Starving Artists Project tells the stories of homeless artists

Despite their massive presence, the homeless are widely ignored. They are part of city invisible culture. But every day this people communicate to us, telling their basic need for help through a piece of cardboard. Each sign expresses a basic human need in a creative way completely unique to the creator’s life.

StarvingArtists Project is a new initiative, it try to change all of that by giving NYC’s homeless community a platform to showcase their cries for help. The program seeks to turn the cardboard signs we see being held up on street corners and in subway stations into art that funds social change.

The creators of the project, Nick Zafonte and Thompson Harrell, worked with world-renowned photographer Andrew Zuckerman (famous for shooting portraits of politicians, humanitarians, artists and entertainers) to capture beautiful, dignified portraits of each “artist” as well their handmade artistic signs and turn the images into a collection of art to inspire change.

The Starving Artists Project Film from Thompson Harrell on Vimeo.

The collection of diverse cardboard signs, along with portraits , debuted at the Dumbo Arts Center in January, 2012. The project showcases 35 handwritten signs, accompanied by portraits of the 30 artists who wrote them. A giant 4 ft tall collection cup was constructed and placed in the center of the gallery - all donations were given to the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and Holy Apostles SoupKitchen, two local charities focused on feeding the local community.

Zafonte and Harrell explained to the Huffington Post: “Everyday the homeless reach out through the only means they have, scraps of cardboard and their own creativity. The problem is we don’t ever look, seeing their messages as an interruption to our day. Our mission and solution was to change the way society interprets their messages – by presenting their signs as art, allowing their own voices to inspire meaningful action.”

More info

website Starving Artists Project

Photo credit © Starving Artists Project

 

 

 

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Bring butterflies back into the city, with Ettore Favini

Today, until Friday 5 April 2013, the Pastificio Cerere Foundation in Rome will present the exhibition project by Ettore Favini Verdecuratoda…voi (which forms part of the vaster project Verdecuratoda begun in 2005) curated by Marcello Smarrelli.

Favini’s research explores man’s relationship to nature and time, reading the social context in all of its complexity. For this new project, the artist rereads the subject of ecology from a contemporary perspective, involving spectators in a “game” that binds them to an act of responsibility toward themselves and the environment.

Verdecuratoda…voi, presents an opportunity to trigger a real environmental metamorphosis. In addition to prompting the urban forestation of green species, this phase of the project aims to bring butterflies back into the city, thus restoring an important marker of air quality to urban areas.

The show is structured around several intercommunicating devices.

The space will contain a vending-sculpture from which attendees will be able to withdraw, using a €1 coin, spheres containing the seeds of plants, bushes and flowers useful to the sustenance and reproduction of butterflies. Users will have the opportunity to become actively involved in the artistic process by following the instructions contained inside the spheres, and planting the seeds. The aim is to build the world’s largest vegetable sculpture. This intervention the first in a series of similar events that will be organized across a number of countries.

In the courtyard, the artist will build a display using the various plant species whose seeds are contained in the vending-sculpture spheres.

 

The ex-silos space will feature a projection of La Verde Utopia, a conversation between Ettore Favini, Alessandra Sandrolini and Gilles Clément – gardener, landscapist, theorist of the Third Landscape and the Plantary Garden, and supporter of biodiversity. This video addresses the main issues at the heart of Clément’s research: from the analysis of diversity in economic, ecological and social terms, to his project for a “realizable” utopia.

The project further anticipates the launch of a website where participants will be able to point out the exact location of the seeds they have planted, and upload the photos of the plants, thus contributing to the mapping of the vegetable sculpture.

In addition to purchasing seeds, participants will also be able to contribute to the development of the project by making a donation to the Banca Etica, in return for which they will receive a limited edition object created by the artist in collaboration with Canedicoda.

At the inauguration of the project will be presented in collaboration with the Roman study of architecture IaN +, invited by Emilia Giorgi, has designed the concept for the vending machines that will be located in the following areas of institutions, foundations, museums interested in joining the initiative Verdecuratoda.

An individual action can produce substantial changes only if it is repeated countless times, while countless micro-changes on a local scale can, if united, give life to large-scale transformation.

It would be great that the next spring, Rome is invaded by clouds of butterflies!

More info

website verdecuratoda

website Ettore Favini

Facebookpage

Photo credit © Ettore Favini

 

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10-meter high of Plastic Bags, by Pascale Marthine Tayou

The installation Plastic Bags occupies since last spring, the Hall of the historic part of the MACRO - the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, interacting with the Odile Decq's architecture. This is the space for free passage of MACRO, which is used by the locals to move from one street to another district, just like a square from the global village.

Plastic Bags is a large installation shaped like a giant beehive, almost ten meters high by the Cameroon artist Pascale Marthine Tayou. It is made entirely from plastic bags that evoke in their simplicity, the many stories of our daily lives. They offers a colorful critique of capitalism, consumerism and widespread plastic pollution.

Everyday objects, useful as insidious, the bags have become a symbol of the growing globalization and consumerism, but also homelessness that increasingly characterizes today's society, a central theme in the artist's research.

But the journey of these plastic bags was long. In 2012 the installation was realized at gare de Paris Saint Lazare with the collaboration of the people. The work was in 2011 in Milan at Hangar Bicocca for the group exhibition "Terre Vulnerabili", and even before at Queensland Art Gallery of Brisbane, in Australia.

The common denominator of his work is the idea of travel, not only physical but also mental, that manifests itself as an ongoing cultural and geographic displacement also in the choice of materials (waste and rubble urban or everyday objects often coming from the place where he is to work). The traveler for the artist is not only a way of life, but also a psychological condition, meeting with something else, able to subvert the social, the political, economic and symbolic of our life: "It is a certainty that traveling is the hope of meeting the magic that hides the mysteries of the rational human being."

Plastic Bags will be on exhibit at Macro through April 1, 2013.

More info

website Pascale Marthine Tayou

website MACRO

Photo credit © Giorgio Benni/MACRO

 

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"Examples to follow! – expeditions in aesthetics and sustainability" arrives in Sao Paolo, Brazil

After stops in Mumbai, Addis Ababa and Beijing, the exhibition "Exemplosa Seguir! Expedições em estética e sustentabilidade (Examples tofollow! – expeditions in aesthetics and sustainability)" is coming in Sao Paulo, Brazil which marks its 10th venue since originating in March, 2010 in Germany.

The exhibition will open on 21th February at Galeria Marta Traba,Memorial da América Latina, it brings in Brazil unprecedented exhibition, whose theme is the depletion of energy, climate change and the imminent decline of biodiversity in the world. The exhibition is a "cry" of consciousness for humanity, especially after the poor results of Rio +20.

Examples to Follow! aspires to encourage awareness of the cultural and aesthetic dimensions of sustainability. Over forty works represent the fields of art, design, architecture, and technology, and range from objects made out of recycled products, a project that matches needy Europeans with foster families in Africa or Asia, to a floating island on which fresh, potable water can be produced. The project curator Adrienne Goehler has selected the artists that dissolve the boundaries between activism, art and inventions that connect the experiences of environmental initiatives, with their artistic approach. Tereza de Arruda, is curator for Brazil, lives and works in Berlin.

They are part of the exhibition the following international artists: Ravi Agarwal (IND), Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla (US | CU), Néle Azevedo (BR), Joseph Beuys (GER), Richard Box (GB), Gerhard Bär (GER), Ines Doujak (A), Olafur Eliasson (DK), Galerie für Landschaftskunst (GER), Dionisio González (E), , Hermann Josef Hack (GER), Henrik Håkansson (S), Folke Köbberling & Martin Kaltwasser (GER), , Christian Kuhtz (GER), Jae Rhim Lee (KR | US), Till Leeser (GER), Sarah Lewison (US), Marlen Liebau | Marc Lingk (GER), Rudolf zur Lippe (GER), Ma Yongfeng (CHN), Petra Maitz (A), Renzo Martens (NL), Ayumi Matsuzaka (JP), Gerd Niemöller (GER), , Dan Peterman (US), , Clement Price-Thomas (US), Dodi Reifenberg (IL | GER), Gustavo Romano (AR), Michael Saup (GER), Ursula Schulz-Dornburg (GER), Dina Shenhav (IL), David Smithson (US), Robert Smithson (US), Superflex (DK), The Yes Men (US), Wang Jiuliang (CHN), Xing Danwen (CHN), Yang Shaobin (CHN), Zwischenbericht (GER). From Brazil are invited Marlene Almeida, Sonia Guggisberg, James Kudo, Shirley Paes-Leme and José De Quadros.

"Exemplos a Seguir! Expedições em estética e sustentabilidade "

Group show.

Curator: Adrienne Goehler and Tereza de Arruda

Opening: February 21, 2013 - 19h.

Duration: February 22 to April 7, 2013

Location: Galeria Marta Traba, Sao Paulo, Brazil 

Free Entry

More info

www.z-n-e.de

www.memorial.org.br

Photo credit Zur nachahmung empfohlen

 

 

 

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Italian Pavillon in the 55th Venice Biennale: vice versa, exhibition and crowdfounding project

Padiglione Italia, ph RobertoGalasso

It was presented yesterday in Rome "vice versa," the exhibition curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi that will be the Italian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial, from June 1 to November 24, 2013.

vice versa will consist of seven rooms (specifically: 6 adjoining rooms plus a garden of thousand square meters) set up inside the Italian Pavilion, with seven pairs of artists, sometimes also combined between generations distant. The names: Fabio Mauri and Francesco Arena, Luigi Ghirri and Luca Vitone, Marcello Maloberti and Flavio Favelli, Gianfranco Baruchello and Elisabetta Benassi, Francesca Grilli and Massimo Bartolini, Piero Golia and Sislej Xhafa, Giulio Paolini, Marco Tirelli.

vice versa picks up on a concept introduced by Giorgio Agamben in his book Categorie italiane. Studi di Poetica (1996), in which the philosopher maintained that in order to interpret Italian culture, we must identify a “series of diametrically linked concepts” capable of describing its underlying characteristics – binomials like tragedy/comedy, architecture/vagueness and speed/lightness thus become original keys for reading the fundamental works and artists of our cultural history.

But with 600 000 euro provided by the institution - they say - you do not get to cover everything. The amount is certainly less than those handed out in previous years, but are even a little money from here a call for help.

To the idea curatorial background, Pietromarchi added a gimmick, cool in this period, which serves as a support for the work: it is called "crowdfunding" procedures blossomed within the underground, now also paid to public giants. It is the old method "Collect", reformulated in key 2.0: people recruited on the web, married a project and give a contribution, receiving in return a small benefit.

The crisis leads to the development of new formulas, in which solidarity, cooperation, creativity, networking, communication, make a difference.

Bartolomeo Pietromarchi during the press conference

The project will be launched by February 12th, the collection will have a period of ninety days and has set itself the target of at least fifty thousand euro. Everyone can participate and support the event, drawing an "advantage" of treatment, for example, the visit to the exhibition, plus the name of each supporter will appear at the entrance, in the catalog and on the website of vice versa with distribution folder with prints of the works in a limited edition , numbered and signed in original.

The crowdfunding, inspired by similar initiatives implemented at the Louvre with "Tous Mécènes" and "Let's build a GoddamTesla Museum" in the United States will be inaugurated with events in Rome, Milan, London and New York.

The ability to have these methods of generating consensus, participation, responsiveness and social feeling, is very high. And it is an absolute winner, from the point of view of cultural and ethical, even before the financial.

Destination of funds gathered through crowdfunding

Funds gathered through crowdfunding will be designated, in agreement with the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, for the financing of various initiatives for the exhibition vice versa at the Italian Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exposition, including:

- Additional funding for artists’ works and productions

- Cultural mediation and educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

- Promotional and communications activities, including a vice versa exhibition App

- Organization of encounters with artists and opinion leaders and a concluding conference on the themes of the Italian Pavilion

Possible financing targets and destination of relative funds

Based on the amount of funds raised, the following activities may be supported in different ways:

- €50,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

- €70,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

- €100,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

Promotional and communications activities, including the creation of a vice versa exhibition App

- €120,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

Promotional and communications activities, including the creation of a vice versa exhibition App

Organization of encounters with artists and opinion leaders and a concluding conference on the themes of the Italian Pavilion

More info

www.viceversa2013.org

55th Venice Art Biennal

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