Cai Guo-Qiang media explosion
Art21 artist (Season 3) Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition I Want to Believe at the Guggenheim Museum may go down as the most-documented show on video of 2008 in New York. However, Cai faces some serious competition: we’ll have to wait and see if the ongoing Olafur Eliasson exhibition at MoMA, Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum, or the upcoming Louise Bourgeois (Season 1) retrospective at the Guggenheim will out-spectacle the current Manhattan media blitz.
With only 7 days left until Cai’s Guggenheim exhibition closes, who knows how many more videos are in the works, but in the meantime enjoy the following sampling. And for those planning a visit this final weekend, get your tickets early (and hide those camera phones)!
New York aside…if you include Cai Guo-Qiang’s role as director of visual and special effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, he will undoubtedly hold the record as the contemporary artist whose work has been seen by the most people on television, ever. (Who previously held the record? Mel Chin and the GALA Committee’s little-known subversive project with Melrose Place?)
Do you have a video of Cai’s Guggenheim show? Leave a link in the comments below!
VIDEO | Channel Thirteen (PBS) SundayArts
Spacey! Guggenheim curator Alexandra Munroe is “literally” beamed onto Frank Lloyd Wright’s ramp. (Fun fact: the Guggenheim is 2 years younger than Sputnik & Cai, and 7 years older than Star Trek)
VIDEO | Guggenheim Museum
Working at the Guggenheim must induce some serious déjà vu—here riggers install Inopportune: Stage One in a way reminiscent of Matthew Barney’s climbing escapades in CREMASTER 3 (2002).
VIDEO | VernissageTV
A non-narrated, comprehensive tour of the exhibition’s major works.
VIDEO | NewArtTV
Some comments from Cai Guo-Qiang on the day of the press preview.
VIDEO | Museum TV
Hello! Enthusiastic host Mel Merio does a “profoundly postmodern” interview with Guggenheim curator Alexandra Munroe.
And…last but not least……..
VIDEO | Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century
Watch an excerpt of the Art:21 episode Power featuring Cai Guo-Qiang, with the artist reflecting on Inopportune: Stage Two (2004) when it was first installed at MASS MoCA.
Art21 and Mel Chin’s “Fundred” team in overdrive at NAEA
Last month, Art21 and Mel Chin (Season 1) took arts educators from around the world by storm as they presented two of the most dynamic sessions the National Arts Education Association’s annual convention had to offer.The professional development session, presented by Kelly Shindler and Mel Chin, was standing-room only. Teachers were treated to a special presentation about Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project by Mel Chin himself. The following day, the Art21 Super Session was also packed with educators. After creating their own works of “Fundred Dollar Bill” art, teachers headed out to the street for a dramatic suprise entrance of the Fundred Project’s armored truck (pictured above), which runs on cooking oil supplied by school cafeterias.
Here on the left coast, plans to present the Fundred Dollar Bill Project to California’s educators are already underway through partnerships with local museums, KQED’s Spark program, and the Fundred Project’s national director.
Be sure to check out Art:21’s video of students who have already participated in the Fundred Dollar Bill Project and, if you’re an educator, help your students create their own Fundreds for donation to a neccessary and worthy cause. More information can be found on the project’s Web site, www.fundred.org. Password = Paydirt.
Art21 & Mel Chin at NAEA
Check out Art21’s photos from last week’s NAEA conference in New Orleans. Featured are Art21-featured artist Mel Chin’s SuperSession, Art21’s professional development workshop for teachers (coopted by Chin), and Art21 and Mel’s team on the ground around town.
Art21 and Mel Chin at NAEA in New Orleans this week
We’re heading down to New Orleans tomorrow to present a few sessions at this week’s National Art Education Association conference at the Morial Convention Center. In addition, Season 1 artist Mel Chin will be joining us to unveil more details on the Fundred Dollar Bill project and the bills themselves. Those educators in New Orleans for the conference can find Mel and Art21 at the following presentations. For those of you who can’t make it, our friend at KQED’s Spark and co-presenter of the Contemporary Art Film Salon, Kristin Farr, and I will be blogging both the onsite conference activities and offsite investigations with Mel and his team.
NAEA Convention, New Orleans, LA - March 26-29, 2008
Thursday, March 27 2:00pm - 2:50pm
Art:21 and the Educator Workshop Model
This session shares findings from Art21’s professional development work with teachers to support the integration of contemporary art and artists into curriculum using inquiry-based learning strategies and connections to thematic strands.
(Convention Center Room 201)
Friday, March 28 1:00pm - 2:50pm
Super Session with Mel Chin | For Your Eyes Only: An Operation
Mel Chin is a conceptual visual artist motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances. He works in a variety of art mediums to calculate meaning in modern life, placing art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, and more. Chin says, “Making objects and marks is also about making possibilities, making choices—and that is one of the last freedoms we have. To provide that is one of the functions of art.”
(La Louisiane Room)
Saturday, March 29 10:00am - 6:00pm
Art21 and Spark Present the Contemporary Art Film Salon
The Contemporary Art Film Salon is back! Take a break from the workshops to view films from the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century and SPARK* television series, as well as other acclaimed documentaries on contemporary art and artists. Produced by Art21, KQED’s Spark, SFMoMA, ICA Boston, and Illuminations, these films are accessible and valuable resources for exploring the artists of today and their sources of inspiration. Films are 10-30 minutes each, grouped in 1-hour thematic programs.
(Convention Center Room R09)
Look forward to performance, activities, and special guests. If you are in town, be sure to join us. If not, we’ll be posting lots of video and photos when we get back.
All About “Fundred” | Interview with Mel Chin part 2
The following conversation concludes Art21’s interview with Season 1 artist Mel Chin about his national collaborative artwork, Paydirt/The Fundred Dollar Bill Project. Read Part 1, published last Friday, here.
ART21: Take us to the next step. You’ve talked about the collection but talk about the next part—what happens after the collection? Once the truck leaves North Carolina, what happens?
MC: No, we’re going to start in New Orleans. We’re waiting till we have [$300,000,000 Fundred dollars, the amount equivalent to the cost of the landscape project]. The car will leave New Orleans and go through this 15,000-mile, maybe even 20,000-mile drive, slowly across the country, with a team of relay drivers and a chase car and a video camera that will be passed to the next team.
They’ll stop at schools [Collection Centers]; they’ll pick up the artwork and respectfully catalog it. So eventually [the armored truck] will work its way around this very strange route because, again, it’s based on the way people are scattered. Finally, it will roll up to D.C., where we will stop at the Federal Reserve and ask for even exchange first. I have it from inside sources the Federal Reserve will probably not give us even exchange. That’s inside sources only. But then we’ll take it to the steps of Congress. We’re there to ask for an even exchange, and not necessarily just cash, but for processes that we think will probably cost this much to transform a city in need. And if we transform that city in need, its gift back will be the cure for cities all over America that have this problem.
Billions have already been spent in New Orleans and trillions are spent on the war. The cost we’re talking about, if you want to go the negative way, is one day in Iraq. But it’s also the cost of that bridge over the Mississippi or five cloverleaf interchanges. So if you think about it as an engineering project, it’s trivial, really. It’s trivial. Offset is what’s important to Congress.
All About “Fundred” | Interview with Mel Chin part 1
The following interview with Season 1 artist Mel Chin took place in late February 2008 at Art21’s offices. Part 2 will be published on Monday. Stay tuned for further information on Mel Chin’s presentations at next week’s National Art Education Conference in New Orleans, LA.
ART21: Could you explain how the Fundred Dollar Bill project came about, what it is, and what “Fundred” means?
MEL CHIN: I was in Houston, and I ran into a good friend, Rick Lowe, who said, ‚Äúwe‚Äôre going to New Orleans to do something.” It was six months after Hurricane Katrina. He was talking about the New Orleans Biennial. And I remember telling him, “that‚Äôd be great.” But half the population was gone. I was thinking about art from a community point of view, as Rick does. We had an interesting conversation about it. I said to Rick, “let‚Äôs go.” Rick and I were part of discussions with Transforma Projects, arts people from all over the country that met in New Orleans to come up with a response to the tragedy. So we toured and we looked, but we mostly conceptualized about what we could do.
So the project really came about this way. I was in the Ninth Ward, and I was overwhelmed. There was no more water, but I was flooded with an emotional and psychological response that was uncommon for me as a creative person. I felt hopeless, because I felt there was nothing I could do.
Then, you had the debris and the evidence and the remains of who knows what? I don’t know. And no one else knew, either. And so I left. I remember going to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence to receive an honorary degree. I didn’t want to go, because I felt compelled by the tragedy of this magnitude to move into really dramatic action, but I didn’t know what I could possibly accomplish. Whatever it was, it had to be meaningful.
Mel Chin: “Fundred” at George Jackson Academy
This video was shot at George Jackson Academy in New York City, an independent middle school serving “bright boys from lower-income families” and which is participating in the project. Art teacher Gary Campbell worked with fourth- through eighth-graders to create Fundred Dollar Bills. This school is one of the collection centers for all bills created in New York State. Its students are featured discussing their involvement and thoughts on the current situation in New Orleans.
Mel Chin will unveil more details on the project and examples of Fundred Dollar Bills themselves at next week’s National Art Education Association convention in New Orleans.
Camera/Editing: Larissa Nikola-Lisa; Interviews: Tana Hargest. Sound Operator: David Roesing. PA: Peter Synder. Special thanks to Mel Chin; Mary Rubin and the entire Fundred Dollar Bill Project team; and the students and staff of George Jackson Academy, especially: Jason Alejo, Daniel Baldwin, Darshan Desai, Jamal Elliot, Lateef Fall, Peter Garcia, Lukas Grattan, Joseph Hatton, Mattiyas Letang, Momo Lewis, Fernando Medina, James Norman, Armondo Perez, Mitchel Thomas, Robert Williams.
Mel Chin: The Fundred Dollar Bill Project
Over the past year, word has been spreading of a unique nationwide art project that gathers the individual expression of students into a collective call for action. The Fundred Dollar Bill project invites students of all ages to participate in a giant performance artwork and collective creative action to support the rebuilding of New Orleans.
The “artworks” created by students will be collected by a special armored truck and delivered to the Federal Reserve and Congress in Washington D.C. where an even exchange of the value of their art currency for actual funds or services will be requested.
Season 1 artist Mel Chin originated the Fundred Dollar Bill Project to draw attention and to develop solutions for the environmentally responsible rebuilding of the New Orleans from ‚Äúbelow the ground up.‚Äù As with much of Chin‚Äôs work, he sees this project as a collaborative action, where every contribution is valued and celebrated. Unconventional and politically engaged, Chin’s projects challenge the idea of the artist as the exclusive creative force behind an artwork.
Over the coming months, we’ll follow the development of the Fundred project and feature the work of its participants. We’ll visit with Mel Chin to discuss the project, as well his upcoming Super Session talk at the NAEA Annual Convention in New Orleans in March. We’ll also make a visit to a school in New York that has implemented the Fundred project throughout its curriculum. Be sure to drop in regularly or sign up for an RSS feed.
To learn more about the Fundred project and how your students can get involved, visit the Fundred Dollar Bill Project website at www.fundred.org (password: “paydirt.”) There you will find a simple lesson plan, templates, as well as information on the truck and how many bills have been collected to date (on the Fundred Vault Page). To see more photos of Fundred Bills visit the project’s Flickr site.
Are you an educator already participating in the project? We‚Äôd love to hear from you. Drop us a line in the comment section to tell us how you are using the Fundred project in your classroom. Also, be sure to check out a map of all of the participating schools. Feel free to add your school’s description or upload an image of your students’ work.
View clips from Mel Chin’s Art in the Twenty-First Century segment here.
All artwork courtesy of Mel Chin.
The Premiere of Mel Chin’s 9-11/9-11
One-night only film screening!
September 11, 2007
8p.m. screening and Q&A, 9p.m. reception
Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street, NYC
Limited seating, reserve your free tickets now: events [at] creativetime.org.
Season 1 artist Mel Chin interweaves the events of September 11, 2001, New York City, with September 11, 1973, Santiago, Chile, in this intensely compelling new animated film, 9-11/9-11. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in NY scarred the trust of the American people, while the Chilean military coup of President Salvador Allende, that occurred on the same day twenty-eight years prior, ushered in seventeen years of autocratic rule, leaving more than three thousand dead and countless victims of torture. In this dark and intensely compelling, animated new film, Mel Chin creates a tale of two cities, a tragedy of two times, weaving a story of love and hope wrecked by manipulation of power.
The 24 minute film features the voice of Lili Taylor and music by Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, and more.
9-11/9-11, presented as part of a global dialogue about the human impact of these collective traumas, is presented in New York City by Creative Time and will be shown simultaneously in Santiago, Chile (Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, Santiago), and in the artist’s home city of Houston (The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). See http://www.911-911movie.com for more information.
View clips from Mel Chin’s Art in the Twenty-First Century segment here.
