Opening dates, locations announced for 'Dialog:City' art projects
By Mary Voelz Chandler, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 4, 2008 at 4:03 p.m.
Photo by MASS Studies
An artist's conception of the view walking through Minsuk Cho's "Air Forest."
A pavilion will appear to levitate in City Park, a Humvee will roam Denver telling the stories of homeless veterans, and a song imagining the new American voice will waft across the city.
Those are the among the details announced today about the art projects in "Dialog:City," a series of public performances and installations in conjunction with the DNC.
Organized by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, "Dialog:City" is a program of the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee. Director and curator Seth Goldenberg created the program with Liz Newton, who is heading the education and community components of the project.
The budget is about $370,000, with no city money involved. Support is being provided by the host committee, bitforms gallery nyc, Denver Civic Arts Foundation, Denver Magazine, Denver Pavilions, Denver's Road Home, The Lab of Art + Ideas at Belmar, Rhode Island School of Design, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center and University of Denver.
"Dialog:City" events and related activities include:
* "Dialog:Denver," opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 21, Robischon Gallery, 1740 Wazee St.: This group show includes work by some "Dialog:City" artists and 16 noted local artists: Jack Balas, Zach Burk, Albert Chong, Francoise Duresse, Gary Emrich, Chuck Forsman, Carlos Fresquez, Jill Hadley Hooper, Jerry Kunkel, Terry Maker, Sarah McKenzie, Lauri Lynnxe Murphy, Kevin O'Connell, Bruce Price, Floyd Tunson and Rebecca Vaughan. The exhibition will run Aug. 16 through Sept. 20. Through a collaboration between "Dialog:City" and "The UnConvention," these Colorado artists will also be part of The Unconvention's My Yard, Our Message project during the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
* The Karaoke Convention '08 launch event, 8 to 11 p.m. Aug. 21 in Supreme Court Cafe & Nightclubj, 1550 Court Place: Organizers call this a "civic karaoke campaign" designed by artist Daniel Peltz. The week-long event will use digital media to translate a dozen Republican and Democratic Presidential Candidate addresses from the 2008 campaigns into karaoke formats. People can then re-enact them at local "Karaoke Convention Centers," karaoke bars around Denver that will feature the project. The launch event hosted by local karaoke VJs from Alien Entertainment, will include performances by Mayor John Hickenlooper, Congressman Mark Udall, State Senator Joan Fitz-Gerald and Ray Rivera, Colorado State Director for Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign. A list of "Karaoke Convention Centers" will be available soon at www.dialogcity.org.
* The Veteran Vehicle Project opens 8:30 to 10 p.m. Aug. 22 at East 14th Avenue and Grant Street, at dusk daily through Aug. 26: Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko premieres the Veteran Vehicle Project, a new media sculpture that transforms a Humvee into a traveling media projection vehicle, telling the stories of Denver homeless veterans. Working collaboratively with more than 40 Denver-based veterans, Wodiczko's multimedia project will offer intimate portraits of their experience through audio and text projection.
* "Air Forest," 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 26 through 29 in City Park, behind the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, in the meadow area along the lake: This temporary architectural pavilion by Minsuk Cho is designed as a pneumatic hot air balloon-like structure that levitates by the compression of air. Events planned there include the Yoga Health Festival, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 24 and 25; the ArtLab at Air Forest 6 to 7 p.m. Aug. 27, a presentation of Throwaway/Runaway, a play about teen homelessness written by ArtLab youth and directed by Jose Mercado.
* "Partly Sunny: Designs to Change the Forecast," opening reception 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 24, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Aug. 29, Denver Pavilions on 16th Street between Welton Street and Tremont Place:
Charlie Cannon and the Rhode Island School of Design Innovation Studios present this design showcase with supporting projects and events. In keeping with the green theme of the Democratic National Convention, Partly Sunny is focused on demonstrating what we can do now to address the challenges posed by climate change.
* "Terra Nova: The Antarctica Suite," opening performance 7 p.m. Aug. 24, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 14th and Curtis streets: This multimedia performance work by DJ Spooky, aka Paul Miller, is an acoustic portrait of a rapidly changing continent. Terra Nova transforms Miller's first-person encounter with the harsh, dynamic landscape into multimedia portraits with music composed from the different geographies that make up the land mass. Miller's field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing environment under duress.
* "Hindsight is Always 2 0/20," 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 26 through 29, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets: R. Luke DuBois examines the history of American political discourse through the metaphor of vision. Drawing from the annual State of the Union addresses given by Presidents to Congress, Hindsight consists of a single Snellen-style eye chart for each President. Instead of the typical characters present in an eye chart, DuBois' piece employs words drawn from their speeches, presented in order of most frequent (top line) to least frequent (bottom line). The result is a snapshot of the lexicon of each Presidency, containing a mix of historically topical keywords and rhetoric unique to each President and the time period in which he served in office.
* "Circle of O's," 5 p.m. Aug. 25 opening performance, at either the 16th Street Mall or the Denver Performing Arts Complex: Ann Hamilton launches her collaborative work with Denver-based choirs, choreographers and composers, with movements along 16th Street downtown. This newly composed song is drawn from the phrases, pace and spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson writings imagining the new American voice.
* Green Constitutional Congress: a symposium on the future of environmental action, 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 25: Buell Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets in the Denver Performing Arts Complex: Prompted by Charlie Cannon and the Rhode Island School of Design Innovation Studio's Partly Sunny, the public symposium brings together national leaders who are working to ensure our environmental and energy future. Sponsored in partnership with the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center's Presidential Climate Action Project. Participants will present their work and discuss how they came to be engaged in this socially entrepreneurial practice. Confirmed participants include David Orr, Oberlin College, Senator Gary Hart and Charlie Cannon, Rhode Island School of Design Innovation Studios. Special guest Bruce Mau, renowned designer and creator of the Massive Change project, will introduce the symposium.
* Dialog:City Responses, opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 26, through Aug. 31, PS1 Charter School, 1062 Delaware St.: Work by 12 PS1 Charter School students responds to "Dialog:City" in a show running Aug. 22 through 31. Local teachers and artists participating in the exhibit include Abbey Byrne, Katie Hoffman, Harry Lyrico, Xander Point-Zollo, Elaine Scheffler, Susan Vaho and Ravi Zupa.
* "Revolutionary Love: I Am Your Worst Fear," launch performance 5 p.m. Aug. 27, 16th Street Mall, between Welton and California streets: Sharon Hayes will gather 100 people at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to read a text in unison addressing political desire and romantic love as part of Creative Time's summer-long, national public art initiative Democracy in America: The National Campaign. Creative Time has joined forces with "Dialog:City" in Denver and Walker Art Center and The UnConvention in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Grassroots political activism, performance art, queer theory and national politics come together in Hayes' two large-scale public performances, with speakers drawn from the gay, lesbian, and transgendered community in each city. They will become the medium of her work by reciting the text written by Hayes. The 10- to 20-minute texts will be read three times over the course of two hours.
* "Artificial Intelligence is Better than No Intelligence," opening reception and dialogue, 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 28, The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St., Lakewood: The opening reception for Lynn Hershman Leeson's "Artificial Intelligence is Better than No Intelligence" will take place from 5-6:30 p.m. The subject of Leeson's work is an artificially intelligent and fully interactive personality named DiNA, who is running for president. With her brain connected to the Internet, DiNA charismatically answers any question you might have. The reception will be followed by The Lab's Mixed Taste lecture program celebration from 6:30-8pm, featuring Leeson. (The Mixed Taste part of the program requires a $5 admission.) The exhibit will run Aug. 24 through 29.
* spurse collective:
The spurse collective is designing a one-of-a-kind cultural and environmental map of the metro area. This walking tour will locate what spurse calls "entanglements." Entanglements are moments or demonstrations of large-scale forces coming together to create ecological dialogues. Whether, for example, it's a new migration pattern of animals becoming visible locally or shifting streams and paths of water, this map will re-introduce you to a Denver that is evolving. Maps will be distributed across the city as free artistic prints.
Dialog:City
* What: 10 site-specific art installatons around Denver and Lakewood sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee
* When: Aug. 21 through 29
* The artists and projects: Charlie Cannon and students from the Rhode Island School of Design Innovation Studios (representing numerous states/countries); Minsuk Cho (South Korea); R. Luke Dubois (New York); Ann Hamilton (Ohio); Sharon Hayes (New York); Lynn Hershman Leeson (California); D.J. Spooky, a.k.a. Paul Miller (New York); Daniel Peltz (Rhode Island); spurse collective (representing numerous states/countries), and Krzysztof Wodiczko (Poland/United States)
* Admission: Free and open to the public
* Information: dialogcity.org
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August 4, 2008
9:37 p.m.
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lilymatha writes:
Seems the group of GLBT is an important group. We should support GLBT more. They really live very hard, especially for those openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. I know many of them would like to choose some online service like the one BiLoves.
August 5, 2008
9:18 p.m.
Suggest removal
Snapple writes:
In 1987 my friend Brent Anderson became critically ill with AIDS while he was visiting China. The Soviet media claimed that Brent was a biological weapon against the USSR who had been sent by the CIA to infect the Chinese “because the Soviet Union has a long border with China.” Brent knew he was ill and never would have deliberately infected anyone.
Senator Obama sat silently in his church while his minister repeated the KGB lie that the Americans invented AIDS to kill black people. I think Senator Obama’s silence in church is really hypocritical and cynical since he claims to be interested in improving health care for Americans.
Senator Obama should explain that in 1992 the KGB's Yevgeni Primakov, the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, admitted that the KGB spread the lie that the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks.
The Russian newspaper Izvestiya (3-19-92) reported:
“[Primakov] mentioned the well known articles printed a few years ago in our central newspapers about AIDS supposedly originating from secret Pentagon laboratories. According to Yevgeni Primakov, the articles exposing US scientists' 'crafty' plots were fabricated in KGB offices.”
Senator Obama should clear up this lie, which even today can destroy the lives of young blacks who believe it.
An informative Washington Post article (1-25-05), published a few days after the State Department memo (1-14-05) that contained Primakov's admission explained:
QUOTE
More than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic arrived in the United States, a significant proportion of African Americans embrace the theory that government scientists created the disease to control or wipe out their communities, according to a study released today by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University.
That belief markedly hurts efforts to prevent the spread of the disease among black Americans...African Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau figures, yet they account for 50 percent of new HIV infections in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, said...
"It's a huge barrier to HIV prevention in black communities...There's an issue around conspiracy theory and urban myths. Thus we have an epidemic raging out of control, and African Americans are being disproportionately impacted in every single sense."...
"The whole notion of conspiracy theories and misinformation . . . removes personal responsibility," Wilson said. "If there is this boogeyman, people say, 'Why should I use condoms? Why should I use clean needles?' And if I'm an organization, 'Why should I bother with educating my folks?'"
August 5, 2008
9:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
Snapple writes:
Some white people think Senator Obama will only represent black people. I don't think that. I saw how he sat in a black church and didn't speak up against a lie that hurts black people a lot.
80% of new HIV cases are young black kids 18-24. They aren't careful with their health because their ministers and others tell them the government is going to get them anyway.
I hope some people in Denver who are interested in health issues will confront Senator Obama with his silence about this destructive KGB lie.
I wrote him, but he never admitted what even the KGB admits: that the KGB spread the destructive anti-American canard that America made AIDS to kill blacks.
This KGB lie was the same sort of ignorant anti-American canard that Christians in midieval times spread about Jews when they claimed that Jews poison the Christians' wells with plague.
This KGB lie is the same kind of lie that NAZI propaganda spread when they claimed that Jews are vermin that spread diseases.
This KGB lie is the same kind of lie that Ward Churchill fabricated when he claimed that the US Army deliberately gave the Mandan Indians smallpox.
I think it is amazing that a black church would spread an anti-American canard that is so destructive to black people and that a black US Senator would not say anything.
August 5, 2008
10:09 p.m.
Suggest removal
Snapple writes:
The KGB smeared my dead friend Brent Anderson in the international media just like the NAZIS smeared Jews. They used my friend's tragedy to exploit Russian anti-Chinese xenophobia and homophobia against the US.
Senator Obama's church smeared the American government with lies about germ warfare in exactly the same way, and the Senator didn't even peep until bad publicity forced his hand. He still hasn't told where this lie came from. Even the KGB admitted they made up this lie.
Senator Obama's silence showed me the character of his Christianity. He cares more about his political success than about the truth or people's health.