File this under conceptual public art! Forwarded from Thomas Bratzke in Germany:

I am a young german artist from Berlin doing projects that focus on the urban landspace and how it is perceived/used by the citizens for example.

I would like to introduce you a project of mine that is called 'ZAST REAL ESTATE'.

I am mapping a city from the perspective of a street artist/graff writer etc. o find places which habe the potential for a change. To find empty or unused surfaces and other spaces. Photos of the places and all the informations about measurements, material, daily contacts etc. are collected for a real estate catalogue. I am not asking the owners if I can use their building and include it in the catalogue, this is part of the concept.
Then I open up the 'ZAST REAL ESTATE' office and people can come by and inform themselves about places in their own city, thy are invited to choos a place, make up their minds and produce sketches. I am also offering couselling interviews and surveys and technical support to help people to start something, a change or just a little playing maybe.
I am collecting all the sketches and hand them out to persons in public and privat institutions who are dealing with urban space to show them the ideas of those who are not frequently working in this field.

If you find some time one day please check my website for further details and the development of the project.

Zast Real Estate

May 08, 2008

Linda Frye Burnham / 04:57 PM

There's a lovely story on the Web site of the Coleman Center for the Arts in York, Alabama, about a mural just painted by artist Tierney Malone, titled "Southern Sounds: Hear My Train A Coming." It incorporates many of the things Malone learned about the area while he spent the year painting. Malone has intentionally left the mural with a blank spot, the final piece belonging to local young people to decide. The Coleman Center will work with students enrolled in their summer Drawing and 2D Design Class to come up with the final element of the York mural. The Coleman Center is showing drawings Malone made during the mural process. Opening festivities will take place on Saturday, May 10th. A celebration of Malone’s mural and a cookout will begin at 4 PM in downtown York. The exhibition opening will continue in the Coleman Center gallery from 6 to 8 PM.

Tierney Malone, Southern Sounds: Hear My Train A Coming

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May 06, 2008

A great video on a community arts project
Linda Frye Burnham / 11:01 AM

This video documents community artist Mari Gardner's work with juvenile offenders on a mosaic for the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore. Mari has written for CAN.

Go here.

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Document your friends
Linda Frye Burnham / 10:35 AM

Forwarded from artist Harrell Fletcher:

I've started a new participatory website. It's called Some People.

The idea is that people select other people that they know or would like to know and make a web documentary about them. The documented people need to be alive and willing and really interesting in one way or another (and not already well known). My hope is that eventually the site will become a vast archive of interesting people that you most likely otherwise would never find out about.

There are a few documentaries on the site already, but I'm hoping people will start to add more and more--revealing otherwise hidden lives and creating new documentary approaches within the public space of the web.

The plan is that eventually there will also be Some People exhibitions, publications, radio pieces, and video screenings selected from the ever growing content on the Some People site. If anyone has interest in organizing a presentation of that sort please let me know.

Thanks and take care, harrell

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May 05, 2008

Rent Ten Canoes
Linda Frye Burnham / 12:59 PM

"Ten Canoes" is a must-see Australian movie (you can rent it from Netflix), especially for artists who are devising theater and media projects with communities. From the Vertigo Productions Web site:

"The film is unique in that it is the first feature film to be shot entirely in Aboriginal language (predominantly Ganalbingu), and it is set both in the past (centuries ago, before the coming of white people to Australia) and in the Ganalbingu mythical past.

"It is a tragi-comedy, a cautionary tale of love, lust and revenge gone wrong that, incidental to its central story line, also explores something of the "old ways".

"The film is directed by Rolf de Heer and features the son of David Gulpilil in one of the lead roles: twenty-two year-old Jamie Gulpilil, whose traditional lands fall within the Arafura Swamp area.

"The entire cast are people indigenous to the swamp region, mainly Ganalbingu and related clans, who are also responsible for the making of all the traditional artefacts needed for the film, such as the swamp-specific bark canoes, the spears and other weaponry and the dwellings. Indigenous people from the area are involved at most levels of the production, from input into and editorial control of the script to the casting and selection of locations."

Both the Vertigo Web site and the film's official Web site offer numerous study-guide and other materials.

Vertigo
Ten Canoes

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May 02, 2008

Lumen Eclipse: dance in Harvard Square
Linda Frye Burnham / 11:49 AM

Lumen Eclipse is a beguiling exercise in public art: a pair of large outdoor video screens in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. – the screens incite public interaction with motion-based art by bringing artwork to the street, confronting passers by with artworks from dusk 'til 2 a.m. seven days a week. Lumen Eclipse shows an average of eight works a month, nearly artworks a year (each piece running 2-8 minutes in length). Artworks are shown for one calendar month. In two years, they've shown 250 artists, including emerging, mid-career and well-known artists like Miranda July, Yoko Ono, Isaac Julien and Michel Gondry. They say on their Web site that they are provoking public interaction. You can see the films on the Web and sign up for their mailing list.

Lumen Eclipse

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