Groups double exposure time by sharing Civic Center permits

Mary Voelz Chandler

Published June 4, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Judy Dehaas / The Rocky

Artist Thomas K. Loughlin's "Pictures of You" showcases Iranian culture.

Photo by Special To The Rocky

The art installation "Pictures of You: Images from Iran" will share Civic Center with the activities of Re-create 68 Alliance during the Democratic National Convention in August. The political and art groups will each get two days of recognition out of their single-day permits.

Riding someone's coattails is a time-honored political tradition that the Re-create 68 Alliance and a Crested Butte-based arts group will follow when they piggyback on each others' permits for Civic Center during the Democratic National Convention.

Re-create 68 won the Aug. 25 permit in a city-run lottery, while Crested Butte-based Manjushri Project drew Aug. 26. The local activists in Re-create 68 contacted the arts group to propose joint occupancy.

As a result "Pictures of You: Images From Iran," an installation on that country's people and culture, will be on view there Aug. 25-26. In turn, Re-create 68 will have use of Civic Center for two days, as they originally wanted.

That move is legal, said Chantal Unfug, special assistant to the mayor. "Those with a permit have the authority to have people come into their space. It's up to them to work out that partnership."

Which is proving mutually beneficial.

"There's such a connection between art and politics throughout history," Barbara Cohen of Re-create 68 said Tuesday of the project. Her organization also will welcome political art from Colorado artists for its own "Festival of Democracy" in Civic Center and Lincoln Park.

Cohen sees sharing as a way "to connect our projects" in Civic Center and beyond, into Lincoln Park and the Capitol, where the group also has state permits.

"They almost immediately agreed to share the space for 48 hours," she said. "There isn't going to be any trouble. There was never any threat to take over the park."

Sharing also helps the Manjushri Project, since erecting a tent up to 80 feet long is a time-consuming endeavor, making sense to leave it up for two days. But bringing Iran into the public discourse: Is this politics, or art?

"In a perfect world, it would be art," photographer Thomas K. Loughlin said, upon returning to Colorado from his third trip to Iran to collect photographs and audio clips. "In the world we live in, in the political context we live in, it's not."

But Loughlin, who will work with a crew of up to 20 people to create "Pictures of You," said he also planned to document reactions of those viewing the installation.

"For me, what the show is about is how Americans respond. I want to capture it and honor it and document it," he said. "This show tries to evoke the beauty of the Persian culture. I'm trying to bring to life the beauty and humanity of the Iranian people."

The installation will include a tent covered with portraits of Iranians; inside, similar images will be printed on translucent silk, allowing viewers to see the faces of those looking through the material from the other side. At the tent's center will be a dome, similar to a mosque; verses of Persian poetry and ambient sound will fill the tent.

"Pictures of You" will debut next month in Crested Butte, followed by an appearance at the Kansas State Fair. One of two tents will then head to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, while the other comes to Denver for the DNC and then to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention.

Project funding has come from grants and project members, with a cost estimated "in the low six figures," Loughlin said.

His interest in Iran stems from 1979, when as a fourth-grader, "I watched as university students climbed over the wall of the U.S. Embassy. That's the first time I heard of Iran. That's what led me to go to Iran in 2006."

Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

• June 4, 2008

  9:05 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Perry writes:

  It seems that the Democrats' donkey should be replaced with a camel.

• June 4, 2008

  12:05 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  TheDenverB writes:

  i don't think many of you get that the r68 folks aren't democrats or republicans.

  they are for neither party and are protesting the system as a whole.

  not saying i agree or disagree, but i think (judging by a lot of comments on the RMN lately) that people don't quite get what they are about.

• June 4, 2008

  12:07 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  TheDenverB writes:

  and what does your comment mean, Perry?

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