An arts intervention hit the streets of New York City yesterday when thousands of commuters were handed free copies of what appeared to be their trusty New York Times. A surprising headline, IRAQ WAR ENDS, donned the front page, arousing the astute readers’ suspicions. The fictional paper, dated July 4th, 2009, was in fact product of the guerilla collaborative, The Yes Men. The fourteen page special edition is a convincing Times look-alike down to the small details. The special issue, sure to be a collector’s item, is filled with full articles, advertisements, and even corrections. An equally convincing online version of the paper is available to readers outside New York and the other select cities where the spoof was distributed. The site mirrors the Times’ online format and is complete with links to full articles and comment features.

Along side The Yes Men, writers from the New York area (including three unnamed New York Times reporters), a film producer, art professor Steven Lambert, and thousands of volunteers all contributed to the execution of this elaborate prank. Using the pseudonym Wilfred Sassoon, a spokeman for the paper stated that one goal “was to get people to exercise their imaginations.” The publication represents the “real change” they hope to see from the newly elected president and administration.

If you weren’t lucky enough to grab one, they’re available on Ebay with bids already topping $100

Check out BrushFire the blog for Provisions’ latest project.  The blog covers arts and cultural programs around the country in the run-up to elections in November, with a special emphasis on events in the DC area, where over twenty cultural organizations are planning special upcoming programs that engage social issues.  The blog documents happenings in other cities around the country as well.

If you’d happen to be in Chicago on July 21-22, be sure to go to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. That’s were Futurefarmers are staging their innovative public art project Energy Plans. Through a series of carefully designed but playful events, they will get people talking about energy-related issues.

The public will be invited to participate in discussions with scientists in the Energy Tent. The outcome of these discussions will be a series of questions relative to the issue of “Energy” and the upcoming 2008 elections. The questions produced in these small discussion groups will be posed to larger groups in the form of a Continuum, which will look like this:

In short, a continuum is a visualization of a group discussion in which people are asked to position themselves physically in relation to certain questions. According to Futurefarmers:

Participants will be asked to place their stool on a position on the continuum that relates to where they stand on that issue. Participants will then stand on the stool to declare why they chose to stand in that position. Most likely, after hearing why each person is standing where they are, discussion and criteria shifts will influence people to change their position.

Each morning, Futurefarmers will conduct special workshops with Chicago area teenagers from the Chicago Park District TRACE (Teens Re-Imagining Art/Community/Environment) program and the Nature Museum CPS summer interns.

If you’re not able to be there but would like to participate, you can submit to the Continuum online: here. Your contribution will be used later on site during the staging of the event. The continuum will be video taped and later presented in Provisions’ BrushFire exhibition: Close Encounters: Facing The Future at the American University Museum in DC.

Here for an article.
Here for Energy Plans.
Here to submit to the Continuum.
Here for Futurefarmers.

In his most candid project to date, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, Michael Rakowitz unfolds a multifaceted narrative about artifacts stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the US invasion; about the current status of their whereabouts and the protagonists involved. The centerpiece of the installation is an ongoing series of sculptures, an attempt to reconstruct more than 7,000 looted archaeological artifacts.

‘The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist’, 2007 – ongoing

Michael Rakowitz is rapidly catching the attention of the international art world with his socially engaged but highly subversive and conceptual art projects. In between preparing his contribution to the 16th Bienniale of Sydney (Revolutions – Forms That Turn) and discussing his participation in Provisions’ national BrushFire project, we did a long interview with Rakowitz earlier this year in his hometown Chicago.

It sometimes feels as if you wanted to fill a societal void with your work. Would that be a correct way to see it?

Michael Rakowitz: “I’m interested in making things that are invisible visible, which very often happens with the production of a platform where this can take place. My wariness in answering that question is to make it clear that I’m not looking to solve problems; I’m looking to ‘problematize’ problems. I don’t know how much of a void my work actually fills. I’m interested in creating a public discourse so that a work requires active participation. I believe full-heartedly in a public art that enlists its public as vital collaborators in the production of meaning. This is very much a part of the continuous motive I’m engaged in and the value of what I put out there. ‘The Invisible Enemy’ is not going to replace the articles of cultural patrimony and human heritage that have been lost as a casualty of the war. But there is a specific use in the spectacle of failure; it can create a conversation. When you drop a lot of books in front of a building, people will stop and help you to pick them up. That’s the kind of thing that can be a start for a conversation.”

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BrushFire is Provisions’ new national public arts initiative showcasing key contemporary artists whose public projects engage crucial social issues such as immigration, the war in Iraq, food, sustainable energy, housing, the electoral process, the economy, health, and the environment. Taking place in highly visible public settings such as state fairs, suburban shopping centers, public parks and highly trafficked recreational areas around the United States, BrushFire aims to enrich the environment for public discussion about the value of democracy in the crucial run-up to national elections in November, 2008.

BrushFire artists include The Beehive Collective, The Floating Lab Collective, Futurefarmers, Ligorano/Reese, and Jon Winet. BrushFire will culminate in an exhibition at The American University Museum in September, along with a DC-wide festival of exhibitions and arts events on key social issues.

BrushFire’s special blog will keep you updated.

BrushFire is made possible in part by a grant from the CrossCurrents Foundation, established in 2006 to promote social, environmental and economic justice through civic participation with a special focus on voter engagement and support for emerging artists whose work contributes to a more just society. Additional support has been provided by The Creative Communities Fund of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Humanities Council for Washington DC, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Tides Foundation and individual donors.