Insert December 13th 2003 - January 31st 2004

Opening reception: Sat, December 13th, 4-6pm
Open daily thereafter, Monday through Saturday 12:00 noon to 5:30pm. Closed Sundays.

 Featuring Helio Melo, Mariette Bouillet and Henri Louis Chalem, Giorgia Volpe and Jean Fran¨ois, Charmaine Wheatley, Jessica Marzagao, Monica Schoenacker, and more

Curated by Thiago Szmrecsanyi. Produced by Natalia de Campos & Syncretic

Insert is a multimedia contextual art show, which gathers a dozen or more artists from different centers (New York, Quebec, and Sao Paulo) in a public market in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The exhibition will take place in the south wing of the Essex Street Market. The assigned space comprises a small gallery, a dining area, and a corridor that links this section to the main area of the market.

Within this defined space, Insert acknowledges a difference. Cultural, economic, and social issues tend to separate the audience of Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space from the customers of the two eateries that occupy the adjacent dining area. Besides sharing the same roof, what else may these disparate enterprises have in common?

In order to address this question Insert creates a partial inversion. The gallery receives sets of tables and stools that are similar to those of the dining area, while the dining place becomes a host for art projects. Insert aims to reinforce economic and visual links between the artworks and the market community. Participant artists will be granted small allowances to purchase local products and to incorporate them into their work. Likewise, part of the marketÕs recyclable waste will also be at the artistsÕ disposal. In either way everyday objects and situations will be emphasized and altered.

The outcome of Insert is still unpredictable-- its sense and character will depend on the individual responses of the artists and on the actual interactions between art, artists, and audience. The exhibition proposal outlines some directions to facilitate the participation of artists and to organize their interaction with the local environment.

Since most of the suggested interventions do not require a complex installation, Insert can adopt an open frame: under the mentioned guidelines more artists can be Inserted even after the opening date. While unsettling, reutilizing, re-contextualizing, transforming, or redistributing things InsertÕs artists can create situations that favor social and cultural exchanges. By sharing and giving new meaning to everyday objects and new uses for a public space, artists and customers alike may start perceiving art, audience, and space in closer relation to each other.