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Ribbon for Immigrant Respect
Don’t Worry What Happens Happens Mostly Without You Featuring IM Staff Member Camilo Godoy
May 2, ’12
6:10 PM
Radiator Gallery presents…
Don’t Worry What Happens Happens Mostly Without You
Exhibition dates May 4 – May 27, 2012
Opening Reception: May 4th 6 – 9PM
Radiator Gallery 10-61 Jackson Ave, LIC, New York 11106
Featuring performance by Marni Kotak
Artists: Jeanie Choi, Camilo Godoy, Ted Kerr,
James Richards, Aldrin Valdez, Sam Vernon
Curated by Kris Nuzzi
Radiator Gallery presents “Don’t Worry What Happens Happens Mostly Without You”, an exhibition that explores the personal identities of artists Jeanie Choi, Camilo Godoy, Ted Kerr, James Richards, Aldrin Valdez and Sam Vernon, as they navigate through a world shaped by experiences of marginalization, silencing and difference. Whether speaking from their own life, recreating a historical memory or representing an underrepresented community, their work explores poetic and subtle ways to communicate issues of immigration, race, queerness and desire. Together they reveal the connections and differences between these loaded social issues and invite the viewer to share in their intimate experiences.
Artist Jeanie Choi explores our longing to confess the unspeakable. Through a series of collaborations, her work mediates a language through gesture and silence by examining the relationships between the confessor and the unreciprocated other. Using photography, video and performance, the reiteration of symbols and mistranslations never reach a conclusion, but reassure us that we are all trying to broaden the possibilities of truth between us. Camilo Godoy’s work is concerned with the politics of migration and citizenship in the U.S. by drawing upon the immigrant experience and playing upon narratives extracted from government documents. Through these intimate and powerful works, we hear their personal stories in deportation proceedings while addressing the quotidian struggles detained immigrants face in the U.S. Ted Kerr’s piece “FOR MYSELF IN THE SCENE” is a poster installation comprised of 3 posters that are available for viewers to take. Through the work, Ted works to find himself amid socio-political-sexual anxieties produced in a time of ongoing AIDS, increased articulation of queer vs. LGBT politics, self-as-brand and digital culture. Using the poster, a format popularized during the AIDS crisis by Fierce Pussy, Gran Fury and General Idea, this work explores identity, activism and visual culture. At the same time, James Richards’ poster “Don’t Worry” is inspired by a quote by Joseph Albers and is part of an ongoing project by James and artist Matt Keegan. He works with existing text, accessible images and footage from disparate sources that he then remixes and returns back into the world.
Aldrin Valdez tells his story through an installation that is a personal mix of collage and family photos, piecing together memories of his childhood. He presents images of being a child in the Philippines, photos of his parents in the U.S. when he and his siblings had not immigrated to America yet, and collages that explore patterns and surfaces.
Exploring identity and memory, Sam Vernon creates fictional characters that symbolize parts of her culture while blending aspects of neo-futurism with stereotypes, images, spirits and ghosts. Her work takes the form of drawing, painting, installation, photography and printmaking to pay homage to the past, while addressing questions of postcoloniality, racialization, sexuality and historical memory. Her work reminds us that our ghosts and past histories always remain with us and at times are unsettling and challenge us to remember.
Camilo Godoy
“ALIEN”, 2012
Etched mirror, 10″ x 11″
The opening reception will feature a performance by Marni Kotak. In conjunction with the exhibition, on Sunday, May 20th, there will be an event on deportation titled “Retracing I.C.E.”, organized by artist Camilo Godoy. On Sunday, May 27th, there will be a salon organized by Ted Kerr and Kris Nuzzi titled “I am not alone in this way”, featuring live performances that invite viewers to consider how our most intimate ways of being—striving and surviving, often in a hostile world—can be viewed as responsible for positive social change.
Kris Nuzzi is a Brooklyn based independent curator and currently works as an art advisor. She received her BA in art history from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and her MA in the art market from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, where her focus was site-specific installation art. She is the 2011-2012 recipient of the Lori Ledis Curatorial Fellowship, where she had the opportunity to curate the exhibition “Figured” as well as organize the public program “Embody” at the BRIC Rotunda Gallery. She is a former intern and continued supporter and volunteer for Visual AIDS, using art to fight AIDS through initiating dialogue and supporting HIV+ artists to remind us that AIDS is not over.
About the Performance artist:
Marni Kotak is a Brooklyn-based performance artist who creates multimedia works in which she presents her everyday life as art. “The Birth of Baby X” was a durational performance that Kotak conducted from October 8 through November 7 at Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn New York, culminating in the live birth of my baby boy Ajax, on October 25, 2011.
Creative Writing Workshop in English & Spanish
May 2, ’12
5:47 PM
Friday May 18, 2012
1-3 PM
Immigrant Movement International 108-59 Roosevelt Avenue Corona, NY
Join us for a free, bi-lingual creative writing workshop!
Express yourself, spark your creativity, meet other writers, write, think, dream, and celebrate the power of the written word!
Please join us for writing and sharing work in a supportive and respectful environment. Open to writers of all genres—poetry, fiction, memoir, whatever you want to write. All levels of experience welcome. No prior writing experience is necessary. RSVP (not required) and more info at www.nywriterscoalition.org.
This workshop is part of NYWC Day, a city-wide celebration of 10 years of NY Writers Coalition’s free, unique and powerful creative writing workshops for unheard New Yorkers.
Presented in partnership with Immigrant Movement International.
Find out what’s going on in Mexico…
May 1, ’12
5:31 PM
PPM launches its website! Click here to stay connected to developments in Mexico.
LET MY PEOPLE SHOW: Making Respect an Art Form
Apr 4, ’12
4:03 PM
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By Robin Cembalest, executive editor of ARTnews and gallery columnist for tabletmag.com.
She tweets @artnewsmag and @rcembalest.
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April 4, 2012
Making Respect an Art Form:
Over the course of her career the fearless and provocative Cuban artist Tania Bruguera has staged performances tweaking the Castro government, commenting on drug policy in Colombia, threatening to kill herself via Russian roulette in Venice, and plenty more. Her latest project, though, is her most ambitious, and potentially her most influential. A year ago, under the sponsorship of the Queens Museum and the public-art nonprofit Creative Time, she founded an organization called Immigrant Movement International, setting herself up in a storefront in Corona, Queens and moving in with immigrants nearby.
At first locals didn’t know what to make of the fiercely energetic newcomer, but eventually the center’s wide array of services—from legal help to language and art classes—transformed her headquarters, right near the 111th Street stop on the 7 train, into a busy hub. On Monday, April 9, for example, Immigrant Movement International will host a free immigration clinic sponsored by the City Bar Justice Center. Visitors can speak privately with an immigration attorney about matters including visas, Cuban immigration and family reunification—in Spanish, English, or Mandarin.
Along the way her team created a ribbon logo to advocate for their mission, coining the slogan “Immigrant Respect” to avoid the political aspects of the immigration issue and highlight its human side. They chose brown and blue to represent the entry points of immigrants who travel to a new country, over land or sea.
Immigrant Movement—which has been so successful that Bruguera’s sponsors recently pledged to help keep it going for four more years— is part of a larger global trend, as creators like Ai Weiwei and Vik Muniz develop new strategies to connect art-making with activism. Can artists change the world? Maybe that’s not the question—yet. Can they help? Stop over in Corona and find out.
http://www.letmypeopleshow.com/post/20464615651/making-respect-an-art-form-over-the-course-of
A Frame Apart 2: Short Films on Queens
Mar 13, ’12
8:48 PM
Open Call for Submissions
Postmark Deadline: March 31, 2012
Queens Museum of Art once again showcases Queens short films, as a complement to the closing celebration on May 19. 2012 of the Queens Museum’s biennale of Queens-based artists, Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle. Works should have been made 2009 or later with a maximum running time of 30 mins. All styles and genres welcome.
To submit please include:
1) DVD or miniDV (NTSC only) preview copy OR link to website where the media can be viewed (vimeo, youtube, etc)
2) Director(s) Name, Title, Synopsis, Running Time, Year, Country and Languages of Production (if in language other than English, English Subtitles required)
3) Director(s) bio, cast/crew list
4) Screening History, Awards
5) All possible screening formats available
6) Contact email, phone #, website if available
7) If above info provided on CD, please also include film stills at 300 dpi as tiff or jpeg as part of the EPK
MAIL TO:
Queens Shorts Submissions
Prerana Reddy
Director of Public Events
Queens Museum of Art
NYC Bldg., Flushing Meadows Park
Corona, NY 11368
tel: 718-592-9700 x222. preddy@queensmuseum.org
LEGAL CLINIC FOR ARTISTS & IMMIGRANTS
Mar 13, ’12
8:44 PM
Monday April 9, 2012
6 – 9 PM
Immigrant Movement International will be hosting a free immigration clinic sponsored by the New York City Immigrant Advocacy Initiative (NYCIAI) on Monday April 9th. NYCIAI is a collaboration between the City Bar Justice Center and the New York Chapter of AILA’s Pro Bono Committee. Speak privately about your legal concerns with an immigration attorney including issues surrounding artists visas, Cuban immigration and family reunification. Lawyers will be available in English, Spanish and Mandarin. This workshops is an opportunity for community members to seek objective legal advice at no cost. Attorneys will not be taking on cases.
RESERVE YOUR APPOINTMENT TODAY (718) 424 6502
March 30th is the last day to sign up!
**Participants must arrive 30 minutes prior to appointment**
CONSULTAS LEGALES PARA ARTISTAS E INMIGRANTES
Lunes 9 de Abril 2012
6 – 9PM
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El Movimiento Internacional llevará a cabo una clínica sobre inmigración gratis patrocinada por el City Bar Justice Center y el American Immigration Lawyers Association el día Lunes 9 de Abril. Hable en privado con un abogado de inmigración sobre sus inquietudes legales que incluyen temas tales como visas para artistas, inmigración cubana y reunificaciones familiares. habrá abogados disponibles en Ingles, Español y Mandarín. Este taller es la oportunidad para que los miembros de la comunidad busquen ayuda legal sin costo alguno. Los abogados NO tomaran casos particulares.
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RESERVE UNA CITA HOY 718-424-6502
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**Los participantes deben llegar 30 minutos antes de su consulta**
Artist Alejandro Cesarco presents “The Same But Different”
Mar 12, ’12
8:32 PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
LOCATION: Immigrant Movement International, 108-59 Roosevelt Avenue, Corona, NY 11368 (7 train to 111th St) Click here for Directions.
For his participation in Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle, artist Alejandro Cesarco will be conducting a a workshop focusing on an expanded definition of translation conceived as a creative and generative process. As a starting point, a scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Chinoise (1967) and a short film by Claire Denis, Vers Nancy (2002) will be screened and analyzed. These two works will be used as a lens to discuss cultural and aesthetic politics behind the impulse to adapt, translate, and appropriate.
With QMA Director of Public Events, Prerana Reddy
About the Artist
Alejandro Cesarco was born in 1975 in Montevideo, Uruguay. His most recent solo exhibitions include “Alejandro Cesarco,” Art Pace, San Antonio, Texas, “Two Films,” Murray Guy, New York (2009), “Three Works,” Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2009), “Now & Then,” Charles H Scott Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2009), “Retrospective,” in collaboration with John Baldessari, Murray Guy, New York (2007), and “Margeurite Duras’ India Song,” Art in General, New York (2006). These exhibitions addressed, through different formats and strategies, his recurrent interests in repetition, narrative, and the practices of reading and translating. He has curated exhibitions in the U.S., Uruguay, Argentina and a project for the 6th Mercosur Biennial (2007), in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is director of Art Resources Transfer where he initiated and edits Between Artists, an ongoing series of conversation based books. He lives and works in New York.
About the Films
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Still from “La Chinoise” by Jean-Luc Godard, 1967
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La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1967, 96mins)
In an apartment painted brilliant shades of red and blue, five young people-including Véronique (Anne Wiazemsky), a philosophy student, and the actor Guillaume (an ardent Léaud)-attempt to live according to the precepts of Chairman Mao, their shortwave tuned to Radio Peking. In an assemblage of skits that bridges Pop and agitprop, Godard portrays the progress of these “petit Maoists” from playing at revolution to making it. It remained for the events of May 1968 to prove La Chinoise prophetic, and the film’s fascination only grows in retrospect
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Still from “Vers Nancy” by Claire Denis, 2002
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Vers Nancy (Claire Denis, France, 2002, 10mins, part of the portmanteau feature 10 Minutes Older: The Cello)
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A train conversation between an immigrant French woman and novelist Jean-Luc Nancy centering on the idea of intrusion within every foreigner (a more philosophical precursor to L’Intrus). Denis’s social commentary on the inherent fallacy – particularly in nations with a strong national identity like the U.S. and France – of the social notion that assimilation and integration embrace cultural differences; rather, it erases them. The idea of intrusion is also present in the creation of the Schengen Zone which allows for free movement of people from European countries within the agreement signatory countries, creating a buffer between Old Europe and the “other” Europe that flouts the idea of globalism and a unified Europe, essentially establishing a segregated European “homogenous zone” where populations from outside the zone become “intruders” within it.
IM International: Year One
Mar 7, ’12
10:12 PM
Wednesday March 14, 2012, 6:30 PM
The Cooper Union School of Art, Rose Auditorium
On Wednesday, March 14, join artist Tania Bruguera in conversation with Creative Time’s Chief Curator Nato Thompson and Tom Finkelpearl and Larissa Harris from the Queens Museum of Art as they review the first year of Bruguera’s ongoing Immigrant Movement International project in Corona, Queens. After the discussion, there will be a short question-and-answer session in which audience members are encouraged to participate.
Immigrant Movement International: Year One will take place from 6:30 to 7:45PM in the Rose Auditorium at The Cooper Union School of Art, located at 41 Cooper Square on the corner of 3rd Avenue and East 7th Street. No RSVP is needed; tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Miércoles, 14 de Marzo, 2012, 6:30 PM
The Cooper Union School of Art, Rose Auditorium El día Miércoles 14 de Marzo acompañe a la artista Tania Bruguera en la conversación con el Curador Jefe de Creative Time Nato Thompson y con Tom Finkelpearl y Larissa Harris del Queens Museum of Art para resumir el primer año del Movimiento Inmigrante Internacional, el proyecto en marcha de Bruguera en Corona, Queens. Después de la conversación, Habrá una corta sesión de preguntas y respuestas en la cual miembros del público serán invitados a participar.
Movimiento Inmigrante Internacional: Primer Año se llevara acabo de 6:30 a 7:45PM en el Rose Auditorium en The Cooper Union School of Art, ubicado en 41 Cooper Square en la esquina de la 3ra Avenida y la calle 7 Este. No es necesario RSVP, las entradas serán distribuidas según llegada.
The Cooper Union School of Art, Rose Auditorium El día Miércoles 14 de Marzo acompañe a la artista Tania Bruguera en la conversación con el Curador Jefe de Creative Time Nato Thompson y con Tom Finkelpearl y Larissa Harris del Queens Museum of Art para resumir el primer año del Movimiento Inmigrante Internacional, el proyecto en marcha de Bruguera en Corona, Queens. Después de la conversación, Habrá una corta sesión de preguntas y respuestas en la cual miembros del público serán invitados a participar.
Movimiento Inmigrante Internacional: Primer Año se llevara acabo de 6:30 a 7:45PM en el Rose Auditorium en The Cooper Union School of Art, ubicado en 41 Cooper Square en la esquina de la 3ra Avenida y la calle 7 Este. No es necesario RSVP, las entradas serán distribuidas según llegada.
LEFT FORUM 2012: MARCH 16-18, 2012 NEW YORK CITY
Mar 7, ’12
10:04 PM
The Immigrant Manifesto and the Struggle for Social Justice
Organizer and Chair: Saskia Sassen
March 17, 2012, 12 pm
Room W402
PANEL DESCRIPTION
Immigration is at the forefront of the increasingly abusive control practices of the US government at diverse levels. The panel will examine what diverse organizations and initiatives are doing to a) contribute to a different type of analysis about immigration, and b) actively contest the abuses deployed by government agencies in the name of the law.
PANELISTS
Tania Bruguera, a highly acclaimed artist, is active in the struggle for immigrant rights; she researches how art can be applied to everyday political life. Her work is in the collections of Tate Modern, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Museum of Modern Art, and several other museums around the world. She has received many honors, including most recently a Guggenheim fellow, the Prince Claus Prize, and the first Neuberger Prize.
Ujju Aggarwal is a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center. Her focus is on the importance of the public sector within education as an actively contested arena in which neoliberal projects are generated and contested. This grows out of her work with the Center for Immigrant Families (CIF). She is a community organizer and popular educator on immigrants’
rights, the intersections of art and social justice, public education, and violence against women of color.
Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and educator, organizes for equity and justice in public education; for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel; and against Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. She coordinates the Participatory Action
Research Center for Education Organizing (PARCEO) that operates in partnership with the Educational Leadership Program at NYU-Steinhardt, where she teaches PAR.
Sarahi Uribe coordinates the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) The aim is to advance and protect the civil, labor, and human rights of day laborer in the United States. NDLON has helped in the creation of dozens of worker centers, campaigns to overturn anti-day laborer solicitation ordinances, fought labor abuses including wage theft, and built strong alliances with labor unions. It is the national leader challenging the devastating impact of harsh immigration enforcement.
Chair: Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. Her recent books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, A Sociology o Globalization, and the 4th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy. Among older books is The Global City. She is the recipient of multiple doctor honoris causa and was selected as one of the 100 Top Global Thinkers of 2011 by Foreign Policy Magazine.
