Will they take the train out here? — Photo courtesy of Arts in Bushwick
New York Art Week, where "60,000 visitors are expected to generate $44 million in revenue" in the city, is upon us. Local organization Arts in Bushwick (AiB) contributes to the din with SITE Fest, an interdisciplinary performance festival happening this weekend in Greater Bushwick.
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Chez Bushwick, Grace Exhibition Space, and 3rd Ward will act as three hub spaces connecting a network of alternative spaces, including open studios, apartments, street corners, and of course, galleries (English Kills, Norte Maar, Centotto and Famous Accountants.) In addition to art, there will be a two-day music festival called ionSOUND, which will feature Goodbye Blue Monday as its hub space.
In the wake of the Armory Show, satellite fairs, and innumerable shows and open studios, SITE is going to be competing with some of the most important international annual arts events in the world. AiB’s steadfast relationship to Bushwick, with its identity as an emerging art community, highlights the potential for the neighborhood to be overlooked this weekend. The most important collectors, curators, and gallerists are in town. Will they come out to Bushwick?
Yes, says Chloe Bass, co-founder and -producer of SITE. "SITE is a partner and featured Brooklyn event of the Armory Show," Bass points out, "which should definitely help bring people out here."
SITE is also listed as part of the Verge Art Fair, which focuses on marginal and emerging art.
The selection of this particular weekend for SITE is significant because it acknowledges Bushwick’s serious contribution to the art world, and suggests a desire to participate in the international art community. However, the fact that SITE is performance-based — transient and nearly impossible to sell — is in direct opposition to art fairs, whose primary function is to generate sales.
In the context of this truly global event, SITE brings up questions about Bushwick’s relationship with Berlin (a major focus theme for the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show), how it interacts with the larger, more financially driven art world, and how seriously it is taken by it.
At the very least, it will be a chance for Bushwickers to get out and explore their neighborhood’s artistic offerings, and meet a few neighbors along the way.
Savage Severe March 3rd, 2010 at 11:58 pm
What exactly is happening in the photo for the article?
Professional Alternative March 4th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Well, art, obviously.
Chloe March 4th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
It was an iPod dance party that took place outside of the Jefferson L station last year — the audience member and the dancer shared a pair of iPod headphones, and the dancer choreographer a dance to the song the audience member picked. Only the dancer and the audience member could hear the music, but other people could stop to watch the dances.