PRESS RELEASE | Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL

CONTACT:  Charles Davis • (901) 487-4053  • AiOPpr@gmail.com                    Ed Woodham  •(347) 350-4242 •artinoddplaces@gmail.com ART IN ODD PLACES PRESENTS 2011 FESTIVAL Rob Andrews, Union Square Cleaning, interactive performance (Photo: Ryan McManus; Designer: Dan Ownbey)        RITUAL   OCTOBER 1-10, 2011 on 14th Street, NYC A festival exploring the odd, ordinary,and ingenious in the spectacle of daily life.   OVER 60 ARTISTS TAKE ON 14TH STREET THIS OCTOBER… Press Preview: Thursday, September 22, 1pm at Underline Gallery, 238 W14th StRSVP: AiOPpr@gmail.com NEW YORK, NY (August, 2011) Each year, Art in Odd Places (AiOP) produces a thematic public art festival along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River in New York City. From October 1-10, the 2011 edition of AiOP will take place along this east-west corridor in Manhattan, and will center on the theme of RITUAL, including ideas of ceremony, habituation, myth, obsession, superstition and liturgy. This year’s guest curators, Trinidad Fombella (El Museo del Barrio) and Kalia Brooks (MoCADA), selected over sixty artists to participate in what has grown to become the largest festival AiOP has organized in its fifteen-year history. The curators reviewed applications from an international open call that responded to the idea of RITUAL. The selected sixty plus projects successfully incorporate elements of the “ritualistic,” exploring the sacred and profane of everyday actions in the particular context of the urban environment. As one of New York City’s major cross-town streets heavily populated by businesses, pedestrians and commuters, 14th Street compelled the arrangement of projects that play with the behaviors of the street’s transient congregation. Alejandro Guzman, El Santero: Seven Days Seven Nights, performance. Courtesy of the artist. In the contemporary moment, the idea of ritual is a highly provocative concept. It is most commonly linked to the set of actions in religious ceremony or cultural celebrations, but the notion is also applicable to the socializing behaviors performed among individuals in the daily engagement with the social environment and civic space. This installment of AiOP seeks to subtly disrupt the procedures of the everyday or emphasize the ritualistic character of small gestures or acts in both religious and secular life, to establish temporary moments of ecstatic contemplation in the public realm. AiOP 2011: RITUAL offers artists the opportunity to make art outside formal spaces by reconfiguring their artistic practice as public actions or urban interventions without the confinement of a gallery or museum space. AiOP 2011: RITUAL will engage passers-by, providing them with a new perspective of an otherwise familiar environment through site-specific installations, social and spatial interventions, video and audio projects, performance, new media, and other inventive practices. In addressing the distinct manifestations of ritual, the festival aims to broaden the public’s outlook on art, city dwelling, and social conventions. Projects include interactive group foot cleansings in Union Square, ceremony of tree kissing, 24-hour endurance performances along 14th Street. Also featured: a video suited public disco announcer, Haikus written on toast, dancing costumed ameba cocoons, rose petal walkways, and ceramic deities placed indeterminately along 14th Street throughout the festival. FACT SHEET for AiOP 2011: RITUAL Who: Sixty + artists' projects from around the world. Guest curators: Kalia Brooks, MoCADA Director of Exhibitions and Trinidad Fombella, El Museo Del Barrio Exhibitions Manager/Assistant Curator. Festival Producer, Lucia Warck Meister. Founder/Director, Ed Woodham. Collaborating Organizations are Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), El Museo del Barrio,  Parsons New School for Design, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Theaterlab, 14 Street Y, Norwood Club, 14th Street Park in Hudson River Park. ARTISTS: Sherry Aliberti, Scott Andresen, Rob Andrews, Nobutaka Aozaki, Julia Barbee, Korhan Basaran, Caitlin Berrigan & Anya Liftig, Tom Bogaert, Michael Borowski, Javier Bosques, Brodigy, Corrine Cappelletti, Seth Caplan, Patricia Cazorla, Joanna Chak, Flora Choi, Missa Coffman, Concerned New Yorkers, Bindi Cole, Andrea Cote & Michael Drisgall, Elizabeth Demaray, Konstantin Dimopoulos, Dahlia Elsayed, Margarita Garcia, Lawrence Graham Brown, Alicia Grullon, Alejandro Guzman, Harvey loves Harvey, Judith Hoffman, Alexa Hoyer, Nova Jiang, Doreen Kennedy, Laura LeBreton, Abigail Levine, Lulu Lolo, Alban Low, Mary Ivy Martin, Maski, Scott Mason, Carolina Mayorga, Park McArthur, Marissa Mickelberg, Andrea Moccio, Felix Morelo, Sheryl Oring, Joaquin Palencia, Julie Puttgen, Edith Raw, Leon Reid IV, Ryan Ringer & Jenny Santos, Jacolby Satterwhite, Gene Schmidt, Leo Selvaggio,  Anne-Katrin Spiess, Liana Strasberg, Sasha Sumner,  Katie Urban, Juha Valkeapää and Geert Vaes, Mary Valverde, Gretchen Vitamvas, Lois Weaver & Lori E. Seid, Caitlin Webb, Genevieve White & Rafael Sanchez,  Jenifer Wightman, Alexandra Wolkowicz, and Amy Young. Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/artinoddplaces for high res images.   WHAT: Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL is the 7th annual NYC festival featuring performances, interventions, visual installations, video, sound and more in public spaces.   For more about the event’s history, visit the website. WHEN: October 1 to October 10, 2010; for schedule, visit www.artinoddplaces.org. Press Preview: Thursday, September 22, 1pm at Underline Gallery, 238 W. 14th St (RSVP AiOPpr@gmail.com). Opening Reception: Friday, September 30, 6-9pm (Theaterlab, 137 W14th Street) featuring many of this year’s festival performers. Special Festival Events GLANDATHON WORKSHOP, Interactive Performative Keynote Address: Linda Mary Montano, Saturday, October 1, 2-4pm. (Parsons New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue, Kellen Auditorium) Tour with curators to follow. RSVP AiOPnyc@gmail.com RITUAL IN PUBLIC SPACE, Panel:  Tuesday, October 4, 6pm. (Pratt Manhattan Gallery 144 W 14th St, 2nd Floor).  PSEUDO-PUBLIC SPACE, Public Space Panel:  Saturday, October 8, 6pm. (Parsons New School of Design, 65 W11th Street, 5th Floor, Wollman Hall). Tour with the curators to follow. WHERE: 14th Street, Avenue C to the Hudson River, New York City. Subways: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to Union Square; 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, F, V to 14th Street. L to First Avenue, Third Avenue, Union Square, Sixth Avenue, and Eighth Avenue. Maps are available: Parsons New School for Design’s Shelia Johnson Design Centerlobby, 2 W13th Street and 66 Fifth Avenue; 14th Street Y, 344 E14th Street; Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W14th Street; Rags A GoGo, 218 W14th Street and at many businesses along 14th Street & vicinity. WHY:Art in Odd Places (AiOP)aims to present art that stretches the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations.  AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. AiOP is a project of GOH Productions. www.gohproductions.com.

AiOP and The New School presents: URBAN FESTIVAL ON 14th STREET APRIL 1, 2011

FACT SHEET for Urban Festival WHO:   Art in Odd Places & Urban Curriculum at The New School. WHAT:  2nd annual Urban Festival commemorating the Bicentennial Anniversary of the 1811 Commissioners’ Grid of Manhattan.   Performance and visual art by Harmattan Theater, BroLab Collective, Hydrophony (artists Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Thomas Dexter), and student work from the Urban Curriculum courses ‘Cinemetrics’ and ‘Urban Interventions’. WHEN:  Friday, April 1 5-7pm. WHERE:  14th Street Between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenues, Manhattan, New York City. Subways: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to Union Square; 1, 2, 3, A, C, E, F, V to 14th Street. L to First Avenue, Third Avenue, Union Square, Sixth Avenue, and Eighth Avenue.   Maps are available at Parsons The New School For Design, Shelia Johnson Design Center,  2 West 13th Street at Fifth Avenue. WHY:   The Commissioners’ Grid began at 14th Street, the first street in the grid to span from the Hudson to the East Rivers. This event will celebrate and imagine the future of the grid. CONTACT:   Vinh Cam, AiOP PR Director AiOPpr@gmail.com, (646) 259-0311 Ed Woodham, AiOP Director info@artinoddplaces.org, (347) 350-4242   Photos available upon request

Art in Odd Places & Urban Curriculum at The New School Commemorates the Bicentennial Anniversary of the 1811 Commissioners’ Grid of Manhattan at URBAN FESTIVAL ON 14th STREET APRIL 1, 2011 Manhattan, NYC (March 21, 2011)—Art in Odd Places (AiOP) and The University-wide Urban Curriculum at The New School is pleased to announce the 2nd annual Urban Festival commemorating the bicentennial anniversary of the 1811 Commissioners’ Grid of Manhattan. A partnership between Art in Odd Places and urban@newschool, this event will celebrate and imagine the future of the grid. The Commissioners’ Grid began at 14th Street, the first street in the grid to span from the Hudson to the East Rivers. Professional and amateur performers, as well as artists will offer a condensed a two-hour event beginning at sunset on 14th Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues. This event is free and open to the public. We aim to renew the grid to create new socio-cultural relations to the region’s natural resources. Our relationship with climate, food, and animals and with ourselves is up for discussion. The under utilized and overlooked spaces of our city afford environments for a wilder imagination. The Urban Festival seeks to raise a discussion about ecological and social inclusion in our dense city grid. The performance ‘Grid Scenes’ is a collaboration between Harmattan Theater and the course ‘Cinemetrics’. This portion of the festival will also include curated installations from the course ‘Urban Interventions’. Participating AiOP artists include The BroLab Collective who will explore notions of labor and resolution dissolving boundaries between viewer and participant inviting the public to interact with a panel of artist and curators, as well as Hydrophony who will reveal New York City living waters through a chance-sound installation comprised of underwater field recordings taken from both Hudson and East rivers. Hydrophony is artists Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Thomas Dexter. About the Urban Festival urban@newschool, the University-wide Urban Curriculum at The New School is comprised of hundreds of courses across the university as well as four degree programs. Between March 1 and May 15, 2011 urban@newschool is hosting an Urban Festival. It is a series of thematically linked events, comprised of guest lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions, open classrooms, field trips, conferences, and urban parties—all scheduled to take place within and around The New School campus. About Art in Odd Places Art in Odd Places (AiOP) is an annual festival that presents visual and performance art in public spaces along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Art in Odd Places aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. This year AiOP 2011: RITUAL: Ceremony. Habituation. Myth. Obsession. Superstition. will take place October 1-10. www.artinoddplaces.org