Art will play alongside politics in late August

Mary Chandler

Published March 28, 2008 at 2:54 p.m.
Updated March 28, 2008 at 3:13 p.m.

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Invisible Museum

An example of light projections by Peter Kozma, who will visit Denver to study a project here in late August.

Denver loves to put on a show, and come late August, that certainly will hold true.

Some grassroots art-related projects will spring from the community here, but for the most part the major public artworks timed for the Democratic National Convention will be by high-powered artists from locales as varied as Hungary, South Korea and New York.

Consider that in line with the announcement Friday of a grant for $2 million to help push forward the city's first international Biennial of the Americas in 2010.

Between the Invisible Museum - a free-form arts advocacy group in Denver - and the Denver 2008 Host Committee, that includes works with a political edge, social commentary and plain star power.

* The Invisible Museum, working with the Design Council, is bringing Hungarian artist Peter Kozma here for 10 days in April to find locations to film. The Council is the support group for the Denver Art Museum's Department of Architecture, Design and Graphics.

Kozma uses a Pani Slide projection system to then beam complex images of buildings and natural forms onto other buildings, streets and plazas.

Organizers want Kozma to create 16 works, beaming two a night for eight nights before, during and after the convention.

The location being discussed at this time is Union Station, said Marina Graves, a founder and board member of the Invisible Museum. A PowerPoint of Kozma's work showed brilliant colors and geometrically influenced shapes projected so it appeared people could walk through them.

The cost? Graves said that a project Kozma did in Budapest cost about $240,000. No estimate yet for work for Denver, the artist's first in the U.S.

* Meanwhile, the Denver 2008 Host Committee, with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, has retained Seth Goldenberg and Liz Newton to bring in a host of artists to create installations around the city and into neighboring Lakewood. He's director and curator, she's in charge of education and community outreach.

Basically, events in "Dialog:City" will be free and open to the public.

The lineup includes another light-projection project, this one by Krzysztof Wodiczko, who would work with Denver's Road Home organization and homeless veterans. DJ Spooky is expected to bring his new sound and video work, Terra Nova: The Antarctic Suite - he spent a month there capturing the sights and sounds of breaking ice - to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and, later, to a high school.

Seoul-based architect Minsuk Cho and his firm, Mass Studios, will build a temporary pavilion in City Park to house public discourse. Los Angeles-based new-media guru Lynn Hershman will bring her work on artificial intelligence to the Lab at Belmar; her highly conversational Agent Ruby 2 was a huge draw in 2005 at the CU Art Museum.

Luke DuBois, from Columbia University, used algorithms to find the key words in 41 U.S. presidents' State of the Union addresses to create Hindsight is 2 0/20. Goldenberg called these lightboxes a "digital CliffsNotes model" of the issues and mannerisms of the time in question. And, there are more, such as a piece by Ann Hamilton involving area choirs singing a lullaby in a round.

Goldenberg and Newton are relatively new to Denver, moving here from Rhode Island to work on the opening of MCA Denver. He was deputy director, she education curator.

The cost? Goldenberg said the host committee had set aside about $200,000 for cultural programming, which needs serious augmenting. The roster is set, so they're looking for cash, not more artistic input.

* More area efforts are taking shape, too.

The Denver Art Dealers Association plans to install sculpture in the Hyatt Convention Center Hotel, as the group did during the opening of the DAM's Hamilton Building.

And there's the 2008 Cinemocracy Film Festival, which has a call out for short films (up to five minutes in length) to be submitted online. The 10 top vote-getters will be brought to Denver for a screening during the convention, and the top film will have a berth at this fall's Starz Denver Film Festival. More details: denverfilm.org/cinemocracy.

As late August approaches, I'd bet that Denver's arts communities will step forward with more for all to see.

Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

Learn more about the artists

* Luke DuBois speaks about his work at 11 a.m. Thursday at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, 1600 Pierce St., Lakewood. Free. Information: 303-753-6046.

* Peter Kozma speaks about his work at 6 p.m. April 8 in the Denver Art Museum's Schlessman Hall, 10 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. Admission charged. Information: 720-913-0046.

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