Free as air and water

Wednesday, September 16 – Saturday, October 27, 2009
Free as Air and Water Symposium I: Artistic responses to self-sustainability and climate change, Wednesday, 16, 5 – 7 pm, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street

Opening reception, Wednesday, September 16, 7 – 9 pm

Allora & Calzadilla, Amy Balkin, Robert Bordo, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Ross Cisneros, Amy Franceschini and Free Soil, Andrea Geyer, Hans Haacke, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Runo Lagomarsino, Andrea Polli, Marjetica Potrč, Simon Starling, Temporary Services, Oscar Tuazon, Lidwien Van de Ven

Curators: Saskia Bos and Steven Lam

Hans Haacke
Sky Line, 1967
© Hans Haacke/Artists Right Society

The School of Art’s exhibition Free as Air and Water opens Wednesday, September 16, 2009 and will run through Tuesday, October 27, 2009. In connection with the exhibition there will be two conferences. The first, Free as Air and Water Symposium I: Artistic responses to self-sustainability and climate change, is scheduled on opening night, September 16 from 5 to 7 pm in The Great Hall. The second symposium, titled Free as Air and Water Symposium II: Art in relation to human rights and the freedom of expression, is scheduled on October 12 from 7 to 9 pm in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at The Cooper Union.

The exhibition takes Peter Cooper’s belief that « Education should be Free as Air and Water » as a starting point. The exhibition addresses the spirit of this statement by recognizing the difference between then (1859) and now (2009). Today, air, water, and land are all subordinated to the logic of privatization strongly impacting the environment. As the past few decades have witnessed how global power has systematically distributed the world’s resources in unequal ways, concerns such as human rights have become increasingly tied to issues involving air, water, and land.

Free as Air and Water addresses these questions for our contemporary moment linking a broad set of issues such as public access to resources, political ecology, and governmentality within a group exhibition that features a diverse array of artistic operations and tactics. Featuring projects that are rigorous and poetic in its conceptual processes, the exhibition provides a needed density when one discusses the role of art in relation to ecology.

Free as Air and Water is the inaugural exhibition at the 41 Cooper Gallery in The Cooper Union’s new academic building, 41 Cooper Square. The building designed by Thom Mayne and the architectural firm Morphosis, inaugurates the first green academic laboratory building in NYC.

SYMPOSIA DETAILS
Free as Air and Water Symposium I: Artistic responses to self-sustainability and climate change
Amy Balkin, Hans Haacke, Yates McKee, Andrea Polli, Marjetica Potrč, moderated by Doug Ashford

Wednesday, September 16, 5- 7 pm (before the reception)
The Cooper Union, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street

Free as Air and Water Symposium II: Art in relation to human rights and the freedom of expression
Doug Ashford, Andrea Geyer, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Amy Franceschini, among others

Monday, October 12, 2009, 7 to 9 pm
The Cooper Union, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, 41 Cooper Square

A catalog will be produced documenting the symposia and exhibition and will be available to purchase after the exhibition. Please contact the School of Art or check the website for additional information.

This project was funded in part by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and Duggal Visual Solutions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

41 Cooper Gallery
The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square (lower level)
New York, NY 10003-7120
Phone: 212-353-4200
Email: artschool@cooper.edu

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 – 6 p.m. (Mondays by appointment only)

http://www.cooper.edu/art/exhibitions.html