Monday Night 08.30.04 – Open Forum / Discussion with Josh MacPhee & Not an Alternative Art Collective

Contents:
1. About This Monday
2. About Josh MacPhee
3. About Not an Alternative Art Collective
4. About The Interventionist Series

http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday

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1. About This Monday

What: Protest Open Forum
Who: Anyone interested is invited
When: 7.00 pm
Where: 16 Beaver Street, 5th Floor

This Monday, we are attempting to open a space of discussion around all of the activities, actions, protests that have been taking place in relation to the RNC. We have invited two guests, Josh MacPhee and Not an Alternative Art Collective to help jump start the discussion/forum, but we want the evening to have an open format.

You are invited to collect materials that are of interest to you, related to the protests and activities this weekend (e.g., images, articles, videos, sounds, whatever) and bring them with you for this Monday Night’s event.

We are interested in discussing specific (and in general) events and activities that have been organized around the Convention, the elections, and war without end.

Rather than frame this as a “show & tell” of what has been done, our intention is that through some of the examples of interventions we can develop a more specific and grounded collective inquiry/discussion into the tactics, efficacies, pleasures, questions raised by them.

As usual, no one needs to feel like they have to “come prepared”, your presence and involvement in the discussion will be more than enough.

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2. About Josh MacPhee

Josh MacPhee is a street artist, designer, curator and activist. He is
the author of Stencil Pirates (Soft Skull Press), the most
comprehensive book dedicated to street stencils. He organizes the
Celebrate People's History Poster Project, an ongoing poster series in
which different artists create posters to remember moments in radical
history. In addition, he has organized with other Chicago artists a
number of large scale cultural interventions, including the Department
of Space and Land Reclamation and the Autonomous Territories of
Chicago.

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3. About Not an Alternative Art Collective

Not an Alternative Art Collective is a group which has been involved in organizing a variety of events and initiatives, including specific activities related to the RNC this year:

The Change You Want to See Gallery In Brooklyn
http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org/

(NEO-CON)ey Island Block Party and Protest Fashion Show
http://www.neoconeyisland.com
http://www.16beavergroup.org/events/archives/001191.php

The Majority Whipped Show at Whitebox
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/000987.php
(scroll to the bottom of the page)

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4. About MASS MoCA Series

At the conclusion of May 2004, MASS MoCA opened its doors to "The
Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere - a brief survey of
interventionist political art practices of the 90s".

Since 1999, we have been organizing events, presentations, and activities
which have among other things generated/addressed questions related to
social/political engagement within cultural practice.

So rather than produce something outside our framework of ongoing
activities for this exhibition, we will instead tie together our
discussions/events which deal with the larger questions of art in the
social sphere.

We will not only attempt to invite artists who are involved with the
exhibition, but other projects, artists, practices which we find
interesting and believe make an important contribution to the subject at
hand. We also hope to organize some readings and open discussions that do
not center on one particular artist or group.

Other events in the series have included:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/000792.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/000668.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001073.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001103.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001112.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001141.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001154.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001158.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001178.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/monday/archives/001219.php

Related texts:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/sholette
http://www.16beavergroup.org/brian
http://www.16beavergroup.org/journalisms/archives/001081.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/journalisms/archives/001168.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001176.php
http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001177.php