"There is, as will appear later, an element of undergoing, 

of suffering, in its large sense, in every experience. 

Otherwise there could be no taking in of what preceded. 

For "taking in" in any vital experience, 

is something more than placing something 

on top of consciousness over what was previously known. 

It involves reconstruction which may be painful." 


John Dewey

w e d , a p r 7

here is where i'm from: that humid sound outside your window, leaves and children passing during the day, frigid morning, kitchen in dark. turn off the radio. blast the car with mountain orange air. laying against the sharp angle of your back, grass finds its way between my toes. remember that apple: the one we took for a ride that time. let's begin again and again.

oh you who sighs

oh you who sighs

may god give you relief

oh you who sighs

be patient amid your sighs

be patient amid your days of loneliness

time will pass and you will fall in love

oh you who sighs

your nights are long

and sadness makes them even longer

time becomes etched in your face

oh you who sighs

may god give you relief

oh you who sighs


//

c h a i n l e t t e r

the chain seems to have been broken. the SF show is BS. 

i cursed the gallery using hoodoo magic. and that was my piece.

c h a i n l e t t e r

my good new jersian friend stephen wuensch recently asked me to participate in chain letter 2011, a group show taking place in more than ten cities across the world, organized through a chain letter.

originated by christian cummings and doug harvey in 2006, the show will potentially include thousands of artists in simultaneous exhibition. with invitations dispensed based on feelings of 'admiration', it activates the idea of community as a living support system — jumping borders, mediums, and experience, and drawing attention to the important value of friends and champions. in time i hope to say more about those i passed my letter to.

meanwhile, come to the opening at noma gallery if you're in san francisco on saturday july 16th. 5 to 8 pm. i hope to see you there!

i n d e p e n d e n c e !

open at the people's gallery! pick up a card.

k o p f b a u b a s e l

"e-flux has been invited to develop a special project for the Kopfbau (head building) — the oldest building in the Messeplatz complex, slated for demolition later this year. In response to this invitation, artists Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle developed a constellation of projects situated somewhere between exhibitions of art and the concrete forms of sociality encountered in everyday life. 

Conceived as an independent universe with its own bar, hotel, shops, admissions, and so forth, this project operates in parallel, and as the inverse to the neighboring art fair: operating during alternative hours and in surprising and often paradoxical ways, and ranging in scope from the educational to playfully predatory and mercantile."

among its components is the agency of unrealized projects (AUP), an e-flux project in collaboration with the serpentine gallery, julieta aranda, hans ulrich obrist, julia peyton-jones and anton vidokle:

"Unlike unrealized architectural projects, which are frequently exhibited and circulated, unrealized artworks tend to remain unnoticed or little known. But perhaps there is another form of artistic agency in the partial expression, the incomplete idea, the projection of a mere intention? Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP) seeks to document and display these works, in this way charting the terrain of a contingent future. 

Though the state of being unrealized implies the potential for realization, not all projects are intended to be carried out. In other instances, artists deliberately leave works incomplete, to record very interesting "failures" or experiments. Other planned projects involve consciously utopian, non-utilitarian, and conceptual spaces that were not made available for realization. Whether censored, forgotten, postponed, impossible, or rejected, unrealized projects form a unique testament to the speculative power of non-action.

if you happen to visit the AUP at art basel, you might find my proposal for INCEPTION: a theatrical installation based on christopher nolan's inception (a time-bending phenomenon described by a.o. scott), kierkegaard's figure of christ, boris groy's essay 'on the new', and emeryville's AMC baystreet theatre.

to be clear — even i can't be certain my proposal is there. if not, call it an unrealized unrealized unrealized project.