Offsite ProjectDecember 9, 2016–March 30, 2017
Fran Ilich: Aridoamérica Winter Plan
The International Studio & Curatorial Program announces Fran Ilich: Aridoamérica Winter Plan at El Museo de Los Sures. For Fran Ilich’s Offsite Project, he will turn this storefront space in Williamsburg into a neighborhood coffee co-op and community resource with its own micro-economy for four months. During this period, Ilich welcomes visitors to convene, converse and barter for Zapatista organic coffee while playing the ancient Nahuatl game of Patolli. He wants to offer the public a place of respite during a time of “transition to a new global climate,” with the aim to “create together content, experiences, everyday life. That is our winter plan. Coffee. Conspiracy. Community Chest. The moment is now. As Mayans said, you are me and I am you. Or I am a part of you.”
Aridoamérica is an ongoing multi-disciplinary project started by Fran Ilich in 2005 that includes a webserver sustained by a virtual community called Spacebank as well as a co-op apartment located in New York City. Aridoamérica employs social organization, economic and financial experimentation to support art, activism, gaming, labor, life, writing and politics. Additional information on Ilich’s Aridoamérica will be on display.
Fran Ilich (born 1975 in Tijuana, Mexico) is a media artist, essayist and novelist based in New York City. He has participated in ARCO, Madrid; Berlinale Talent Campus; Documenta 12, Kassel; Transmediale, Berlin; How Latitudes Become Forms, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia, Mexico City.
This exhibition is curated by Juliana Cope, Director of Development and Programs Manager.
As part of Fran Ilich: Aridoamérica: Winter Plan, the artist has organized the following public events at El Museo de Los Sures:
- Friday, February 10, 2017, 4–7pm: Using her Weather Tower, Amelia Marzec’s Weather Center for the Apocalypse will collect visitors’ video forecasts of our uncertain futures.
- Sunday, February 19, 12:30–2pm: Moira Williams will host 1-877-FEMINIST COCKTAIL PARTY, a telephone hotline and workshop about the many paths to and definitions of feminism.
- Thursday, February 23, 2017, 5:30–7pm: Dominic Paul Miller will present Coordinated Universal Time, a lecture addressing issues in photography, ancestral territory, and the ongoing battle over Standing Rock.
- Saturday, March 11, 10am-12pm: Mary Jeys hosts Brooklyn Torch Trade Store, an opportunity for visitors to earn and learn about the alternative local currency Brooklyn Torch.
- Thursday, March 23 and Friday, March 24, 4–7pm: Leonardo Aranda hosts Neighborhood Mapping: DIY Participatory Cartography, a two-day workshop where participants will create a map reflecting socio-political issues of Williamsburg.
- Sunday, March 26, 12:30–2pm: ISCP resident Elli Kuruş will invite participation to an altered tarot game during It could be a community. An rsvp is necessary to attend this event as space is limited. Please email rsvp@iscp-nyc.org by March 23 with ‘Elli Kuruş at Aridoamérica: Winter Plan‘ as the subject line.
Stay tuned for announcements on ISCP’s website for more periodic special guest events.
El Museo de Los Sures was born from a partnership between Southside United with Cornell University and Churches United for Fair Housing to preserve the history of the neighborhood’s residents.
This project is the eighth collaboration between Los Sures and ISCP. It is made possible in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo; the New York State Legislature; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Antonio Reynoso, Council Member, 34th District; and The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation.
- Artist Talk: Thursday, February 2, 6:30–8pm
- Hours: Thursdays and Fridays, 4pm–7pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 10am-2pm
- Location: El Museo de Los Sures, 120 South 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249