 3 meeting points at 18:30 on the 19, 20, 21 August 2009:

• Long Beach Parking Area, Manara • Barometre Pub (facing Khoury Hospital), Hamra
• Corner of Furn el Chebak & Sami Es Solh, (intersection)

For more information: info@zoukak.org www.zoukak.org

Triangulated City is a Live Art event that investigates the movement of superstition and rumour that spreads through the streets of Beirut.

Over three days, in three locations, three performances will unfold simultaneously each evening. The audience is invited to three (3) meeting points where they will be given a clue to the location of the sites. This begins an adventure where the audience explores these three locations spread throughout the city, using a series of keys, codes, secrets and rumours, that will move with them from place to place. Each location corresponds to one of three structural elements of superstition: conviction, ritual, and omens.

Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association has worked in collaboration with Lotos Collective (London/New York) and with invited participants to create this
multi-disciplinary site-specific performance world. Through the stories, memories, and urban legends born from the sites, Triangulated City explores the geographical and geopolitical movement of narrative through the streets of Beirut. As the audience moves through the city from location to location, the performance expands to include the journey each individual may take, blurring the boundaries between performance site and reality.

Triangulated City encourages spectators to view the city as a living performance with each location a place of confrontation and encounter.

Beirut Blog and pics

Check out Muzna' Stories at her blog http://hakaya.blogspot.com/

"Hakaya, is the Arabic word for narrated stories. This blog was created during the Israeli assault on Lebanon in July-August 2006, as my space to choose how to live and narrate stories that it forced unto our life. The arms might have stopped firing, but the Hakaya continue."

Also a random assortment of city images... Click for my Flickr Site

Kaprow's Yard

Hauser & Wirth New York will open in September with YARD, a seminal Environment first made in 1961 by Allan Kaprow, the American painter, assemblagist and pioneer of performance art known as the inventor of ‘Happenings.’

"Life is much more interesting than art," he wrote. "The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible." Kaprow staged interactive events within and beyond the traditional museum and gallery context.

More than forty years ago, he filled the backyard of a Manhattan townhouse with rubber auto tires heaped randomly for viewers to climb in and around. That work was Yard and the townhouse, then home to the Martha Jackson Gallery, was located at 32 East 69th Street, the address soon to be Hauser & Wirth New York.

Zoukak Theater and Cultural Association, Beirut Lebanon 2009

In Beirut currently developing the performance project Triangulated City. In collaboration with and hosted by Zoukak along with members and associate members of Lotos Collective. Beirut is a fantastic city and if you have never been to the Middle East, I recommend Lebanon as a great starting point for further exploration. Charismatic, chaotic, passionate Mediterranean both remembering its recent scars and celebrating it continual future.

For project information check out: www.zoukak.org

Beuys Is Here....

Beuys Is Here is the inaugural exhibition of Joseph Beuys’s work in the context of ARTIST ROOMS. It seeks to illustrate the function of creativity within the social, economic and political climate and reflects the
multi-faceted nature of Beuys’s life and work.


De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill England

Marina Abramović presents....

Describing how intense of an experience this event was for me is difficult. The Whitworth Museum has been emptied of its collection and in its place Marina Abramović has curated a series of performances, each occupying a different space of the building. Lasting 4 hours the event began with each of us putting on white lab coats and entering a long large room with big square windows overlooking Whitworth Park. In front of the windows was a steel back stage running 3/4 of the length of the room interspersed with speakers. Sat on small stools arranged on a grid we giddly awaited Marina's instructions. She prepared the group of about 120 spectators with an unrehearsed but well thought out workshop/lecture on performance, personal and collective energy sharing, dynamics of exchange, meditation, and awareness all leading to an approach method for the event we were about to witness (but for all intents already participating in).

We practiced being hyper aware of the moment, closing our eyes and drinking a small dixie cup of water over a silent 10 minute period. We were instructed to sit across from a stranger and stare into each others eyes for 5 minutes without looking away or blinking. It set a tone, and the energy of the fidgety crowd settled into something more quiet, aware and contemplative. She instructed us all to move to the far end of the room and close our eyes. Returning to the other side of the hall, where the large double doors were, we were instructed to: "Lift one foot... Bring that foot forward... (stepping down) shift your body..." and so on, slowly moving us zombified to the otherside of the room and out the gallery. Upon exiting we took a deep breath and began exploring the many rooms and environments that these dedicated artists had prepared for us.
Marina described this as a gift, an exchange. We bring our time to give and share with the artist in exchange for their art their performance. It was a beautiful exchange and a powerful introduction.

I cannot begin to review the entire show. But for those of you who could not go, I enter below an overview of the artist taken from the catalogue and a very brief and perhaps unjust description of their actions. Words cannot describe the power of this event, it moved me like nothing else I have seen. Perhaps I didn't notice it during my wandering, but the extent of the communion I felt hit me upon exiting. Marina handed each of us a signed 'Certificate of Accomplishment" as we left, the mere two dozen or so who stayed the 4 hours. She was very happy and I was thrilled to receive this almost naff symbol. But the minute I exited the gallery my chest swelled with emotion and my eyes teared. I cannot recall being overcome like this before, perhaps it was circumstance, it had been a very intense few weeks for me. Perhaps it was the eve of my departure to Beirut (I am writing this from my connection in Istanbul). But regardless it was an incredibly powerful experience.

Featuring: Marina Abramović, Ivan Civic, Nikhil Chopra, Amanda Coogan, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Yingmei Duan, Eunhye Hwang, Jamie Isenstein, Terence Koh, Alastair MacLennan, Kira O’Reilly, Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, Melati Suryodarmo and Nico Vascellari.

Concept by Marina Abramović with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Maria Balshaw

Dedicated to Tehching Hsieh

Marina Abramović presented The Drill our introduction and guided meditation into the event. (Yugoslavia)

Nikhil Chopra is in a large room covered with brown paper and tape and goes from semi-nude to fully dressed in an English gentlemen's outfit whilst scribbling black charcoal lines that form intense black chaotic clouds and emerge into incredible landscapes. (India)

Ivan Civic performs Back to Sarajevo... after 10 years... where a projected home video of his return from exile is a giant backdrop to his dwarfed body as he climbs on a series of interspersed poles coming vertically out of the wall. (Bosnia)

Amanda Coogan methodically and repeatedly launches herself from a staircase to a giant 'mountain' shaped structure below, wearing a yellow garment that both reveals and conceals her body. (Ireland)

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci manipulates white sand, white string and white paper in a large white room creating a stark alchemic laboratory. (France)

Yingmei Duan performs Naked exploring instincts and longing, she walks with eyes closed around a space cloacked in an inner silent monologue. (China)

Eunhye Hwang performs The Road, slowly and silently wrestling with radio static in a room with small refrigerator and green jello on ceramic white plates. (South Korea)

Jasmie Isenstein lies still and flat on a carpet on the floor in Rug Rug Rug covered in a wolf skin, then a sheep skin, then a bear skin, each a new layer of disguise. (USA)

Terence Koh lies curled at the gallery entrance, painted stone white from the waist down and slowly cradles a small speaker system with imperceptible movements. (Canada)

Alastair Maclennan moves about in a ritual of objects and transformation in a room with a large diagonal altar running across it with a long triangular mound of earth covering it from one end to the other. One oppossite sides are placed decapitated pigs heads facing eachother, and shredding bits of paper dot the earth some with full lines of text. Filling the two trianglular floor spaces on either side of the table are single shoes of multiple varieties. I have to say I imagined this could totally be me when I am older.... (Scotland)

Kira O'Reilly tumbled nude down a majestic staircase in excruciatingly slow motion.

Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich developed a piece inspired by Vitaly Titov, who allegedly survived 20 days with an artificial body attached to his head. Built into an auditorium was a large temple-like structure where only the artists mouth was visible at the top of a set of stairs. Side panel contained shelves with materials and 'worshippers' were given a card with instructions. I rather liked mine which was to paint his teeth black with enamel and sing to him as it dried... (Russia)

Melati Suryodarmo performed I Love You where she moved around a red room with a huge plate glass pressed on her, repeating the phrase over and over at different levels. (Indonesia)

Nico Vascellari sat at the bottom of a stairwell in a sonic boom installation, bashing an enormous piece of hollow bronze against what seemed like aluminium while sitting in dust and stone. The sound was amplified with mics and reverberated throughout the stairwell. This was an intense and moving work, true endurance, and the sound hit you in the stomach and reverberated in your brain. His intensity was mesmerising and I spent the most time with him and ended the eve still watching his endless stamina smash those two structures together. (Italy)


Manchester International Festival


The Whitworth Art Gallery

'Play Me, I'm Yours' strangers around a melody

Recently observed a a variety of everyday virtuosos belting out tunes on a piano in central London. Though I had seen the piano before I assumed it was some sort of glorified busking. But when I stopped to watched I realised something very special was happening, creative talent was emerging from strangers in the middle of the city. First a jazzy tune, followed by a young girl playing a melody, then her brother who belted out a blues tune that inspired impromptu partner dancing by a couple, then a young boy in his uniform played a simple yet beautiful tune. It was a great moment of participation and creativity in the old smoke.

'Play Me, I'm Yours' is an arts project by Luke Jerram

Critical Mass 26 June - Iran Solidarity

Please join in attending your local city Critical Mass bicycle ride this Friday and wear green in solidarity with the people of Iran. Flags, bands, masks, horns, trumpets, bells...

Critical Mass Listings

10 Youtube videos on Iran

Poem for the Rooftops

Calling all citizen journalists - socialisation via technology

I have been so impressed with the incredible rise of citizen journalism, through the use of social networking sites. I have joined Twitter in order to follow the progress of the people's revolt against the coup in Iran. I will also use it as a platform to post news and updates on visual/performance/live art, politics, activism, participation and agitation. I wont though be following anyone who posts personal anecdotes, I am mostly interested in media distribution and topics of citizenship.

http://twitter.com/CAMUSLIVEART


While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.

How twitter can make history "The moment our historical generation is living through, is the largest increase in expressive capability in human history."

Parades & Processions: Here comes everybody

Exhibition at Parasol Unit, Foundation for contemporary Arts "The exhibition features works by twelve UK-based and international artists who take their inspiration from the traditional meanings of ‘parades’ and ‘processions’, creating works that epitomise the social and political context of our time."

Okay epitomise is a strong word for this exhibition. Though I post to give credit to concepts of interrelationships and community my comment in the exhibition book read: 'Less irony, more participation'.... somehow notions of community get put aside for a cult of artistic statement, but alas the finer of the arts....

Iran's Green Revolution (updated)

The situation in Iran is intense and I just received this incredible first-hand report of the protests happening right now. This is information that is not posted in most western media outlets and is incredibly informative. The report was sent via an Iranian friend, you can check out his facebook for more links and information.

They have requested we please share this, so I am blogging it and ask you to forward it as well:

" 'So this is what a coup d’etat looks like,' said a friend today. You go to bed and wake up the next day and see the police everywhere. The “military” government announces its unprecedented victory, calling it a sign of “divine approval”. And any sign of unrest is immediately dealt with through a show of the police state’s force. Is this it? Being in the middle of such events
makes it difficult to try and compare it with what one knows from history, or, the image of that history that one has in one’s mind."

Click to continue reading Part 1

Update:

"Why does it feel so natural to say just that: ALLAHU AKBAR? If I wanted to, I could have stuck with the more politically charged “Death to Dictatorship”. But there are very clear reasons why I, and I am not alone (of course, this is not to doubt that other people may have stronger religious sentiments than I do), choose to participate in this, with absolute confidence in saying it: ALLAHU AKBAR. It is an invocation. On the one hand, it is strategic for all of us to use this system‟s own language against it: by saying ALLAHU AKBAR, we show that we are not against the Islamic Republic. We show not only a unity with one another, but also with the same system that has stolen our vote, spat on our integrity, the same system that sends its police and plain-clothes militia men to the streets to beat and stab people in the name of “God”."

Click to continue reading Part II (updated 14 June 2009)

World Public Opinion

This is a website housing statistical studies made by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. An interesting gauge on public opinion on sociopolitical matters....

worldpublicopinion.org

Global Collectivist Society

This article by Kevin Kelly is a take on open source virtual networking and what it mean to us as a globalised society in redefining socialism as a digital tool instead of a political one:

"When masses of people who own the means of production work toward a common goal and share their products in common, when they contribute labor without wages and enjoy the fruits free of charge, it's not unreasonable to call that socialism."
Keep Reading

The Story of Stuff

An animated film by Annie Leonard that spells out our consumption constipation

NYTimes article

What is Money?

Ever really wonder what is going on with all the money out there? Why do we only have 3% in actual printed money of all the so called assets that exist?

Money Myths

Brian Leslie lays out the information in an interesting and easy to digest formula. I suggest reading the material as obviously he his forte is sustainable economics, not engaging performance!

Hastings Jack in the Green Festival

Had a fantastic trip to visit Hastings, the first stop on the tour of the Museum of British Folklore, and witness the unleashing of Jack in the Green who gets slaughtered to release the spirit of summer. Legend says Jack began as a sweep garland that gradually grew to cover an entire man. Accompanied by Black Sal, the Bogies and the Giants check out the images of this great spring awakening!

Click for slideshow of the festival

Museum of British Folklore

Attended the launch of the first museum proposed to house a collection of artifacts regarding folklore throughout Britain. Conceptualised and created by Simon Costin, the museum is currently touring festivals in Britain this summer as a concept encased in a retro camper. Jenna Rossi-Camus designed Simon's costume for the tour and thus my opportunity to get to know the project first-hand.

Spread the good word: Museum of British Folklore

Banks and Lenders

This is my student's final project from the Theatre Events and Audiences module I developed and implemented at Buckinghampshire New University

Conference Presentation - Napoli Scorticata

As part of the Italian Theatre Season's Conference on Modern and Contemporary Italian Theatre, I will be presenting the performance project Napoli Scorticata, developed with Lotos Collective in Naples, Italy in 2007.

Thousands of Teenagers to Flood Sleaford in New Art Work

SLEAFORD.- A youth mob composed of thousands of teenagers is due to descend upon the rural Lincolnshire town of Sleaford as part of a new art work by artist Kelly Large.
Kelly Large has been working on this project entitled 'Our Name is Legion' since she was commissioned in 2008 by Beacon Art Project to work as artist in residence at Kesteven and Sleaford High School. The initial idea came about when she observed the routine journeys and daily fluctuation in the volume of people moving through the town.

Source: Art Daily

Finally Fabiola arrives in London

Francis Alÿs: Fabiola

2 May - 27 September 2009
Room 41
Free
National Portrait Gallery





See my very own Fabiola

One in 8 Million

This is a biographical series from the New York Times about everyday people in the Big Apple. Its absolutely poetic and reinforces the notion that the true makers of culture and society are the unsung heroes that join us in the machine.
1-in-8-Million

A crowned Rat King

A circle of rats with tails intertwined pulling out to form a circle... There is a certainly metaphor here for our own interrelated condition and how inevitably we are all inexorably inextricable no matter what direction we may be pulling....

G20 Bank Protest - April Fools Day

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Another example of the incredible difference between the mediatised image, the reality of a situation, and the uses of power within how we operate (see Inauguration entry for example). I cycled over to the event at Bank, which was coined as a carnival atmosphere by its adhoc organisers, and it was. There was a variety of games, costumes, live and prerecorded music, and a very diverse age range. The police practiced what the call 'kettling' keeping people penned up in sections. It was very mellow, there wasn't much chanting or slogan yelling, just a lot of standing around in what was arguably the most beautiful day of the year so far. We wanted to get into Bank but it was impossible, all cordoned off by walls of police in high-vis gear. They were generally at this point good natured, joking with the crowds, who were at most pretty bored outside trying to get into where the music seemed to be. One protester offered to take them to get a cup of coffee, as it seemed rather pointless to stand around... We walked around the perimeters, through side streets and followed a marching troop of horso-cops prepared for serious battle. People were not happy at the sight of this, as it brought a feeling of menace and violence to an otherwise chill afternoon... We passed Jesus on the way and ended up past the horses and police and by RBS, the now infamous smashed bank windows. I suppose the link of police opened up for the horso-cops to take their place and we inadvertently walked past. Shortly after a group of young anarchists began smashing the bank. It seemed so timely, it all felt very rehearsed. As the police presence became more heightened the kids got angrier and responded in turn. As they smashed the windows, an incredible amount of cameras flew out, both handheld, professional, phones. I was really taken by how mediatised the event was, and the desperate need to capture the moment seemed more violent than the window smashing. The cops stood idly by on their horses, letting it happen...
Watch the video I uploaded, its celebratory, most people standing around watching the event unfold like a football match. Can you spot the difference between media and reality?(beware of close-ups!) Lets just assess who is breaking, who is capturing the breaking and who is watching the capturing and the breaking, look at the gap of people between the police and the action.... We left the scene and wandered about, but there was no exit in sight, I wondered why not let people leave, it was so obviously quite on the side streets. Fear, fear, fear.... But we were able to get out on one street that was open, and wandered off to Trafalgar Square to a peaceful demonstration with intelligent speakers and well timed hooting. I found both scenarios emotionally effective in their purpose I suppose, what other options are most people left with if they cannot influence public policy otherwise? Was I a participant or just another voyeur, like perhaps you are now if you watch this clip

San Fabiola

Acquired this needlepoint of San Fabiola, a piece of the puzzle in Francis Alÿs' investigation into the myth of this image. Over the last two decades he's collected hundreds of these...

Reference Link




Provenance: Brick Lane Backyard Market, July 2008, £25
Notes: Corresponds closely in dimensions to Alÿs collection lot 170

Ensemble of Interstices

I'm currently researching micro-stories and place-making for the Beirut project this summer. I think this poem is a great metaphor for using those important elements in-between the everyday that may actually be holding us together:

The Picket Fence

One time there was a picket fence
with space to gaze from hence to thence.

An architect who saw this sight
approached it suddenly one night,

removed the spaces from the fence,
and built of them a residence.

The picket fence stood there dumbfounded
with pickets wholly unsurrounded,

a view so loathsome and obscene,
the Senate had to intervene.

The architect, however, flew
to Afri- or Americoo.

by
Christian Morgenstern
English translation by Max Knight
Original version:
Der Lattenzaun

Es war einmal ein Lattenzaun,
mit Zwischenraum, hindurchzuschaun.

Ein Architekt, der dieses sah,
stand eines Abends plötzlich da -

und nahm den Zwischenraum heraus
und baute draus ein großes Haus.

Der Zaun indessen stand ganz dumm,
mit Latten ohne was herum.

Ein Anblick gräßlich und gemein.
Drum zog ihn der Senat auch ein.

Der Architekt jedoch entfloh
nach Afri- od- Ameriko.

The Art of Participation

SFMOMA Exhibition
Looking back nearly 60 years across a wide spectrum of genres and media, this exhibition examines how artists have engaged members of the public as essential collaborators in the art-making process.

Inauguration Trip

It was really odd to attend the inauguration. I wanted to write about the extreme joy and passion and love and life but actually I can't say thats what I saw. The TV seems to portray that really well, throngs of people cheering and crying, but I think the reality was much more subtle than that. In many ways much more intense.

The journey really began waiting at Penn Station at 5am in a freezing cold New York. Everyone seemed silent in their down jackets and Obama pins as we scuttled into the warmth of the bus. There wasn't much enthusiasm, more a blanket of sleep as we drove out of the city past the industrial landscape of New Jersey. After London, America's general structure looks so industrial, a homage to post-WW2 might. Enormous steel bridges crossing wastelands of industrial parks, endless electric towers, vast lots full of new cars, impressive electrical plants that look like miniature cities condensed into a jumble of metal, lights and plumes of smoke five times their size moving up into the distance...

I thought about rolling across America in a bus, how many of us coming from so many diverse places, as I stared out the window watching the sun come up on this bleak man-made horizon. I woke up later to snow covered rocks and trees as we made it past the Delaware River. Well anyway I imagined it was the Delaware River and that George Washington nowadays couldn't even fish there if he tried, but it still looked majestic with its frozen slabs colliding in the currents.

I noticed something else as we drove into the suburbs of D.C., a real lack of flags. This mad pro-war nation seems to suddenly be ashamed of itself, all those trite images of patriotism tucked away into attics for the next big war. Just a few well graphic designed Obama-Biden lawn placards could be seen placed neatly in front of the houses like a frozen herald.

By the time we arrived the bus was buzzing, everyone was chatting about strategies for getting into the Mall, passing around maps and their iPhones with live TV streaming of the millions. The guy in front of me was African and had a huge bag with mini-pillows connected to a suction cup on a string, presumably for your car windshield. On one side was an American flag and other Obama's face, fairly pixelized, the whole thing trimmed with gold tassle. He was traveling with a Central American man he had hired to help him sell his wares, who was very excited because he had never been to D.C. before.

The metro was full, people from all over America, but also all over the world. I had to help two Italians buy their tickets. The Junkie with the tear drop tattoo on his eye and spider web on his neck was upset the machine took his quarter and it was all the money he had to get into the centre of town....

D.C. was packed like a factory farm. So completely controlled, tall metal gates you couldn't throw a candy bar threw blocked off areas in a labyrinth pattern. If there's something this government knows how to do is control people. I was impressed at how managed the flow through the city was. As we moved towards the only suggested accessible gate to the mall, what struck me most was the amount of hawkers: t-shirts, pins, stickers, hats, scarves, calenders, "official" passes. There was also the incredible amount of special-interest groups giving out information, like the map of the city that doubled for some Church, or the Vegan postcard of Obama.

We never made it to the Mall. By the time Obama was being sworn in we were still marching along with hundreds of thousands of others who had no idea where to go. A delivery man with a sandwich cart and a transistor radio stopped in the middle of the street and aired Obama's speech. We stood huddle around it, such an incredible range of people, all shapes sizes ages nationalities colours creeds, just in this one little ad-hoc group.

People hugged their kids tighter, and some tears flowed and everyone seemed relaxed and content. We applauded and nodded to eachother and smiled. It was such a small little group on this oasis of millions, standing around together sharing this moment. I thought to myself this is exactly the point isn't it? This notion of community felt so very present....

We applauded the end and disbanded into the city again.... As we walked by Airforce1 carrying Bush flew violently by and people cheered his departure. Not angry and not violent, but relieved. Then the millions began pouring out of the Mall, we had been a block away after all.... What a sight, can you imagine 2 million happy people? Not ecstatic, not chanting not a rock concert, but just happy. Happy, content, relaxed, relieved. We walked with the flow and everyone smiled, walked slowly and carefully, didn't push or fight. It was so impressive....

Of course I was wearing my white top hat and angel wings I had made.... In the front in silver it said "Angel Obama" and on the back it said "Hello World, We Are Back!" I don't recommend wings for large crowds of millions by the way... One woman came up to me and said "Back from what?" I felt immediately defensive and without looking at her said "Back from the dark ages of these past 8 years". She laughed and responded: "Honey, that was the inquisition!"

For whatever its worth and whatever may happen in the future, I am glad that for one moment in time in this short history we spin, I stood around with 2 million people and just felt happy, I mean thats gotta change something!!!

Beirut Project

I am happy to announce a new collaborative performance project, aimed for July/August 2009 to take place in Beirut, Lebanon. I'll be collaborating with Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association to produce a Live Art event.
Details to follow....
Check out my Beirut travelogue from my first trip in Nov