EXHIBITION AND SPEECH SERIES WITH OVER 40 ARTISTS, INCLUDING:
Erick Beltrán, Center for Tactical Magic, Critical Art Ensemble and the Institute for Applied Autonomy, Annabel Daou, dBFoundation, Hasan Elahi, Feel Tank, Luca Frei, Chitra Ganesh & Mariam Ghani, Group Material, John Hawke, Sharon Hayes, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, InCUBATE, Magdalena Jitrik, Matt Keegan, Jon Kessler, Olga Koumoundouros & Rodney McMillian, Steve Lambert, Ligorano/Reese, Pia Lindman, Rachel Mason, Carlos Motta, Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker, Jenny Polak, Steve Powers, Greta Pratt, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Red76, Duke Riley, Martha Rosler, Dread Scott, Allison Smith, Chris Sollars, Chris Stain, Mark Tribe, United Victorian Workers, Chu Yun, and more.

After traveling across the country to glean perspectives from artists and activists on the state of democracy, Creative Time’s year-long program Democracy in America: The National Campaign culminates in the “Convergence Center”: a major exhibition, participatory project space, and meeting hall mounted in New York City’s Park Avenue Armory just in time for election season. The Convergence Center at Park Avenue Armory will provide an activated space to both reflect on and perform democracy and will be punctuated by speeches by leading political thinkers as well as community leaders and activists throughout the run of its program. As one of the largest unobstructed spaces in New York, the non-traditional setting of the Armory features interiors—such as its vast drill hall and historic period rooms—that are ideal for artists presenting multifaceted visual and performing arts productions.

Work by over 40 artists will fill the historic rooms on the first, second, and fourth floors as well as the Wade Thompson Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. Some of the projects featured include giant, silvered surveillance balloons by Jon Kessler; wearable art by dBfoundation; an installation by Critical Art Ensemble and Institute for Applied Autonomy of the physical artifacts of the 2004 FBI investigation of Steve Kurtz; a 20-foot-tall counter-surveillance tower by Jenny Polak; a nine-foot wooden hobbyhorse sculpture by Allison Smith; and Duke Riley’s functional replica of America’s first submarine.

Original historic documents central to American democracy will be exhibited at Park Avenue Armory. These foundational texts include: Declaration of Independence, (a first facsimile printing commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1823); The Emancipation Proclamation (hand-signed by Abraham Lincoln and authenticated by William Seward); The U.S. Constitution (printed in The Gazette of the United States on October 1, 1787, just 2 weeks after it was sent to the states to be ratified); and a 1789 printing of the Bill of Rights, proposing 17 Amendments.

In addition, curator Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy organized the inclusion of work by four international artists—Erick Beltrán (Mexico City/Amsterdam), Luca Frei (Malmo), Chu Yun (Beijing), and Magdalena Jitrik (Buenos Aires)—that will offer incisive viewpoints on the notion of democracy and some of its core principles: nation building, freedom of speech, and labor rights.

Photo: Rachel Mason, Kissing President Bush, 2004