Mobius
Boston
354 Congress St.
617 4512910 FAX 617 4512910
WEB
Reports From Afield
dal 28/10/2001 al 29/10/2001
6175427416 FAX 6174512910
WEB
Segnalato da

Mary Curtin



 
calendario eventi  :: 




28/10/2001

Reports From Afield

Mobius, Boston

...A Chinatown Banquet. An artists' talk given by Mike Blockstein and Jeremy Liu. They will talk about 'A Chinatown Banquet', an interdisciplinary community-based public art and education project, that explores the forces that shaped and continue to influence Boston's Chinatown. 'Reports from Afield' is an ongoing series of monthly Monday evening talks by members of the Mobius Artists Group and guest artists.


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Mobius presents "Reports From Afield: A Chinatown Banquet," an artists' talk given by Mike Blockstein and Jeremy Liu

Monday, October 29, 7 pm

(Boston) Artist/educator/curator Mike Blockstein and artist/community planner/environmental scientist Jeremy Liu will talk about "A Chinatown Banquet," an interdisciplinary community-based public art and education project, that explores the forces that shaped and continue to influence Boston's Chinatown. Based on the metaphor of a Chinese banquet, the project integrates three highly visible multimedia public presentations - a web site, an art exhibit at the Dreams of Freedom Museum of the International Institute of Boston (Nov. 6-Feb. 17), and a multimedia-augmented walking trail of Chinatown's social history which will feature video projections in the Asian American Bank windows.

"The Banquet" is divided into eight "courses", which cover immigration policies and immigrant stories, development pressures, the bachelor community, natural history, colonial history, the role of the area's restaurants, activism, and intergenerational issues. They are presented through multiple points of view, giving one a full appreciation of the collision of opinions and events that have shaped the community. They aim to make the historic forces and events which are critical to opening up a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the community - whether they are immigration policies, development pressures, or demographic shifts - a palpable, breathing experience. The Banquet is a process-oriented project, attempting to let community members, and those who have influenced or studied the area, tell the tale themselves. The blend of personal insights, anecdotes, and undocumented stories give the Banquet its full flavor and richness.

(Bios.) Mike Blockstein is a visual artist, educator, and curator working in community-based art that explores the intersections of artistic process and civic engagement. His interdisciplinary public art projects utilize a "sense of place" as a mechanism to address social, cultural and built environments. He is the former Executive Director of Southern Exposure, a San Francisco nonprofit artists organization. He developed its Artists in Education program, a program involving schools, community-based organizations and roughly 400 teens annually, that utilizes art as a tool to teach critical and creative thinking, new ways of looking at one's environs, and community involvement. Previous collaborative public art projects include Available Light, a project where he led photography and writing workshops for a six-month period, exploring the street as a metaphor for cultural, personal and commercial exchange with teens and formerly homeless adults. Blockstein is also on the board of the National Association of Artists' Organizations (NAAO). He is a graduate of the Mid-Career Masters of Public Administration program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he focuses on questions of art and civic engagement, urban history and potential alternatives to the nonprofit model.

Jeremy Liu is a community planner, environmental scientist, and artist. His projects explore and address community, ecological and design issues and include community-based urban planning, affordable housing and commercial real estate developments, site-specific art installations and photography, and community building programs. He is currently the Director of Community Programs for the Asian Community Development Corporation in Boston. He has experience in real estate transactions and development, land use and natural resources management, arts and cultural planning, archaeological and cultural resource management, real estate finance, and domestic and international land/biodiversity conservation efforts. As an active participant in a variety of art and environmental organizations, including two Boston-based groups. The Revolving Museum and The Boston GreenSpace Alliance, he is creating connections between community groups, art organizations and the environmental movement.

"Reports from Afield" is an ongoing series of monthly Monday evening talks by members of the Mobius Artists Group and guest artists. These presentations focus on projects that have been created abroad or outside the Boston area, or in a public area, and that explore important artistic, socio-cultural, or political issues. In addition, many of the reports reflect Mobius' increasingly international outlook. Please call the Mobius office if you would like more information about this program.

In 2001, Mobius has been granted a Boston's Best Performance Art award by The Improper Bostonian. "For more than 21 years, Mobius has been the city's premiere venue for experimental art, programming a 42-week roller-coaster ride of events that range from consciousness-raising to the downright bizarre. The annual ArtRages fundraiser is one of the funkiest and most fun happenings in town, and the group's commitment to the Fort Point artists' community is one of the few things standing between it and the developers' wrecking ball. Our hats are off to them."

Tickets:
free; reservations recommended; please call Mobius at (617) 542-7416

Mobius
Boston's Artist-Run Center for Experimental Work in All Media
354 Congress St. - Boston, MA 02210
phone: 617-542-7416
fax: 617-451-2910
mary@mobius.org

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