FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CREATIVE TIME PRESENTS DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN (July 21, 2008 New York, NY) Responding to the extensive history of political art in the U.S. and the past eight years of cultural production and activism, Creative Time presents Democracy in America: The National Campaign, a program investigating artists’ relationship with and reactions to the historic roots and practical manifestations of the American democratic tradition. The Democracy project will present events and performances taking place across the country, and aims to promote active participation and open discourse around democracy during the 2008 election season and beyond. A multifaceted project on a national scale, Democracy will engage a diverse community of artists, activists, thinkers, and citizens to create spaces for dialogue, exploration, and congregation. Democracy in America is curated by Nato Thompson. The program will unfold in multiple parts, including: CONVERGENCE CENTER AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY Rachel Mason, Kissing President Bush, 2004. SEPTEMBER 21 TO 27 643 PARK AVENUE AT 66 TH STREET EXHIBITION AND EVENT SERIES WITH OVER 40 ARTISTS, INCLUDING: Erick Beltrán, The Center for Tactical Magic, Critical Art Ensemble, Annabel Daou, dB Foundation, Hasan Elahi, Feel Tank, Luca Frei, Chitra Ganesh & Mariam Ghani, John Hawke, Sharon Hayes, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, InCUBATE, Magdelena Jitrik, Matt Keegan, Jon Kessler, Steve Lambert, Pia Lindman, Ligorano/Reese, Rachel Mason, Rodney McMillian & Olga Koumoundouros, Carlos Motta, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker, Jenny Polack, Steve Powers, Greta Pratt, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Red76, Duke Riley, Dread Scott, Allison Smith, Chris Stain, Valerie Tevere & Angel Nevarez, Mark Tribe, United Victorian Workers (Dara Greenwald & Josh MacPhee), The Yes Men, Chu Yun, and more.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CREATIVE TIME PRESENTS DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN (July 21, 2008 New York, NY) Responding to the extensive history of political art in the
U.S. and the past eight years of cultural production and activism, Creative Time presents
Democracy in America: The National Campaign, a program investigating artists’
relationship with and reactions to the historic roots and practical manifestations of the
American democratic tradition. The Democracy project will present events and
performances taking place across the country, and aims to promote active participation
and open discourse around democracy during the 2008 election season and beyond. A
multifaceted project on a national scale, Democracy will engage a diverse community of
artists, activists, thinkers, and citizens to create spaces for dialogue, exploration, and
congregation. Democracy in America is curated by Nato Thompson. The program will
unfold in multiple parts, including:
CONVERGENCE CENTER AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Rachel Mason, Kissing President Bush, 2004.
SEPTEMBER 21 TO 27 643 PARK AVENUE AT 66TH STREET EXHIBITION AND EVENT SERIES WITH OVER 40 ARTISTS, INCLUDING:
Erick Beltrán, The Center for Tactical Magic, Critical Art Ensemble, Annabel Daou, dB
Foundation, Hasan Elahi, Feel Tank, Luca Frei, Chitra Ganesh & Mariam Ghani, John
Hawke, Sharon Hayes, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, InCUBATE, Magdelena Jitrik, Matt
Keegan, Jon Kessler, Steve Lambert, Pia Lindman, Ligorano/Reese, Rachel Mason,
Rodney McMillian & Olga Koumoundouros, Carlos Motta, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker,
Jenny Polack, Steve Powers, Greta Pratt, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Red76, Duke Riley, Dread
Scott, Allison Smith, Chris Stain, Valerie Tevere & Angel Nevarez, Mark Tribe, United
Victorian Workers (Dara Greenwald & Josh MacPhee), The Yes Men, Chu Yun, and more.
After traveling across the country to glean perspectives from artists and activists on the
state of democracy, Creative Time’s year-long program Democracy in America: The
National Campaign culminates in the “Convergence Center”: a major exhibition,
participatory project space, and meeting hall inside New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.
An exhibition punctuated by speeches by leading political thinkers as well as community
leaders and activists throughout its run, the Convergence Center provides an activated
space to both reflect on and perform democracy.
Work by over 40 artists will fill the historic rooms on the first, second, and fourth floors as
well as the Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. In addition, curator Sofía Hernández
Chong Cuy organized the inclusion of work by four international artists that will offer
incisive viewpoints on the notion of democracy and some of its core principles: nation
building, freedom of speech, and labor rights. Three participatory projects will travel to
parks in Queens and Brooklyn in early September before being installed at the
Convergence Center. Each of Creative Time’s performative national public art
commissions will also be presented there.
A diverse group of political thinkers, writers, theorists, and activists will be invited to
deliver speeches on various subjects—including local city politics, the war on “terror,” the
art world, and cultural production. Speeches will occur throughout each day the
Convergence Center is open, punctuating the activity of the Drill Hall’s participatory
projects and social space. As speakers approach the front of the hall, they will be invited
to select a podium from an array designed by artist Paul Ramirez Jonas—from a modest
soapbox to an intimidating rostrum. A 40-foot backdrop by artist Chris Stain will frame
the speakers in a social realist scene rendered through the technique of hand-cut
stencils. In addition, select artists from the show—including Allison Smith, Rachel
Mason, and Pia Lindman—will give special performances.
Local activist organizations will be invited to distribute information from tables set up
throughout the space.
NATIONAL COMMISSIONS
Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent, 2006. Photograph by Veena Rao.
Performative public art commissioned by Creative Time from Sharon Hayes, Rodney
McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros, Steve Powers, and Mark Tribe will take place in 6
cities across the nation. These commissions will examine the roots of American
democracy as well as the progressive political ethos of the 1960s and 70s. Each project
will be presented at the Democracy in America Convergence Center at the Park Avenue
Armory.
Rodney McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros designed and executed a mobile project
addressing the issue of capital punishment. Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project re-presents
radical speeches selected by the artist to a public audience in the same locations they
were first heard. Though the texts make direct reference to the Vietnam War and
concurrent Civil Rights movements, each was selected for its contemporary relevance.
Steve Powers’ The Waterboarding Thrill Ride, an animatronic diorama depicting a
prisoner being waterboarded, installed in the Coney Island arcade, will raise awareness of
the issue of torture in the United States. Sharon Hayes will gather 100 people at the
Republican and Democratic National Conventions to read a text in unison addressing
political desire and romantic love.
Creative Time with the Blanton Museum of Art presents
Rodney McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros’ News from a Mime’s Thud
Various locations in Austin, TX: June 5
Creative Time with LACE presents
Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 4: We Are Also Responsible
Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA: July 19
Creative Time presents
Steve Powers’ Waterboarding Thrill Ride
The Arcade at Coney Island, New York, NY: July 26 to late August
Creative Time with the Oakland Museum of California presents
Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 5: The Liberation of our People
deFermery Park, Oakland, CA: August 2
Creative Time with Dialog:City presents
Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 1: I Am Your Worst Fear
Democratic National Convention, Denver, CO: August 27
Creative Time with the Walker Art Center and the UnConvention presents
Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy
Republican National Convention, Minneapolis, MN: September 1
Creative Time presents
Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 6: Let Another World Be Born
Adjacent to the United Nations, New York, NY: Early September
MOBILE PROJECTS
The Center for Tactical Magic: Tactical Ice Cream Unit, 2005-08.
PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN: SEPTEMBER 6 FLUSHING MEADOWS-CORONA PARK, QUEENS: SEPTEMBER 13 This September, Creative Time will present three separate participatory projects that will
travel to parks in Brooklyn and Queens before convening at the Democracy in America
Convergence Center. These mobile projects engage a diverse public by reinterpreting
everyday frameworks of social interaction (such as newspapers, broadcast radio, and
food) to stimulate dialogue around politics and civic life.
The Center for Tactical Magic’s Tactical Ice Cream Unit rolls through the city in an act
of intervention that replaces cold stares with frosty treats and nourishing knowledge. With
every free cone handed out, the sweet-toothed citizenry also receives printed information
developed by local progressive groups.
Angel Nevarez + Valerie Tevere’s Another Protest Song invites artists, songwriters, and
musicians to create, upload, listen to, and debate new songs of protest as part of a
growing audio archive of politically engaged music.
Red76’s The Battery Republic, presented by Creative Time with the Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council, will include artist-made newspapers developed through a series of
conversations and presentations at the historic Fraunces Tavern Bar, distributed for free
in order to start dialogues around issues of revolutionary moments, political agency, and
civic life.
A GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA A reader containing artists’ projects and written contributions that address the political art
and activism of the past eight years will be released at the Convergence Center. The
book will provide a platform for artists and thinkers to consider the current state of affairs,
and the pervasive cultural interest in the history of American democracy.
TOWN HALL MEETINGS “Town Hall” conversations were held in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans,
and New York City in March 2008. Selected organizers, artists, and activists across a
broad spectrum of cultural communities discussed five questions pertaining to strategic
local and national activist concerns. The results of these intensive conversations will be
posted on the Creative Time website and presented at the Convergence Center to foster
greater understanding of less visible regional art activists as well as to catalyze an effort
for greater national coordination for social change.
ABOUT CREATIVE TIME After 34 years of New York–based projects, Democracy in America continues Creative
Time’s national program, which was launched with Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New
Orleans in 2007. By bringing Democracy in America to communities around the nation,
Creative Time deepens its commitment to artists who make work outside New York City,
and who share our belief in the transformative power of public art with the broadest
possible audience. During the lead-up to the 2004 election season, Creative Time
presented the Freedom of Expression National Monument, a giant megaphone for public
address, and Jenny Holzer’s For New York City, in which the artist’s truisms—including
“ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE”—were pulled by airplanes over the skies of New
York City. Recent projects include Tribute in Light, which served as a gesture of hope
and healing after 9/11; Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers, a film projected on the Museum of
Modern Art, NY; and Who Cares, a series of projects that explored art and social action.
SUPPORT Creative Time is funded through the generous support of corporations, foundations,
government agencies, and individuals. We gratefully acknowledge public funding from
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts,
a State agency; New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and New York State
Senator Thomas K. Duane. Additional support for Democracy in America: The National Campaign is generously
provided by Altria, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Emily Glasser and
Billy Susman, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, The Peter Norton Family
Foundation on behalf of Eileen Harris Norton, and The National Endowment for the
Arts. Generous support for the Port Huron Project has been provided by Creative