FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CREATIVE TIME PRESENTS DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN (July 21, 2008 New York, NY) Responding to the extensive history of political art in the

U.S. and the past eight years of cultural production and activism, Creative Time presents

Democracy in America: The National Campaign, a program investigating artists’

relationship with and reactions to the historic roots and practical manifestations of the

American democratic tradition. The Democracy project will present events and

performances taking place across the country, and aims to promote active participation

and open discourse around democracy during the 2008 election season and beyond. A

multifaceted project on a national scale, Democracy will engage a diverse community of

artists, activists, thinkers, and citizens to create spaces for dialogue, exploration, and

congregation. Democracy in America is curated by Nato Thompson. The program will

unfold in multiple parts, including:

CONVERGENCE CENTER AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY

Rachel Mason, Kissing President Bush, 2004.

SEPTEMBER 21 TO 27 643 PARK AVENUE AT 66TH STREET EXHIBITION AND EVENT SERIES WITH OVER 40 ARTISTS, INCLUDING:

Erick Beltrán, The Center for Tactical Magic, Critical Art Ensemble, Annabel Daou, dB

Foundation, Hasan Elahi, Feel Tank, Luca Frei, Chitra Ganesh & Mariam Ghani, John

Hawke, Sharon Hayes, Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, InCUBATE, Magdelena Jitrik, Matt

Keegan, Jon Kessler, Steve Lambert, Pia Lindman, Ligorano/Reese, Rachel Mason,

Rodney McMillian & Olga Koumoundouros, Carlos Motta, Trevor Paglen, Cornelia Parker,

Jenny Polack, Steve Powers, Greta Pratt, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Red76, Duke Riley, Dread

Scott, Allison Smith, Chris Stain, Valerie Tevere & Angel Nevarez, Mark Tribe, United

Victorian Workers (Dara Greenwald & Josh MacPhee), The Yes Men, 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 inside New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.

An exhibition punctuated by speeches by leading political thinkers as well as community

leaders and activists throughout its run, the Convergence Center provides an activated

space to both reflect on and perform democracy.

Work by over 40 artists will fill the historic rooms on the first, second, and fourth floors as

well as the Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. In addition, curator Sofía Hernández

Chong Cuy organized the inclusion of work by four international artists that will offer

incisive viewpoints on the notion of democracy and some of its core principles: nation

building, freedom of speech, and labor rights. Three participatory projects will travel to

parks in Queens and Brooklyn in early September before being installed at the

Convergence Center. Each of Creative Time’s performative national public art

commissions will also be presented there.

A diverse group of political thinkers, writers, theorists, and activists will be invited to

deliver speeches on various subjects—including local city politics, the war on “terror,” the

art world, and cultural production. Speeches will occur throughout each day the

Convergence Center is open, punctuating the activity of the Drill Hall’s participatory

projects and social space. As speakers approach the front of the hall, they will be invited

to select a podium from an array designed by artist Paul Ramirez Jonas—from a modest

soapbox to an intimidating rostrum. A 40-foot backdrop by artist Chris Stain will frame

the speakers in a social realist scene rendered through the technique of hand-cut

stencils. In addition, select artists from the show—including Allison Smith, Rachel

Mason, and Pia Lindman—will give special performances.

Local activist organizations will be invited to distribute information from tables set up

throughout the space.

NATIONAL COMMISSIONS

Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun Is Silent, 2006. Photograph by Veena Rao.

Performative public art commissioned by Creative Time from Sharon Hayes, Rodney

McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros, Steve Powers, and Mark Tribe will take place in 6

cities across the nation. These commissions will examine the roots of American

democracy as well as the progressive political ethos of the 1960s and 70s. Each project

will be presented at the Democracy in America Convergence Center at the Park Avenue

Armory.

Rodney McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros designed and executed a mobile project

addressing the issue of capital punishment. Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project re-presents

radical speeches selected by the artist to a public audience in the same locations they

were first heard. Though the texts make direct reference to the Vietnam War and

concurrent Civil Rights movements, each was selected for its contemporary relevance.

Steve Powers’ The Waterboarding Thrill Ride, an animatronic diorama depicting a

prisoner being waterboarded, installed in the Coney Island arcade, will raise awareness of

the issue of torture in the United States. Sharon Hayes will gather 100 people at the

Republican and Democratic National Conventions to read a text in unison addressing

political desire and romantic love.

Creative Time with the Blanton Museum of Art presents

Rodney McMillian + Olga Koumoundouros’ News from a Mime’s Thud

Various locations in Austin, TX: June 5

Creative Time with LACE presents

Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 4: We Are Also Responsible

Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA: July 19

Creative Time presents

Steve Powers’ Waterboarding Thrill Ride

The Arcade at Coney Island, New York, NY: July 26 to late August

Creative Time with the Oakland Museum of California presents

Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 5: The Liberation of our People

deFermery Park, Oakland, CA: August 2

Creative Time with Dialog:City presents

Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 1: I Am Your Worst Fear

Democratic National Convention, Denver, CO: August 27

Creative Time with the Walker Art Center and the UnConvention presents

Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy

Republican National Convention, Minneapolis, MN: September 1

Creative Time presents

Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project 6: Let Another World Be Born

Adjacent to the United Nations, New York, NY: Early September

MOBILE PROJECTS

The Center for Tactical Magic: Tactical Ice Cream Unit, 2005-08.

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN: SEPTEMBER 6 FLUSHING MEADOWS-CORONA PARK, QUEENS: SEPTEMBER 13 This September, Creative Time will present three separate participatory projects that will

travel to parks in Brooklyn and Queens before convening at the Democracy in America

Convergence Center. These mobile projects engage a diverse public by reinterpreting

everyday frameworks of social interaction (such as newspapers, broadcast radio, and

food) to stimulate dialogue around politics and civic life.

The Center for Tactical Magic’s Tactical Ice Cream Unit rolls through the city in an act

of intervention that replaces cold stares with frosty treats and nourishing knowledge. With

every free cone handed out, the sweet-toothed citizenry also receives printed information

developed by local progressive groups.

Angel Nevarez + Valerie Tevere’s Another Protest Song invites artists, songwriters, and

musicians to create, upload, listen to, and debate new songs of protest as part of a

growing audio archive of politically engaged music.

Red76’s The Battery Republic, presented by Creative Time with the Lower Manhattan

Cultural Council, will include artist-made newspapers developed through a series of

conversations and presentations at the historic Fraunces Tavern Bar, distributed for free

in order to start dialogues around issues of revolutionary moments, political agency, and

civic life.

A GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA A reader containing artists’ projects and written contributions that address the political art

and activism of the past eight years will be released at the Convergence Center. The

book will provide a platform for artists and thinkers to consider the current state of affairs,

and the pervasive cultural interest in the history of American democracy.

TOWN HALL MEETINGS “Town Hall” conversations were held in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans,

and New York City in March 2008. Selected organizers, artists, and activists across a

broad spectrum of cultural communities discussed five questions pertaining to strategic

local and national activist concerns. The results of these intensive conversations will be

posted on the Creative Time website and presented at the Convergence Center to foster

greater understanding of less visible regional art activists as well as to catalyze an effort

for greater national coordination for social change.

ABOUT CREATIVE TIME After 34 years of New York–based projects, Democracy in America continues Creative

Time’s national program, which was launched with Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New

Orleans in 2007. By bringing Democracy in America to communities around the nation,

Creative Time deepens its commitment to artists who make work outside New York City,

and who share our belief in the transformative power of public art with the broadest

possible audience. During the lead-up to the 2004 election season, Creative Time

presented the Freedom of Expression National Monument, a giant megaphone for public

address, and Jenny Holzer’s For New York City, in which the artist’s truisms—including

“ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE”—were pulled by airplanes over the skies of New

York City. Recent projects include Tribute in Light, which served as a gesture of hope

and healing after 9/11; Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers, a film projected on the Museum of

Modern Art, NY; and Who Cares, a series of projects that explored art and social action.

SUPPORT Creative Time is funded through the generous support of corporations, foundations,

government agencies, and individuals. We gratefully acknowledge public funding from

the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts,

a State agency; New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and New York State

Senator Thomas K. Duane. Additional support for Democracy in America: The National Campaign is generously

provided by Altria, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Emily Glasser and

Billy Susman, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, The Peter Norton Family

Foundation on behalf of Eileen Harris Norton, and The National Endowment for the

Arts. Generous support for the Port Huron Project has been provided by Creative

Capital.