Last Friday I went on my first solo trip to the Portland Metro Transfer Station where an army of kind souls and smiling figures diligently work the physical task of recycling the massive amount of matter trashed daily in piles. Camus couldn't be more right: "One must imagine Sisyphus Happy".
I'm very pleased to be among the selected artists for the Glean program established by Recology, Metro and Crakedpots for the past 7 years to address the waste disposal and environmental issues. Artists are given the opportunity to glean materials from the transfer station for the program duration and are required to conceive a body of work relevant to their continuous efforts to reduce entropy while regenerating a significant amount of the refuse.
This compelling Artist in Residency program will allow me the very special opportunity to develop my current social practice art studies related to the sensitive topics of environmental issues. With materials gleaned from the waste stream, I would like to conceive elaborate and intricate artistic tools with the public stimulating creative social interactions combining mundane objects with sophisticated textile art techniques. The proposed experimental research will continue my ongoing ID# series reflecting on social identity and environment.
Public participatory will be encouraged to creatively interact in the compositional stages opening the project to an unusual immersive, dynamic and tactile social experience that reconnects the mind and the body and to allow a reflection on the multiple levels of interconnectedness of individuals, networks and environment. I will be sharing soon the thread of this new adventure which will hopefully inspire possibilities.
This program is made possible by #recology #metro #crackedpots
David Schendel documents Latifa Medjdoub's interactive performance art piece "Conversation with the Roots." As performed at the 2015 San Francisco International Performing Art Festival.
Performers: Florentina Mocanu/ Amy Munz/ Nathalie Brilliant/ Val Sinckler/ Tonyanna Borkovi/ Latifa Medjdoub
Sound Art: Derek Phillips
Music: Ash In The Rainbow by Haco & Sakamoto Hiromichi
Time-Base Video Art: David Schendel
This lecture explores the possibilities of flexible sculpture as social practice that engage communities in a personal exploration and social connection.
The Roots is a site-specific, handcrafted, and interactive fiber sculpture. It was inspired by nature and employs a stunning ensemble of innovative fiber art and sculptural works, many of which were originally developed with varied communities as social art projects and have subsequently been part of installations, workshops, and performances, including the French American International School, The Old Mint, the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, and the Museum of Performance and Design.
After a brief lecture on textile and art industries, artist Latifa Medjdoub will discuss The Roots as a unique tool to generate creative and personal connections that inspire new reflections on larger social constructions.
Latifa Medjdoub was born in France. Her mediums include social art sculpture and installations, photography, painting, and performance. Her work raises questions of identity, social roles, and the metatheatricality that shapes humanity.
Educated at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du textile of Roubaix, France, Medjdoub collaborated with leading performing arts artists. Her work has been shown in museums and galleries in Europe, Asia, and North America including the Museum of Art and Industry, France; Cheongju Art Center, Korea; De Cordova Museum, MA; Santa Fe Art institute, NM; National Building Museum, DC; Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, TX; Fort Mason, San Francisco; The Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco.
Bay Area Emerging Museum Professionals will examine programs with a therapeutic benefit.
Thursday, September 29 at 7 PM - 8:30 PM
Museum of Performance + Design
Speakers:
Latifa Medjdoub- artist (http://latifamedjdoub.com/
Cecile Puretz- Access and Community Engagement Manager, Contemporary Jewish Museum
Sadie Harmon- Director, Performing Arts Institute, Stagebridge
Rachel Kadner- Parenting & Community Partnerships Manager, Habitot Children's Museum
Sylvie Minot- Executive Director & Founder- Syzygy Dance Project
Stay tuned for more details
#MuseumsHeal
After a successful and very pleasant time in one of the most beautifully conceived workshop and showroom of the Bay Area, we are back at Shopfloor SF! Join us and collect unique designs + share a drink from the neighbors (Shopfloor adjoins the wide open space housing Harmonic). |
The Roots project is structured to engage with the unique installation of a massive, site-specific web of hand-crafted mixed natural fibers sculptural elements. The installation is designed to engage the public with the notions of energy and perception, space and history. Spanning the whole open space of the archive, the installation is an aleatory open-ended structure that evokes the passing of information and the interworking of life. As an interactive, kinetic sculpture,The Roots disrupts our reality and enliven our senses by offering a three-dimensional, immersive, dynamic, and tactile experience reconnecting the mind and body and actively encouraging creative thinking and inspired reflections on the multiple levels of interconnectedness of individuals and networks.
The Roots employs a stunning ensemble of innovative fiber art and sculptural works, many of which were originally developed as social art projects and have subsequently been part of installations, workshops, and performances at the French American International School, San Francisco’s Old Mint, the SF International Arts Festival, and Alonzo King Lines Ballet.
The Red Vine, a silent social art performance will be presented during the opening reception starting at 4pm and will feature Florentina Mocanu, Amy Munz, Tonyanna Borkovi and Nathalie Brilliant.
The Echoes of Nature series was conceived and executed during the creation of the ever growing Roots fiber sculptures project (on view simultaneously at the Museum of Performance and Design in San Francisco until the end of December). The sculptural pieces seek to bring the same materials, methods, and inspiration used in The Roots down to the scale of the body, celebrating life, energy and creativity. Doing so places a renewed emphasis on the beauty of the textiles while highlighting the delicacy and fineness of their organic forms. These pieces invite the observer to meditate upon the complexity of the relationship of the form to the space. The interplay of the sculptural and wearable aspects of the pieces further invites the viewer to approach the work, while reinforcing our own places and relationships to the natural world.
Echoes of Nature, Dec. 10th through Jan. 4th, 2015-16
InSpace - Pacific Felt Factory/ 2830 20th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114