I’ll Be Your Mirror

Reception:  Friday, June 11, from 5-8pm  
Gallery Hours: Tuesday (6/15), Wednesday (6/16), Fridays (6/11 & 18) & Saturdays (6/12 & 19) 11-5pm and by appointment.


Like any city, Chicago is composed of a complex set of relationships that work in concert to cultivate a unique identity. Connections between neighbors, friends, acquaintances and strangers create unique opportunities whose scope is beyond calculation and influence exceeds territorial boundaries. 
From June 11 -  June 19, 2010 Lise Haller Baggesen (Chicago, USA), Gitte Bog (Mexico City, MEX), Gudrun Hasle (Copenhagen, DK), Anni Holm (Chicago, USA) and Berit Nørgaard (Copenhagen, DK) will focus their energy on exploring the possibilities of mutually beneficial relationships rooted in conversation, exchange and sincerity. 
Baggesen looks at her relationship with America through her experience as a recent immigrant, while Bog invites visitors to form relations with residents of Mexico City. Hasle examines a break up, while Holm brings people together through personalized songs and Nørgaard explores the kindness of strangers. 

2 re[public] in/decency events

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WHAT: re[public] in/decency animates empty storefront on the edge of Jeweller's Row as part of Pop-Up Art Loop Gallery Walk presented by Chicago Loop Alliance in association with Chicago Artists' Coalition
WHEN: Thursday, May 6th 2010 5:00 - 8:00 PM
WHERE: 220 S. Wabash (south of Adams)
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WHAT: re[public] in/decency will speak about their research as inaugural Artists-in-Residency at Spoke
WHEN: Saturday, May 15th, 2010 6:00 - 8:00 PM
WHERE: Spoke, 119 N. Peoria Street #3D, Chicago, IL
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KEY INFORMATION: re[public] in/decency (co-founded by Erica Mott and Coman Poon) is an inter-artsactivist initiative and creative think tank that explores the trans-national intersections between live art, social justice activism and arts-informed pedagogy.


In collaboration with dress-maker and fabric-based artist Kristin Mariani, re[public] in/decency are the inaugural artists-in-residence at Spoke from April 26-May 23, 2010.
Our cross-disciplinary and community-engaged research envisioning the creation of embodied and large-scale installation of community-interactive “palimpsests” to unearth hidden cultural memory and promote dialogue amongst and between diverse “diasporas”.  The Palimpsest Project (phase one) will employ the creation of an environmental and performative chalkcloth "palimpsest" to trace the intricate relationships between the physical body, transgenerational memory and landscapes of belonging.  We view the chalkboard and chalk cloth as metaphoric contemporary incarnations of the historical palimpsest, a manuscript on parchment which has been effaced to make room for later writing, but of which antecedent traces remain. It is our hope that enlarging and collectively engaging in the rite of inscribing and re-inscribing personal narrative will create unique and powerful (individual and collective) connections whist engaging in an accessibly expressive and socio-cultural dialogue.



Palimpsest Project | re[public] in/decency


April 26-May 23, 2010 We are closed during the research period of Spoke residency 
   

Performance Installation and Dialogue: Saturday, May 15th, 6pm-8pm   
Open House for Art Chicago: May 1st, 2010, 6-8:30pm


re[public] in/decency, a Canadian-US arts-activist collaboration is developing The Palimpsest Project, an interactive live arts installation on trauma and the erasure and recovery of transgenerational and trans-cultural memory. re[public] in/decency, in collaboration with Chicago-based dressmaker, designer, and artist, Kristin Mariani Frieman will talk about their process working with select individuals, invited groups and communities over the course of their residency and to the general public during a culminating interactive installation.

  
re[public] in/decency is an inter-arts activist initiative and creative think tank that explores the trans-national intersections between live art, social justice activism and arts-informed pedagogy. 

Created in 2008 through a collaboration between two professional artists: community-based developer, theatre and performance artist Coman Poon (Toronto, Canada) and cultural worker, choreographer and performance maker Erica Mott (Chicago, USA), re[public] in/decency seeks to engage diverse audiences in our interdisciplinary work while acting as a conduit between social justice activism and conceptual art practice.

Our art-making practice is highly collaborative and we work with both artists across disciplines  as well as diverse inter and intra-national communities. Key collaborators include teacher, video and performance artist Sheelah Murthy, experimental media artist Juana Awad, performance artist and scholar, Lisa Biggs and artist and designer, Kristin Mariani Frieman. Our work embraces cross-cultural perspectives and is fueled by experiential research with arts-mediated dialogue about social, economic and racial justice. We place the artist as a central participant in our society. We believe that through performative action, the creation of strong and resonant images and the power of play, artists may act as catalysts to encourage citizens to reframe and possibly revise their in/action. Our creative projects are informed by personal experience and strives towards building connections between ‘local’ and ‘global’ issues. We focus on inclusively examining the ‘relational’ (composites of unique bodies and stories, political, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, gender inhabitation and artistic constitution) as a key component of collaborative creation.

THIS IS ART NOW | Thomas Garman

April 25, 11-5pm 


THIS IS ART NOW is a series of posters, flyers, and postcards made using stencils, rubber stamps and photocopies. The posters and flyers have been hung throughout the city of Chicago on bulletin boards, empty exterior walls, and in windows for the last two years. The postcards have been mailed (unsolicited) to artists and art galleries throughout the United States over the same period. 

When used in the context of a poster, flyer or postcard, the phrase “This is art now” functions as an illocutionary act. To give another example of an illocutionary act: the chairperson of a meeting closes a meeting by saying “This meeting is adjourned.” The meeting is adjourned because the chairperson said that it is adjourned. In the realm of conceptual art, John Baldessari's I am making art also functions as an illocutionary act: the utterance creates the aesthetic reality by means of the utterance itself. 

I approached Spoke because I am interested in the way that the poster hangs conceptually in the gallery space: how the space plays a legitimizing function that gives a context to the phrase THIS IS ART NOW and elevates the poster into the realm of real art object. In particular, I find the reference of the word “This” aesthetically interesting insofar as it occurs in the context of an art gallery.

Push The Envelope | Rachel Moore

April 23, 2010 – May 14, 2010
Preview April 23rd 20:30 
Conversations
April 24th-25th, May 8th- 9th
18:30-21:30 (Thessaloniki)
10:30a.m. - 1:30p.m. (Chicago)
Opening 
May 11th 20:30 
Contact Information

Typou 5, 54622 
Thessaloniki, Greece
++2310522672,
Τu.-Sa. 11:00-15:00 και 18:00-21:00


chicagothessaloniki[at]gmail[dot]com

Push the Envelope is an art product and public program enabling dialogue between artists in Chicago, Thessaloniki, and Athens. The participating artists were selected after an open call by an international jury.
Over the span of three weeks DYNAMO project-space in Thessaloniki, Greece and Spoke in Chicago, U.S.A. will host the commencement of dialogue between selected artists. The conversation will spring from an open, collaborative process and will be used to identify topics relevant to the group. Invited curators, artists, and historians will lead discussions during weekends for the duration of the DYNAMO exhibition.
Initially, artists will display past work at DYNAMO  (preview: April 23rd 20:30), while an exchange of knowledge, ideas, and influences will spur each artist to create new work in response to discussion, as they each contend with where they situate themselves politically in contemporary culture and within their historical past. The exhibition space will reflect the organic nature of conversation, continually evolving and displaying evidence of discussions along side with both past and newly created work. The process will be evident, presented at DYNAMO just before the end of the exhibition (opening: May 11th 20:30).


Project Organizer
Rachel Moore
Artist Participants
Lena Athanasopoulou
Kim DeBord & Rachel Moore
Monica Herrera
Georgia Kotretsos
Areti Leopoulou & Theofanis Nouskas
Dimitris Michalaros
Jeroen Nelemans
Shannon Schmidt
Briana Schweizer
Hui-min Tsen
Chryse Tsiota
Vasilis Zografos
Guest Participants
Stephanie Bertrand
Ellen Rothenberg
Syrago Tsiara
Shannon Stratton


This project is made possible with support to Rachel Moore (project organizer), from the Fulbright Foundation in Greece.
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