Strategies for Public Occupation a 7 day growing exhibition of ideas
Exhibition: Dec 17 - 22, 2011, 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM Opening Reception: Dec 16, 2011, 7:00 PM Conversations-Workshops-Performances: Dec 16, 7:00 - 9:00 PM & Dec 17,19,20,21, 22, 12 - 6:00 PM
Join us for the opening of Strategies for Public Occupation, an exhibition and a 7-day marathon of talks, workshops and events that bring together a creative force of experts, artists, architects and citizens at large to discuss the current state of affairs in relation to the Occupy movement.
The exhibition, understood as a space of confluence and flow will be a space for gathering, conversations and informal discussions that will be continuously broadcasted at http://www.ustream.tv/user/StorefrontArtArch
Everyday, throughout the duration of the exhibition, the gallery will display different works in relation to the different themes of exploration, the conversations, performances and workshops.
EVENTS INCLUDE:
Friday, December 16th 7 PM - 9 PM: Exhibition Opening A series of Manifestos, performances and calls for action will be delivered at the opening reception showcasing a diverse array of voices and practices that address the question of Public Occupation from multiple viewpoints. Presenters include: Caroline Smith | Erin Ota, Aniket Shahane|Christopher Yos, Alexandra Lerman, Chat Travieso, Peter Macapia, Arsenio Garcia | Przemek Godycki, Benedict Clouette, Mitch McEwen and Michael Sorkin.
Parade of Protests: Visitors will be able to participate in an individual performance by taking some of the signs created by Alexandra Lerman and performing an individual action around the neighborhood.
International Public Space Library (IPSL) : presented by MomenTech, IPSL is a temporary pop-up branch of the International Public Space Library, which will offer a selection of books to help stimulate the ongoing public discussion of economics, politics, society and culture that may be reflective of the Occupy Wall Street movement and other social movements that have been or are currently powered by the free exchange of ideas, particularly through the sharing of books. Visitors will be encouraged to borrow a book and when they are done, place it somewhere in the public space for others to find. Additionally, visitors will be given free IPSL Ex Libris, which they can attach to their own books to leave either at the temporary IPSL branch at Storefront, or in any public space.
On The Question of #whOWNSpace #whOWNSpace is a collaborative effort that arises from the questions that the #occupywallstreet movement has brought up about ownership and use of open space in New York City, North America, and cities around the world. This project's goals are to: 1- REVEAL conflicting rules and ownerships in the increasingly privatized and commercialized spaces that make up the contemporary neoliberal urban condition 2- QUESTION those rules and the current state of our "public" space; discussing the intentions and conditions surrounding our open spaces 3- ADVOCATE FOR AND PROPOSE uses and designs that encourage community activist use of urban open spaces in accordance to the Call to Action for the Rights of Neighborhoods 4- INTERVENE in urban spaces, turning ideas and research into material action Projects to be presented include MAPPING PUBLIC SPACE, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDIO CLASS, SKILL SHARING NETWORK, LEGAL/POLICY ADVOCACY With: DSGN AGNC - Quilian Riano, Rena Mande, Dan Latorre, Amanda Rekemeyer, Phil Grimaldi, DoTank:Brooklyn - Aurash Kwawarzad, BRUNO - Isabella Bruno.
Sunday, December 18th, 24h: Political Domesticities Occupy your home transforming it into a public space.
Monday, December 19th, 12 PM -8PM: Representation: Laws & Maps. To understand the possibility of action one needs to be able to delimit the margins of the possible. Laws and maps are two of the most relevant documents that guide and constrain the possibilities of action. This session will unveil and produce new laws that allow citizens to empower actions beyond inherited parameters.
Throughout the day Mitch Mc Ewen will coordinate a series of talks with individuals from the Architecture group of OWS including artist Francisca Benitez, cybernetician and Superglitch, among others. WHOWNSPACE will show their work in regard to the POPS [privately owned public spaces] and lead a tour to a nearby space to study the implications of POPS. At 7pm, a conversation between Reinhold Martin and Occupy Groups will explore the different approaches to the legalities of spaces and the possibilities of action.
Tuesday, December 20th, 12 PM - 6PM: Mediums: Images, Newspapers, Blogs,... On this day, the exhibition will showcase projections, posters and protester signs, and Storefront will host conversations and workshops about how different mediums and design strategies have been used as messages to communicate different strategies of protest. Events and perfromances include a conversation between Keller Easterling and Benedict Clouette, signs by Alexandra Lerman, films by Gearoid Dolan and interactive multi-media and film installations and discussions with Ken Farmer.
Wednesday, December 21st, 12 PM - 6 PM: Architecture From the camps and structures created in the various cities' occupy sites to the very architectures on Wall Street that symbolically embody the existing societal structures that have inspired the movements, architecture is an enabling and constitutive force. This day will be dedicated to discuss what is the role of architecture and urban design when envisioning a world order that differs from existing canonical forms of in-habitation. Throughout the day there will be a series of conversations with individuals including Nic Goldsmith and Dennis Adams [1pm], and the Architecture groups from Occupy Wall Street and Occupy LA, among others.
Violence, Segregation, and Solidarity lead by Caroline Smith is a workshop that explores the following question: Although statements of solidarity and non-violence can be heard at most General Assemblies and Occupations across the country; the urban and architectural typologies found within the largest Occupy camps defaulted into normalized zones of exclusion and segregation [ie:the gated community]. This ideological break between statements of inclusion, and the physical reality of segregation, implemented by arguably the most 'radical' of the camps inhabitants, begs the following question: Why, when it came to urbanism, and architecture, did even the most 'radical' revolutionaries immediately default into the typologies most directly connected to/embedded in the system they were trying to overcome. We will discuss the typologies of urbanism and architecture found within the occupyLA camp, how they ended up the way they did, how these architectures affected [often negatively] the camp/community structure, and speculate on what other alternatives could have been.
Thursday, December 22nd, 12 PM - 6 PM: Occupy Presents As the last day of the exhibition, Storefront will house a series of real scale prototypes that function as strategies for urban occupation. From shelters, to posters, to chairs for urbanity, to occupy holiday postcards, to do it yourself manuals, visitors to the gallery will be able to take these presented objects as presents. Works to take away include urban occupation prototypes and sheltering from members of the OWS Architecture working group including Greta Hansen, Kyung-Jae Kim, Adam Koogler, Andy Rauchut, Marcos Zotes, Jenny Polak, Mitch McEwen, Stanislava Odrljin, Francisca Benitez, and Forrest Jesse.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT 97 KENMARE STREET AND PARTICIPATE.
