NEW ICONICITIES
As part of It’s Happening! Celebrating 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks
Saturday, October 21st from 11 am to 3 pm
Central Park’s East Pinetum (East 84th Street entrance), located on the basketball courts 
See location here on Google Maps.
 
 
#spacebuster     #welikeamerica     @storefrontnyc     #ubermut    @raumlaborberlin    #newiconicities
 

NEW ICONICITIES brings together critical approaches to the shifting and complex iconography of the city. Presented during Souvenirs: New New York Icons, currently on view at Storefront’s downtown gallery space, the event includes a series of talks and a workshop inside the Spacebuster.  

 

For the Souvenirs exhibition, Storefront has commissioned 59 artists to produce original objects that represent and redefine the collective imaginary for each of New York City’s 59 community boards.

 

During New Iconicities, participants of the show will present their ideas about what should constitute an icon of the city today. In parallel to these open discussions, raumlaborberlin, the creator of the Spacebuster, will lead a public workshop that invites visitors to produce their own iconography for their neighborhoods, inspiring new ways of perceiving the city of New York.

 

This event is part of We Like America, an experimental road trip of the Spacebuster, and takes place in the context of It’s Happening! Celebrating 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks.

 

About We Like America

We Like America, presented in partnership with Übermut Project, is an experimental road trip of the Spacebuster, a temporary architectural structure designed by raumlaborberlin and commissioned by Storefront in 2009 in order to transform public spaces into impromptu community zones.

 

Exploring facets of the “American Dream” and seeking out new urban frontiers by transforming nomadic, transgressive, and transitory spaces, the Spacebuster is reprised through We Like America in a journey of the American Rust Belt.

 

With a multifaceted mission that includes fact finding, observation, and research, We Like America will pop up to investigate and organize around issues of collective societal desire in everyday life. The road trip kicked off in Chicago during the preview week of the Chicago Architectural Biennale, and then worked its way east with pit stops in St. Louis, Cleveland, eventually arriving in New York in October.

 

Read more about We Like America, the Spacebuster, and all the events here.

 

About It’s Happening!

As NYC Parks’ public art program took shape in the 1960s, artistic events called “happenings” popped up in parks across the city. Blurring the line between art and everyday life, these fleeting performances combined sculpture, music, theater, dance, and poetry. They varied in size and sophistication, but always relied on audience participation. Since its creation in 1967, Art in the Parks has featured over 2,000 works of art. 

 

This year NYC Parks is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Art in the Parks program. It’s Happening! celebrate this milestone with dynamic public artworks, hands-on workshops, and performances that transform Central Park into a stage, museum, and art studio for a free day of public art. Art lovers, families, and park-goers will be delighted by free art exhibits, performances, and hands-on art workshops in Central Park’s beautiful East Pinetum field.

 

Read more about It’s Happening! here.

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Support

Storefront’s programming is made possible through general support from Arup; DS+R; F.J. Sciame Construction Co., Inc.; Gaggenau; Knippers Helbig; KPF; MADWORKSHOP; ODA; Rockwell Group; Tishman Speyer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; The Greenwich Collection Ltd.; the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; The Peter T. Joseph Foundation; and by Storefront’s Board of Directors, members, and individual donors.

 

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