Prospect.2 New Orleans announces exhibition highlights and details of opening events
Site-Specific Installations, Public Performances, And Other Exhibitions, To Be Presented At Venues Throughout New Orleans And Lafayette, LA
Biennial Preview Days:
October 20–21, 2011
Public Dates:
October 22, 2011–January 29, 2012
Dan Cameron, Artistic Director
Prospect.2 New Orleans, the second edition of the international contemporary art biennial, announces exhibition highlights, as well as the details of its opening festivities featuring three special artists performances. Led by Artistic Director, Dan Cameron, Prospect.2 opens to the public on October 22, 2011 and will be on view through January 29, 2012. Prospect.2 will feature 27 local, national, and international artists from a total of nine different countries, including the United States, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Japan, Chile, Iceland and Vietnam.
“There is great excitement as we enter the final stages of preparation for Prospect.2,” says Dan Cameron. “Along with some of the most influential artists working today, Prospect.2 will feature some incredibly talented younger artists on the cusp of international careers. We look forward to once again drawing the art world’s creative energy to the gulf region, and continuing to support the flourishing visual arts community of New Orleans.”
Highlights of the Biennial
Prospect.2 opens to the public on October 22, 2011 with a series of festivities including three special performances by participating artists. R. Luke DuBois, a new media artist and composer, will present The Marigny Parade, a public performance and music piece. The Marigny Parade will take place around the Marigny Triangle in New Orleans and will feature nearly 350 musicians from three renowned New Orleans high school and middle school marching bands. The performance will be followed by the Prospect.2 ribbon-cutting ceremony that officially opens the biennial.
Performance artist and sculptor William Pope.L, will present a performance and video installation entitledBlink. For the work, the artist asked New Orleans residents to donate photos of themselves in response to the questions: “When you dream of New Orleans, what do you dream of? // When you wake up in the morning, what do you see?” These donated images will be part of a video installation mounted on a truck that will traverse the city of New Orleans from sundown on October 22, 2011 through sunrise the following day. The video will be stationed at Xavier University’s Art Village following the performance for the duration of the biennial.
Baltimore-based artist, Joyce J. Scott will present a performance entitled, Miss Veronica’s Veil, on October 22 at 4pm in Café Istanbul at the New Orleans Healing Center. The performance will alternate between songs, spoken word, and actions, telling the tale of Miss V, a contemporary manifestation of Saint Veronica, who is frustrated by the reoccurring events of history—especially the chasm between men and women.
Among the internationally renowned artists participating in the biennial is Sophie Calle, who will present a new iteration of her long-term project, Autobiographies. For Prospect.2, the project has been reimagined as a site-specific installation that will employ Calle’s signature blending of reality and fiction. In the work, she weaves her personal narrative into the history of the 1850 House of the Louisiana State Museum, one of the apartments in the famous Pontalba Apartments in Jackson Square in New Orleans.
Several artists participating in Prospect.2 are presenting works that embody the spirit of New Orleans, and have been specifically created for the biennial and the city. Alexis Rockman and An-My Lê will present works that consider the geographical location of New Orleans and the environmental and political issues facing the region and its inhabitants. Rockman will present a mural-scale painting imagining a war between species indigenous to the Louisiana bayou and those that have been introduced to the bayou ecosystem within the past 500 years. Vietnamese photographer An-My Lê will present a new series of photographs based on her investigations into the lives of Vietnamese nationals who have migrated to southern Louisiana throughout the past 25 years.
Highlights of the biennial also include work from artists who currently live and work in New Orleans. Among these artists are Dan Tague, who will produce a new installation entitled The U.S. Dept. of Civil Disobedience; Dawn DeDeaux, who will create a large-scale multimedia installation work entitled Goddess Fortuna And Her Dunces In An Effort To Make Sense Of It All; and Bruce Davenport Jr, who will present some of his most ambitious drawings to date, including a series of large-scale works which express the unique richness of marching bands as a dominant force in the local arts culture.
Exhibiting Artists (as of September 2011):
The following artists will be exhibiting their work in Prospect.2: Sophie Calle; Nick Cave Jonas Dahlberg; Bruce Davenport Jr; Dawn DeDeaux; R. Luke DuBois; George Dunbar; Keith Duncan; William Eggleston; Nicole Eisenman; Karl Haendel; Ragnar Kjartansson; William Pope.L; An-My Lê; Ivan Navarro; Lorraine O’Grady; Tsuyoshi Ozawa; Gina Phillips; Ashton T. Ramsey; Alexis Rockman; Joyce J. Scott; Jennifer Steinkamp; Dan Tague; Robert Tannen; Grazia Toderi; Francesco Vezzoli; and Paweł Wojtasik.
* Please Note: Exact performance times, locations, and other programming details will be announced in October 2011
About Prospect New Orleans:
Founded in 2008 by Dan Cameron, Prospect New Orleans is one of the leading biennials of international contemporary art in the United States. Conceived in the tradition of the great international biennials, such as the Venice Biennale and the Bienal de São Paulo, Prospect New Orleans showcases new artistic practices from around the world in settings that are both historic and culturally exceptional, and contributes to the cultural economy of New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf region by spurring cultural tourism and bringing international attention to the area’s vibrant visual arts community.
Prospect New Orleans is founded on the principle that art engenders social progress. It is organized by U.S. Biennial, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit art organization that launched in January 2007 in order to realize Prospect.1.
Funding Organizations and Donors
Prospect.2 New Orleans has been made possible with the support of Founding Benefactor Toby Devan Lewis.
Leadership support has been provided by the Lambent Foundation Fund of the Tides Foundation; Metabolic Studio; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; The Prospectors Club; and The Helis Foundation.
Additional support has been provided by Susan and Ralph Brennan; the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation; Bloomberg; Regions Bank; Whitney National Bank; Asian Cultural Council; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cahn; Étant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art; Adam J. Lewis Trust; Heymann Fund; Peter B. Lewis, Michele Reynoir and Kevin Clifford; the Japan Foundation; William A. Fagaly; Sarah Harte; Sanford Heller; JDL Foundation; Pamela Joseph and Robert Brinker; Jones Walker; Jeanne and Michael L. Klein; Martha Claire Tompkins; New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau; and Iberiabank, among others.
Special thanks to Hyatt Regency New Orleans, Hospitality Sponsor.
All contributions to U.S. Biennial are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. To make a donation please visit www.prospectneworleans.org or call +1 (212) 680-5305.
NOTE TO MEDIA: Registration is required for access during preview days. To pre-register, please contact Blue Medium at Deirdre@bluemedium.com.
For tickets to access Prospect.2 during preview days, October 20–21, 2011, please visit:www.prospectneworleans.org
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Elizabeth Reina-Longoria or Deirdre Maher
Blue Medium
Tel: +1 (212) 675-1800
Email: elizabeth@bluemedium.com or
deirdre@bluemedium.com
*Image above:
Collection Gian Enzo Sperone, New York.