OPEN CITY: Tools For Public Action until 07.04 NY

Eyebeam announces its long-anticipated 2007 exhibition season and commences its 10th Anniversary year with Open City – a glimpse into the current media and tactics of artists who take their practices into the street. Be it through projection, writing on walls or robotic pamphleteering, Open City presents the work of artists who communicate through the surfaces and structures of our communal spaces and offers a deeper look at the means and motivations of urban action and creativity. Join participating artists for the Opening Reception March 1, 6-8pm to launch this series of screenings, presentations and workshops exploring tool building, tactics, techniques and approaches to communication by any means necessary within the urban context.

Open City: Tools for Public Action is an exhibition and series of public programs that focus on the ingenuity of graffiti writers, artists, protesters, pranksters and hackers reclaiming the public realm. Together with the Graffiti Research Lab, a collaboration formed in Eyebeam’s R&D OpenLab in 2006, Eyebeam has invited a NYC and international roster of artists and collaborative groups to exhibit documentation of their work together with the tools they used – and often invented – to make their voices heard. The artists featured in Open City create their work outside the confines of the gallery. Respecting the original context for this work, Open City considers the culture of its creation through the artifacts of its makers. Among the means and materials presented will be: digital projection, spray paint, urban pranks, robotics and custom machinery, site-specific sculpture, homemade markers and ink recipes, the internet, hacking and re-appropriation of existing urban systems. Open City hopes to inspire its audience to make their own tools for public action. A series of screenings, presentations and workshops exploring tool building, tactics and approaches to communication by any means necessary within the urban context, will turn Eyebeam into an active and participatory environment for the duration of the show. Invited participants include: Aram Bartholl (Berlin) BORF (Washington D.C.) Graffiti Research Lab (NYC) Institute for Applied Autonomy (USA) Improv Everywhere (NYC) Mark Jenkins (Washington D.C.) KATSU (NYC) KR (NYC) Object Orange (Detroit) Leon Reid (NYC) Matthias Wermke (Berlin) Krzysztof Wodiczko (PL/NYC)