Swimming Cities of Serenissima

As the 53rd Venice Biennale enters its last days and the world’s art community reflects, Anonymous Gallery, curator Spy Emerson and the artist SWOON provide a glimpse of what critic Jerry Saltz called “…The most moving moment I had at the Biennale…”

“Pankabestia: Punk Beasts of the Swimming Cities of Serenissima,” is a retrospective of artist Swoon’s “Swimming Cities of Serenissima,” her recent invasion of the Venice Biennale. Traveling from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy, Swoon and 30+ artists braved the waters of the Adriatic Sea and navigated a fleet of three intricately hand crafted vessels. (more…)

Friday, June 12th @ Zattere, 9pm

Saturday, June 13th @ Giardini, 9pm

Sunday, June 14th @ Isola Della Certosa, 9pm

For Those of You Still In New York…  Glowlab is hosting a group exhibit entitled Drift, with work from Swoon, Santiago Mostyn, Javier Pinon, and Mathew Lusk.  Opening on Thursday, June 11.  Part of the proceeds go towards Serenissima. The exhibition title, Drift, refers to both physical drifting – a raft as it moves across the ocean – and the metaphorical drifting of transient communities and populations living on the fringes of mainstream society. The show celebrates the challenges and possibilities taken up by contemporary nomads in forging identities in places far beyond where most are willing to venture. The exhibition runs through July 26.

Please join crew members from the swimming cities of serenissima and
metricubi for an evening of art, music, and performance. With Dark Dark
Dark, Harrison abstains, Tod Seelie, Constance Hockaday, and Spy and
Moses. collaborations with Venice artists.

zona bandita
venice
7.30p; free
swimmingcities.org
metricubi.orgp

To the great dismay of all in tents and porpoises, it’s a rainin’ here in Venezia! Tonight’s show is now officially CANCELLED for fear of electrocution via rented musical equipment and well, bad weather for an outside audience. We are still taking the boats for a ride around town and will be docking for feasting and fiesta-ing.

The show must go on….but not until tomorrow.

Thursday June 4

The benefit, running from 7-midnight, will begin with a silent auction of artwork by a talented and diverse group of New York-based artists, and a raffle of original works by Swoon and Honey Space founder Thomas Beale.  The bidding will be closed at 9pm, leading into a raucous and celebratory party led by an itinerant tribe of Vermont performers- the 8-piece brass Vermont Joy Parade, members of the Spiel Palast Cabaret, and the Mickey Western Band.  The evening will also feature Grizzly’s homemade wormwood ale, a special treat not commercially available anywhere, also coming from Vermont.  As the evening transitions from auction to party, we’ll open the back door to Honey Space and give our public a special peak into Serpentine, a former “smut-club/sauna” located behind the gallery that has recently been restored as an “über-private and super-chic gathering place for artists, thinkers, international-istas, culture curators, musicians and those who love them”, courtesy of Mr. Patrick Duffy and Andrew Poneros.

A full list of participating artists will be announced early next week.

The auction will include works by:

Adam Stanforth
Alana Bograd
Allison Read Smith
Amy Wilson
Annabel Linquist
Anthony Graviano
Bread & Puppet
Brie Ruais
Chadwick Tyler
Corin Hewitt
Daphane Park
Greg Roth
Hein Koh
John Wells
Nils Folke Anderson
Swoon
Thomas Beale
Vadis Turner
VERAMEAT

About the projects:

Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of three handmade boats that set sail from Slovenia in May 2009 with Venice as their destination.  The project is heir to the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a fleet of seven boats Swoon and collaborators sailed from Troy, NY to New York City during the summer of 2008, presenting free performances along the way and docking to meet a massive installation on the East River.  This ambitious project has had support from a vast community of supporters, and we are happy to celebrate the success of the project as they reach their destination, and help generate some bread to keep the crew fed in Italy and get them back home.  More info on the project is available here:  swimmingcities.org

Honey Space opened on February 14, 2008 in a raw warehouse space in the middle of Chelsea’s commercial gallery district, as a no-profit alternative to the existing presentation models of Chelsea’s commercial galleries.  Since opening Honey Space has presented a unique program of site-specific exhibitions.  Besides the lack of commercial motivation, these shows have been distinguished by the fact that, in most cases, they have been presented in an unmonitored space.  This has been possible thanks to the incredibly generous donation of space by Chelsea developer Alf Naman.  With the current economic situation, this situation is no longer viable, and this benefit will help us continue forward as we anticipate and articulate the finale of this once-in-a-lifetime project.

And as always, this is a chance for us to bring art we love face to face with people like you, and raise our glasses together.

Check out the poster for our performance in Venice, designed by Doyle!

This image of the Switchback Sisters, a 27 foot high paper and wood sculpture which formed the center piece of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea installation, and will be a part of the new Serenissima raft, has been adapted to a seven layer silk screen print on tea stained archival paper.

Available at Papermonster.net:
http://papermonster.net/item.php?item=57

As a fundraiser in San Francisco, Chicken John offered people the opportunity to shoot bottle rockets at him on stage. Strangely, there was a huge response to this opportunity. Can’t see why that would be.

“Buy a bottle rocket. Or a few. Buy one for your friend, who I threw out of the bar that time. Buy one for that girl that I stood up. Buy one for Jim Mason. Actually, buy a dozen for ol’ Jimmy. Make me jump. Put welts on my arms. Catch what’s left of my hair on fire. Hurt me. Make me sorry. For $10, you’ve never had it so easy.” –Chicken John

Watch!

BENEFIT  FOR SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA:

Adhoc Art

Thursday, April 16, 7-10 pm

49 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, NY

www.adhocart.org

Ad Hoc Art is hosting and exhibit to benefit SWOON’s latest nautical art project Swimming Cities of Serenissima. See several brand new works by Swoon, as well as an abundance of other visionary comrades’ artistic contributions. The list of work is deep and there are many gems in the mix.

Participating artists include:

* SWOON

* Dennis McNett

* Monica Canilao

* Lee Quinones

* Michelle Handelman

* Santiago Mostyn

* Gaia

* Imminent Disaster

* Ryan Doyle of the Black Label Bicycle Club

* Martha Cooper

* David Ellis

* Tod Seelie…and more!

The Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of three intricately hand-crafted vessels that will navigate the Adriatic Sea from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy in May of 2009.  Designed by the artist SWOON, the floating sculptures are descendants of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (Hudson River, 2008) and the Miss Rockaway Armada (Mississippi River, 2006 and 2007). The Swimming Cities of Serenissima are built from salvaged materials, including modified Mercedes car motors with long-tail propellers.  For Swimming Cities, SWOON will collaborate with 30 artists from the United States, including OBIE award-winning playwright Lisa D’Amour.  As the Swimming Cities move toward Venice, the crew will collect and install keepsakes in an ark-like cabinet of wonders that will be on display on the boats when they arrive.  Once in Venice, the boats and crew will offer intimate performances that incorporate music, shadow puppetry, and story.  The project is produced with the assistance of Deitch Projects, Paper Monster and Black Rat Press.

About the project, Swoon says:

“I have always felt that these boats are an expression of joy and wonder, while at the same time being a map of anxiety.

We are making a cabinet of wonders by collecting things we find along the way, seeds, bones, flowers, stories — all manner of things. This impulse is about observing and collecting and sharing beautiful things in the world around us, but there is also an element of the impulse to preserve these things, and to pack your whole life onto a couple of hand made rafts and set sail, which is about the feeling that the way we are living is coming apart at the seams, is destroying the world around us, and will not last. These boats are not to be taken as a literal solution, but in the way that art distills a language from our imaginations, and creates images that speak to us above and below the level of our spoken language, we are addressing these issues in our form.”

For information: info@swimmingcities.org

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SWIMMING CITIES MEDIA:

FLOOD teaser, by Todd Chandler (NEW LINKS)

Large

http://floodmovie.com/flood_teaser.mov

Tod Seelie, Slideshow

http://suckapants.com/SwitchbackSeaSlideshow.mov

Adam Katzman, Switchback Sea 8mm film

http://suckapants.com/AdamKatzman-SwitchbackSea.mov