FESTIVAL OF IDEAS FOR A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE
Streets in New York City are not just pathways from one place to another, but anthropology in the making: where guerrilla art, corner musicians, billboards, as well as conversations on cell phones and over cafe tables, reveal a city always bubbling with new ideas.
IDEAS CITY, a biennial festival, founded by the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011, gathers some of the best ideas for the future of cities through its collaborative initiatives, including hundreds of arts, education, and community organizations. The festival takes place May 1-4 in New York City. This year’s theme is “Untapped Capital.” Its focus is on leveraging undiscovered and underutilized city resources.
After a series of creative conferences and workshops, the public is invited to StreetFest on the last day of the festival. This event, which takes place in area around the lower east side of the city, brings together artists, architects, poets, technologists, historians, community activists, ecologists and leading entrepreneurs to share their ideas with the community at large. Together, they consider the many beautiful possibilities that lie ahead for New York and other cities.
With a rainbow of over 200 special exhibits, performances, screenings, and programs, StreetFest is a mega-feast for the mind and body. Here are some highlights to peruse:
(Photo: Plant-in City)
Looking for new ways to interact with nature, a group of cutting edge architects, designers, and technologists collaborated to produce a “city” for plants, a gorgeous and clever sculpture comprised of interlocking terrariums. Made of cedar and copper piping, this modern expression of Cubism is more than just a beautiful work of art. It is equipped with digital moisture sensors, irrigators, and integrated lighting that is all controlled by a smartphone app.
You can view the Plant-In City piece as a multiplex unit at the Festival. And each terrarium block can operate independently, in case you want to take one home with you. The creators consider them to be bionic plant furnishings. We think they would be beautiful on a coffee table or shelf.
(Photo: USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency)
Sandy Storyline is a participatory documentary project in which victims of Hurricane Sandy share their stories as they experienced the storm and its aftermath. Beautifully knit together, it is a community narrative, including photographs, videos, audio recordings, and text, which serves as a common memory of the horrific suffering as well as a collective spirit of hope. With over 250 stories now in the archive, Sandy Storyline is an incredible resource, not only of the community affected, but for anyone interested in climate change and the future of coastal regions in the US and around the world.
An exhibit of videos will highlight a few narratives, excerpted from the series of Sandy videos screened last month at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Detritus becomes both muse and medium at this exhibit by artists Maria Luisa Tamara and Gregory VandeHey, of philanthropic art supply organization “Materials for the Arts,” who tap Sony, Prada, Google, and other companies for their throwaway materials to create fascinating sculptures. At this exhibit, visitors are invited to participate, joining on-site facilitators in the attempt to transform ready-to-use recycled materials into beautiful works.
(Photo: New Museum, New York, by Benoit Pailley)
The StreetFest finale, is an art event called “Change of State,” produced by Nuit Blanche New York (NBNY). Known for its art-at-night productions, NBNY will now make the New Museum its canvas. The museum is transformed, with one dozen works of art, ranging from painting, to animation, to text to video, all projected onto the building’s seven-story facade. Open your eyes and look up because art and beauty are is happening now.
Artists include Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Nicolas Guagnini, E Roon Kang & Ahrong Han, Virginia Overton & Motoko Fukuyama, Jeff Preiss, Nicolas Sassoon, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Ben Wolf.
