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Day March 23, 2011

Entries 9 Total

Judi Wersthein – Brinco

Mar 23, ’11 4:34 AM

Judi Wersthein – Brinco

The artist gave some pairs away, to immigrants trying to cross from Mexico to the United States. She designed her show with them in mind, since it includes a detailed map of the border area on its inner sole, an attached compass and mini-flashlight, as well as a picture on the heel of a Mexican priest, Toribio Romo, who, in the ’70s was thought to be a “guardian angel” for those crossing the border.

The audience for the shoe isn’t only immigrants. It’s designed to provoke thoughts about the arduous journey of those who cross the border illegally as well as the part they (and all of us) play in the global economy that produces high-end athletic shoes likes these. At this moment, with the debate about immigration at another high point, “Brinco” is a timely object.

 

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Patrick Bernier et Olive Martin

Mar 23, ’11 4:30 AM

Patrick Bernier et Olive Martin

L’œuvre réalisée par Patrick Bernier et Olive Martin dans le cadre de leur résidence aux Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers en 2007, s’intitule « Projet pour une jurisprudence ». Elle s’appuie sur un texte écrit en 2004 par Patrick Bernier, intitulé Conte pour une jurisprudence. Ce texte présente l’ultime réquisitoire avant expulsion d’une femme étrangère en situation irrégulière, revendiquant son droit de présence sur le territoire en tant que « co-auteur, dépositaire et interprète » d’une œuvre d’art.

Partis de l’idée d’adapter cette nouvelle sous forme cinématographique, les deux artistes ont, au regard des possibilités d’accompagnement offertes par les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, mais surtout du durcissement législatif en matière de séjour sur le territoire pour les étrangers extra-communautaires, décidé de dépasser la fiction pour l’action en mettant en œuvre le principe décrit dans le conte : l’assurance de séjour pour des étrangers en situation précaire sur le territoire basée sur leur collaboration avec des artistes.

Le projet se développe selon trois axes : la constitution d’un cadre juridique avec le concours de juristes spécialistes du droit d’auteur (Sébastien Canevet) et du droit des étrangers (Sylvia Preuss- Laussinotte), la mise en place de plusieurs collaborations, et l’écriture d’une plaidoirie. Cette « Plaidoirie pour une jurisprudence » est destinée à être présentée en public et à servir de base à la réelle défense d’un des co-auteurs face au juge administratif chargé de son éventuelle reconduite à la frontière.

Parallèlement, Patrick Bernier et Olive Martin ont impulsé deux projets de collaboration :

- Bahija Benkouka et Béatrice Rettig, www.plaidoiriepourunejurisprudence.net

 

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Adrian Melis

Mar 23, ’11 4:25 AM

Adrian Melis - Vigilia– Night Watch

In Cuba, there are institutions usually vulnerable to the deviation of their resources. One of them is the state carpentry. Taking advantage of my relationship with the watchman of certain carpentry, I obtained a determined amount of wood from this institution illegally, to use it for building a watching post to be located inside the very  same institution. Such building is the result of a paradoxically useful fact. The Watching post was placed in a zone suitable for controlling activities of a similar nature to the one I create it. This post could be used either by the same watchman involved in the wood extraction, or by other having the same function at this carpentry area.

 

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Laurie Jo Reynolds – Creative Time Project

Mar 23, ’11 4:17 AM

Laurie Jo Reynolds – Creative Time Project

Laurie Jo Reynolds develops and coordinates projects that combine art, activism, and research. Her current endeavors, with Tamms Year Ten, the Tamms Poetry Committee and Chicago County Fair, focus on prisoners, ex-offenders and the costs of human warehousing. She teaches in Chicago at Columbia College and Loyola University.

 

 

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Laurie Jo Reynolds – Tamms Year Ten (TY10)

Mar 23, ’11 4:12 AM

Laurie Jo Reynolds – Tamms Year Ten (TY10)

Tamms Year Ten (TY10) is a all-volunteer grassroots coalition of prisoners, ex-prisoners, families, attorneys, artists and other concerned citizens who came together in 2008, on the ten-year anniversary of the opening of the supermax, to call for an end to these misguided and inhumane policies. After 17 months of campaigning, the pressure brought upon state legislators, the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the governor’s office prompted Governor Quinn to announce that “he takes this problem very seriously” and that he was appointing a new IDOC director whose top priority was to review the supermax. In September of 2009 the IDOC unveiled a 10-Point Plan for reform of the supermax. As of 2011, it has not been implemented and advocates are still fighting for the IDOC to keep its promises.

This drawing was made for Tamms Year Ten, the campaign to reform Tamms Prison launched at the ten-year anniversary of the Supermax%u2019s opening. It depicts the experience of long-term isolation. When the facility opened in 1998, prisoners were told they would only be there for one year. Ten years later, one-third of them had been in isolation for the entire decade. Illustration by Bear Cub, a prisoner in Tamms Supermax.

 

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Michael Rakowitz – paraSITE

Mar 23, ’11 4:07 AM

Michael Rakowitz – paraSITE

ParaSITE: Custom built inflatable shelters designed for homeless people that attach to the exterior outtake vents of a building’s Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. The warm air leaving the building simultaneously inflates and heats the double membrane structure. Built and distributed to over 30 homeless people in Boston and Cambridge, MA and New York City.

PARASITISM IS DESCRIBED AS A RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH A PARASITE TEMPORARILY OR PERMANENTLY EXPLOITS THE ENERGY OF A HOST.1

paraSITE proposes the appropriation of the exterior ventilation systems on existing architecture as a means for providing temporary shelter for homeless people.

 

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Michael Rakowitz

Mar 23, ’11 4:00 AM

Michael Rakowitz

(P)LOT questions the occupation and dedication of public space and encourages reconsiderations of “legitimate” participation in city life. Contrary to the common procedure of using municipal parking spaces as storage surfaces for vehicles, (P)LOT proposes the rental of these parcels of land for alternative purposes. The acquisition of municipal permits and simple payment of parking meters could enable citizens to, for example, establish temporary encampments or use the leased ground for different kinds of activities, such as temporary gardens, outdoor dining, game playing, etc.

 

A first initiative for this re-dedication is realized through the conversion of ordinary car covers to portable tents for use as living units or leisure spaces. Ranging from a common sedan to a luxurious Porsche or Lexus, the tents enable a broadcast of desire within the marginalized space of need.

 

 

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Krzysztof Wodiczko – The Homeless Vehicle Project

Mar 23, ’11 3:52 AM


Krzysztof Wodiczko – The Homeless Vehicle Project

This vehicle is neither a temporary nor a permanent solution to the housing problem, it articulates the fact that people are compelled to live on the street and that this is unacceptable. Through discussions with those people in New York City, a proposal for a vehicle to be used both for personal shelter and can and bottle collection and storage was developed. An earlier design was shown to potential users and modified according to their criticism and suggestions. It is not put forward as a finished product, ready for use on the streets, it attempts to function as a visual analog to everyday objects of consumption, such as food vendor carts. It bears a resemblance to a weapon, the movement of carts through New York are acts of resistance.

 

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Ernesto Costa

Mar 23, ’11 3:43 AM

Street Works.

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