Our journalist is better looking than your wife by Anna Salmeron

Well good, that got your attention. Because attention must be paid, due to us having some seriously good news to report. A successful European journalist (referred to us through one of our many hip international contacts) was so impressed with us that she did the following interview with The Biennial Project, which will soon appear in a major international news venue – the name of which we are not allowed to tell you yet – which of course just kills us. So read it here first. And by the way, we were not kidding about the good-looking part. She’s super smart and talented too of course, but that wouldn’t have gotten you to click, and we needed you to click. So forgive us our sins, or not. But read the interview.

Processed with VSCOcam with b5 preset

Processed with VSCOcam with b5 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with b5 preset

Hello, my name is Christine Recrue and I am a Czech journalist.  I would love to introduce the Biennial Project, which I find very remarkable, to my audience, and inform people in Europe about it. If you are interested, could you please answer a few questions?

First, let us begin by saying that we are thrilled and honored that you want to write about us! YES, YES, YES, we would love to answer these and any other questions you have.

1) Who are you and what is the Biennial Project about?

The Official Biennial Project Manifesto reads as follows: The Biennial Project is a collaborative project by artists Eric Hess, Anna Salmeron and our friends to explore the nature and understand the perception of biennial exhibits within the art world, and, in so doing, to develop a collective body of work that will be exhibited in as many biennial exhibits as possible ­ especially the really cool ones.

That pretty much sums it up.

2) Can you tell me more about members of the Biennial Project? How did the Project change your art career? What did you do before the Project?

An ever-expanding and talented group of artists participate in and support the work that is The Biennial Project. And that doesn't even count the voices in our heads. We are seriously legion we are so many. And don't think we won't remember who was with us and who wasn't when we hit the big time. The shepherds of this flock include two artists as talented as they are unsuited for any sort of gainful employment - Eric Hess and Anna Salmeron. They are shy and reclusive, so little is know about their personal lives. Among the few details that can be pieced together include that Eric only eats vanilla ice cream –  "why try other flavors when I love vanilla?”, and hosted a radio show on WUSO Springfield, Ohio in the mid 80’s. Of Latvian descent, he enjoys a hearty breakfast of grey peas and sausage with black bread and beet juice. He owns a Japanese Chin named Gertie and a naughty black cat named Madonna. He had to wear a jacket and tie to school each day from the 5th to the 12th grade and hates tucking in his shirt. He still does not really know his left from his right. He likes riding the bus (especially short ones and subways). He vacations in Central America and thinks people are stupid spending money on sanitized boring resorts. He was a Boyscout who made it to Life and got de-scouted when he came out of the closet even though all of his early sexual experiences took place on scouting camping trips. He has over 15,00 songs on his itunes library. He collects shot glasses and Aunt Jemima figurines. He is obsesses with his netflix cue – don’t ever mess with it.

About Anna even less is known. There are only 25 things we really know for sure: 1) she likes apple sauce but not peanut butter or ice tea, 2 Her favorite song is Memo From Turner by Mick Jagger, 3) Her childhood cat won an award for bravery for which he received a really nice plaque, 4) At age 12 she decided to see how long she could go without changing her underwear. Her mother stopped this experiment after 22 days, 5) She has instructions for her funeral posted on Youtube, 6) She enjoys the taste and texture of scabs, 7) Her favorite movie is The Marriage of Maria Braun, 8) She is terrified of dandelions and small planes. 9) She bagged nearly every arguably attractive guy in her high school, 10) She does not regret even one of them, 11) There was this one guy though - Chris Smith - who she always thought she would get around to eventually but never did. That she regrets, 12) She does not like to have scabs on her body. They break up the clean lines. So she eats them, 13) She has eaten her dog's scabs, 14) She has a sister who lives in Montreal who has a very troubled history with drugs, 15) The Stanford Band created some of the best performance art she has ever seen, 16) Her favorite book is Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett, 17) She is a defense lawyer's dream juror, 18) As a child she was certain that she had been dropped on earth by her home people as part of some kind of secret mission, 19) She was asked not to return to her confirmation class for doubting the possibility of a virgin birth, 20) Her first celebrity crush was Sammy Davis Junior. She had all the details of their life together worked out in her head, 21) They would have three daughters - Sugar, Candy, and Cinnamon, 22) She has only had sex with one woman, 23) She is pretty sure that she is smarter most people, 24) She is not always a good listener, 25) She believes that she should be more famous than she is.

The Biennial Project has most changed our art careers (using that term in a very loose sense) by giving us an excellent vehicle to piss off boring people. We didn't realize when we got started to what extent our little construct would so effectively sort the world into those with a sense of humor and those without. A few sad souls here and there either don't get the joke or find their reflection so unflattering that it gets them mad as hens. This helps us immeasurably by giving us a never ending source of new material. On the flip side, The Biennial Project has allowed us to develop an international network of just incredibly amazing artists that appreciate what we do – folks that we would never have gotten to know otherwise. It has also forced us to continually develop our technical skills so we can maintain The Biennial Project's well-known level of professional presentation.

To answer your last question, we do not ourselves have clear memories of The Time Before The Biennial Project, but our elders tell us that is was a dark and frightening world governed by primitive superstitions, command hallucinations, and the Spanish Inqusition. (You weren't expecting the Spanish Inqusition, were you? Don't worry, no one does.)

3) When did the project start? What was the first art work you did together?

We get asked that a lot. Here is a statement we wrote to help people understand how we got started:

How, you may ask, did we get started on such a project?

Well, the beginning was like this: in the fall of 2007, one of our cool globe-trotting friends had just returned from the Venice Biennale, where she had been inundated with Biennial Art – the great, the good, the bad, and the really really bad. She, like other members of our really cool artist community before her, had several conflicting reactions to seeing all this stamp-of-approval art in one place. First, that much of the art was inspirational, second, that much of it sucked, and finally, that much of the stuff that we and our really cool artist friends were doing was better.

So why weren’t WE there, sipping chianti and chatting up pretty young things at the openings?

To answer this question, we have had to look deeply and honestly into ourselves, and upon so doing, frankly, we like what we see, and feel we have the qualities necessary to achieve major success.

WE’ve read a little art history,

WE have the sense of ironic detachment mandatory in today’s environment,

WE know enough not to inject our work with any real emotion or technique,

WE are careful to always include the suitable current buzzwords when describing our work,

WE have cool black outfits,

WE never make much sense when asked direct questions, and WE suck in the straight world.

So why haven’t WE become the Art Rock Stars we so clearly deserve to be?

What is preventing us from fulfilling our dreams, and how can we change it?

From these profound existential questions came the work group that came to be known as The Biennial Project. We hope you will travel with us on this ongoing journey of discovery.

The Biennial Project formally began work in 2008.

To answer the second part of your question - the first work of art that we created together was our now well-known logo with our trademark slogan - 'It's About Us!".

4) If I get it right, your goal was to get to as many biennial exhibits as possible. How successful have you been so far?

You are exactly right about our goal. We want - no, need - to be famous international art rock stars so that the world can be exposed to our important work. We have a god-given gift of enormous artistic talent, and it is just so not acceptable that we are not allowed to share it with a larger audience. We are working on rectifying this injustice by presenting our important art work directly at the most fabulous Biennials and Biennales, although we have not technically been invited to participate in any of them as of yet. But it is just a matter of time until this changes.

5) What did you learn on your self-discovery? Have you changed your opinion on biennial exhibits?

Another excellent question. Well, among other things, that is is extremely fun to take pictures of ourselves and make fools of ourselves in public places. It even has a name. It is called Performance Art. We love telling people that our practice used to be object based, but now involves Durational Performative Installations with Aspirational Themes.  Pretty cool huh?

6) You co-operate with many artists. On your FB page you have a photo with Eva and Adele. Where did you meet them and what was it like to meet artist from the future?

Yes indeed, we have many co-conspirators, and some of them are with us......freedom soon will come! But we digress.

Yes, our Artistic Collaboration with Eva&Adele at this year's Venice Biennale was a high point of our Performative Practice. They are naturals for collaboration with us - like us their names start with E and A, they are smart dressers, crave attention, and have turned an obsession with attending art events into a lucrative career. Plus they follow our lead in favoring gender and sexual freedom and being ahead of their time. We honored them by designing couture original square dance dresses and having our personal seamstress execute our designs in custom Biennial Project fabric. We attended Eva&Adele's Swatch Pavilion Gala Opening Reception dressed in our custom outfits and bald wigs and pearls. Most of the press in attendance seemed more interested in photographing Eric&Anna as Eva&Adele than in paying attention to what Eva& Adele were doing. Eva&Adele were of course extremely impressed with our homage to their practice.

7) If I’m right then- your art is, that you make ..situations? Next you take photos about it and after that is it a material for exhibitions? ? 

YES! That is it exactly. Could you be our publicist?

Can anybody support you in your art? For example when I buy a t-shirt with your logo and I start making what you do and saying that I’m from The Biennial Project, is it ok? I am trying to say, if anybody could start to be your "art friend" for example from the Czech Republic who is really interested in your idea? 

OMG! YES! YES! YES! Now we are thinking that you must be our publicist. Eric&Anna are the Skippers of this great big boat, and the more like-minded fools we have on board the better. Anyone can work with us - we fucking LOVE collaboration! Propose a project that we can do together with you. Or do your thing, and send documentation to us and we can promote it as coming from a Biennial Project Collaborating Artist. Just one thing though - no boring still life paintings - there are other groups for that shit.

8) What message would you like to send to people who also want to get to biennial exhibits?

Well, wait your turn, damn it!, because we were in line way before you, and there's no way we're letting you cut in front of us!

No seriously, if we have a real message (the jury is still out on this), if is probably that as artists we have been given the most profound gift in having something that we love to do that makes our lives interesting and meaningful. Such things don't usually make one rich or famous, but who cares. As our buddy (american Art Critic) and fellow provocateur Jerry Saltz put it to us "your lives are so so much bigger than mine. I envy you for these lives lived in art… (He really said that! To us!) Just live, make the art that you have in you, and enjoy other art and artists. That's it. As another dear friend summed it up - "How in the world you gonna see? Laughing at fools like me. Who on Earth do you think you are? A superstar? Well, right you are!"

8) What do you think an ‘art’ is?

Art is freedom, art is fun, art is attending to the joy of childhood with the rigor of a research scientist. A working artist is something to be.

XXOO,

The Biennial Project

Follow Christine Recrue on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/christinerecrue

Smokescreen doesn’t hide Artistic Censorship at MassArt by Anna Salmeron

 

The artistic community is used to defending ourselves against attacks on our freedom of expression from outside our ranks. Things that life clearly teaches us artists – that freedom of expression is essential, that censorship is wrongheaded, and that it is necessary to distinguish between representation and endorsement – are not always understood by those outside the arts.

As such, artists have a long and proud tradition of leading the fight for the unfettered expression of ideas that is central to any kind of society worth living in.

So it comes as especially disturbing news to have such censorship come from within an institution that exists so close to New England’s artistic soul – The Massachusetts College of Art and Design - the only publicly funded free-standing art school in the United States, and the place that many of us got our start down this merry path of poverty and good times.

We wish it weren’t true, but unfortunately it is. Talented Biennial Project collaborator and friend Maj-Britt Pedersen has been hard at work honing her considerable skills studying in the fashion department at MassArt, only to be censored in the presentation of her work by her own teachers.

This is just sad. In Maj-Britt’s own words: 

“For the Spring semester of Sophomore year (mine was this past Spring), MassArt all fashion students are given an assignment to create a non-textile garment. This means a garment made out of something that is not fabric.

After brainstorming for some time, I chose cigarette packs. I have been a smoker since I was 13 so they play a part in my daily life. I didn't want to choose something "cute" or too easy. I feel cigarette packing holds incredible, ornate, iconic graphic design.

MB26MB25

We were supervised closely throughout the process. Upon completion I received an "A" on my dress. I also received the honor of having it chosen to be in the 2015 MassArt Vision fashion show at The Park Plaza Castle.

MB24MB27

At the end of the semester, we were advised to hold onto our garments because we would have an opportunity in the fall to have them displayed in a storefront in Copley Place.

MB30

This past Wednesday I attended my department's fashion forum to gain information on the upcoming year. While there, some students were instructed to leave their dresses on the dress forms. I raised my hand and said how I was never informed to bring my garment, perhaps it wasn't chosen? Jane Avery of the fashion department responded that they decided that the material of my dress made it too controversial for display in a public space. But it's a beautiful dress. I shook my head and laughed it off.

MB4

The following day I was more perturbed about the decision. In today's world of Donald Trump and heroin overdoses, how could a dress constructed of cigarette packs be deemed too controversial? Cigarettes are not illegal. Nowhere on the dress does it tell anyone they should smoke. In fact, the bust is made up of the warnings. I asked Jane Avery that afternoon for a specific reason. She replied she couldn't give me one. She mumbled something about children, said the faculty had decided. Mentioned if a dress had been made from guns, they would have decided the same thing. Then she said sorry in a sing song voice as if I were in kindergarten.

MB2

I personally don't think my dress is offensive, I don't think it would negatively affect children. I think it might make people laugh or perhaps strike up a conversation. Anyhow, I am being denied a great opportunity for exposure as well as losing confidence in my mentors' artistic integrity.”

MB8

So, basically, the faculty of the fashion department at MassArt deemed Maj-Britt’s cigarette pack dress "too controversial for display in a public space". Denying her an opportunity to exhibit her work that is such a valuable part of art school. After choosing it for display in their fashion show. Thoughts?

MB10

Reporter Kelly Stevens on Assignment for TBP at the Venice Biennale 2015 by Kelly Stevens

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” Truman Capote

20150504_193857

We clearly run with a pretty cool crowd. And none is cooler than our long-time collaborator – artist and writer Kelly Stevens - pictured above  left at The Biennial Project’s reception at the Venice Biennale in May. And we are ever so proud to share with you her reactions to the 2015 Venice Biennale:      

                                                                                                                        1avenice3  “As tourists flock to see the spectacles of the World’s Fair in Milan, another “must-see” event is only minutes away in Venice, Italy. The Venice Biennale is considered the World’s Fair of art with 53 countries participating and presenting extraordinary pieces of work. Originating in 1895, the Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition which takes place once every two years.

This year’s Biennale experience was again exceptional. On my visit through the national pavilions, each country approached the Biennale’s theme “All the World’s Futures” in unique ways. Some art installations triggered deep emotions while others offered a more whimsical experience. And others clearly had expressive political statement.

Needless to say, a diverse range of emotional experiences can be expected as one makes their way through the Biennale.

kellybetter

Among my favorites this year, the large scale installations appealed to me the most. France’s “Revolutions” by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot included trees which subtly moved through the art space in front of patiently waiting onlookers lounging on nearby foam steps.

d39d0fda-7b42-46ad-ac43-0dbffc3d3ca4-2060x1348

The eclectic Canadian pavilion similarly was intriguing as I experienced a transformative journey beginning within a convenience store before eventually ending in a life-sized Pachinko game where the curious can put a quarter in the slot and see its path.

1avenice24

The art which struck me the most deeply, however, was “A Key in the Hand” by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. The massive art work gave me a feeling of intense connection with humanity and the world with its spider web of red yarn, keys and ancient Japanese fishing boats. This installation reminded me that life and death are about the journey and the connection of stories and people. In essence, everything is significant and matters because we all have the power to make the world a better place.

1avenice25

Of all the amazing installations present in this year’s Biennale, this one allowed me to best connect with the theme of this year’s event. In a world which is becoming increasingly smaller, the relevance and importance of human and natural connections is likewise increasing. And indeed, all the world’s futures depend on how we respect, cherish, and act upon these connections. Being able to visualize this concept in such dramatic fashion was certainly powerful, and one of the many reasons this year’s Biennale is an event not to be missed.”

Kelly Stevens, 2015

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for this special announcement…. by Anna Salmeron

It's rough being an american if you are not a total asshole.

Violent racism, economic desperation, hideous drone armies killing children in our name, blind kittens without homes - you know, none of this is the sort of stuff a normal person can get too excited about.

Well, tomorrow we promise to go back to watching the endless rivers of blood flow, but for today, for fucking once, we have something profoundly wonderful to celebrate.

"They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered."

 

And yes we know it is jut a start, but hey, let us have our moment here, OK?

 

XXOO,

 

The Biennial Project

---

 

---

/

---

Why The Biennial Project Matters

The Biennial Project, a dynamic new collective body of work by artists Eric Hess, Anna Salmeron and an ever-expanding group of collaborators, takes off from one elegantly simple organizing principle.

Several mid-career visual artists (The Biennial Project members, playing themselves), feeling that their work merits greater acclaim, set out on a pilgrimage to discover the secrets to success at the top levels of the art world.

Drawing upon the phenomenon of prestigious national and international biennial exhibits, and their role within the art world in determining which artists will be granted global recognition, near celebrity status and high commodity values for their art, as well as the nearly universal desire by artists to have the opportunity to exhibit at such venues - the Project provides a metaphorical vehicle to explore the underlying dynamics of who gets validation from the art world apparatus and why - at the same time addressing the artist’s internal dialectic between expected and achieved success in external and personal universes.

Moving on two planes simultaneously, unmasking both the appeal and the hollowness of success in an arena often dominated by players with a financial stake in promoting their own artist and venues, the project is an exhilaratingly gonzo field trip into the internal landscape of the artistic consciousness.

Taking advantage of the substantial charisma and performative abilities of member artists, as well as their unique chemistry as a working group, the collective produces a body of work that succeeds in simultaneously identifying with and mocking the grasping aspirationalism and bewildered sense of unfulfilled entitlement underlying much artistic endeavor today. Creative people everywhere will recognize themselves in the collective’s deadpan portrayal of the misadventures of our befuddled crusaders as they attempt to scale to the peaks of the art world.

The Biennial Project member artists are part of a generation of global artists whose aesthetic identities transcend simplistic categorization. While clearly referencing the development of art in the post modern period, the body of work they have created wears its citations lightly. The aesthetic vocabulary and narrative strategy it adopts have an uncanny command of idiom, and succeed in making surprising connections between seemingly disparate ideas and media.

The Biennial Project has an intentionally breezy tongue in cheek quality that could not have existed without the example of the currently de-rigueur post-modern ironic detachment. But by folding post-modernism’s disjunctive effect back onto the unvarnished ambition of its group of earnest pilgrims, the Project elicits a frisson between its inherent irony and the sincerity and desire of purpose that lie beneath - and as such represents a reinvigoration of the expressive potential of post-modernism.

By adapting conventions of advertising signage and promotion, and by harnessing the associative power of corporate branding as a way to promote the agenda of the project, they raise the question of where the line lies between acceptable ‘fine art” self-promotion and embarrassing hucksterism. They deftly appropriate popular vernacular associated with “reality” programming in which contestants, often with no special skills or accomplishments, vie for fame and fortune. The prize here is art world success – with the quest at turns poignant and ridiculous.

But rather than devolving into a meditation on life’s inevitable disappointments, the Project artists create a dazzling deconstruction of the myth of the self made artist. Determined to raise themselves up by their portfolio straps, they present an ironic take on the ever-resonant American success myth – that if one bangs hard enough on the door to success, and persists at all turns with an undoubting and simple-minded positivism, like the little engine that could – in the end one will be rewarded with success. With squirm-inducing directness they implicate the viewer and force their audience to confront it’s own complex set of motivations and desires vis-à-vis art world success – thereby allowing no safe viewing distance from which to objectify our hopeful crusaders and their relentless “It’s About Us” mantra.

This rhetorical strategy also deconstructs an impulse that is central to the history of minimalist art – the desire to make art in such a way as to reduce or erase the fingerprint of the individual artist. Standing this convention on its head, the Project deliberately plays to and with the personas of its member artists. In this context, telling idiosyncrasies and autobiographical references resonate with irresistible particularity.

As one follows the infectious high-jinks of this band of merry pranksters “acting in the gap between art and life” (a la Rauschenberg), mining ideas from high and low art and appropriating them to the service of their cause, one realizes the extent of their accomplishment. They have fashioned a deceptively simple construct which manages to collapse the conventional dichotomy between art and commerce into a new genus, and with this paradigmatic shift have succeeded in locating The Biennial Project at precisely the nerve center of the current zeitgeist. With their finger firmly on the pulse of art-making today, their work is uniquely relevant – addressing several of the core questions confronting artists and their supporters at this historical juncture. Bravo!

Clea Saharoli, September 2013

How To Build an Art Movement

"

alec1

 
Hey Artists and Art-Lovers out there!

When The Biennial Project Team was participating in the 2009 Venice Biennale, one
of the coolest of the many cool folks we met was German-born film-maker Alec Onsemska (seen at left mugging for the camera the day we met him). He's ridiculously talented, speaks about a million languages, and travels the world like a true jet-setter. He's also very insightful about the art world.

 

As luck would have it, Alec is spending this year teaching film history at Harvard - and recently wrote a super interesting article about the Boston art scene. Even though he wrote it in response to his experience here in Boston - it's relevant to artists everywhere, so we wanted to share it with our readers. So here we go:  

 

 

An Open Letter to Boston Artists

By Alec X. Onsemska

 

"So here I find myself, a European artist and art-lover teaching in Boston this winter. I wanted to offer a few impressions on the local art scene from the perspective of a visitor, in the hope that they could be of some use to the multitudes of great artists who call this fiercely gorgeous city home.

 

Yes, multitudes of great artists and gorgeous city. I know, you're shaking your collective heads now, wondering where I got off the plane, and that's exactly the problem.

 

Boston artists have internalized the general Bostonian characteristic of trash-talking their own town, and their own art. Now don't get me wrong, I get the tell-it-like-it-is, a-million-stories-in-the-cold-city esthetic that permeates your hard-ass Boston soul, making the display of anything resembling enthusiasm as un-hip as betraying the neighborhood or talking to the cops, and it is one of the many qualities that makes me feel at home here. I am German after all, and we are a people also acquainted with the night.

 

But really, enough is enough. There is a point where embracing the middle-of-the-night futility of it all passes over from being recognition of reality to causing said reality to suck worse than it does already (something we Germans alas also know a thing or two about).

 

So, although it's not as familiar as lamenting how the art scene here sucks, and that anything that's worth happening only happens in New York, let's take a moment to talk a little truth about this town that doesn't suck for a change. 

 

To start, Boston is an amazing, one-of-a-kind city, the kind they don't make anymore, what's more, and you know it. That's why you came here or decided to stay.

 

Everywhere you look is this ridiculously majestic blue ocean, and it's not vapid vacation-land ocean - it's the take-no-prisoners cold Atlantic, with giant tankers approaching and receding on the horizon like dream cities. Talk about your end-of-continent sadness. Boston's ocean is a working ocean, and Boston is a working city - where being the real thing matters, and how. The only city I know of where local boys get rich getting Hollywood to tell its story from the side of the 'townies".

 

Boston is at the centre of the most progressive region of this country, and has been at the forefront of innumerable important intellectual, social and political movements. 

 

Tell the truth - you didn't have to live here - you could have moved to New York, or la la land, or wherever hip people were supposed to go - but you chose to live here. Not to deny New York it's due, but every not-born-rich person I know who lives there actually lives two towns away or works 3 jobs to pay for their little scrap of paradise.

 

And the NY art scene, yes, it's cool, cool, cool, but so is the Berlin art scene, and the Peking art scene, and the San Paulo art scene, and undoubtedly a lot of art scenes that most people have never heard of.

Because that's the thing about cool scenes - their key quality is their ability to define their coolness on their own terms. And cool art scenes that exist in the mainstream consciousness are usually not as cool as they are thought to be, because once the mainstream comprehends and begins to absorb them, the independent people start to move on.

 

For art to be meaningful, we must be truly the avant-garde of society, defining our own terms, rather than chasing advertizing agency notions of hipness. Berlin, once an extremely unlikely art-world mecca, became "cool" because its artists stopped chasing Paris or any other art "centre", and instead spent their time creating art and art communities on the ground where they lived.

 

Why do I tell you this Boston?

 

Because of all the places I've visited in the states, you have the most potential to stop chasing the commercial centre and just be great. A great city, with great art schools, where cutting-edge artists live in droves - you have the power to be cool on you own terms.

 

Among the many artists I love here are the innovators from the Boston-based (yes!) art collaborative known as The Biennial Project - who, by doing a fantastic parody of artist success-seeking at the pillars of official art-dom, and by demanding to know why they (we) are not good enough to succeed, point the way for artists to just get down to work in the here and now. 

 

Their upcoming 2012 Boston Biennial is exactly the sort of project that's needed - riffing on the lure of the 'biennial" world, while placing the carrot right here at home where it should be, and cutting out the "critical" intermediary by organizing an artist-controlled biennial. We need more of this.

 

Boston, to your places!"

 

bostongwhgreat

 

logo
 
OK, it's us again. He's right you know. To find out more about entering The 2012 Boston Biennial - OK, it's us again. He's right you know. To find out more about entering The 2012 Boston Biennial - 
 
logo
 
 
"

Free Pussy Riot Now!

"

 Pussy_Riot.jbig   “Only in Russia do they respect poetry. They even kill you for it.”

—Osip Mandelstam.


The “crime”:  

http://youtu.be/yZKaBh9pX64

http://youtu.be/yZKaBh9pX64

russia_punks_vs_putin-1


The “criminals”:

Pussy Riot. “we realized that this country needs a militant, punk-feminist, street band that will rip through Moscow's streets and squares, mobilize public energy against the evil crooks of the Putinist junta and enrich the Russian cultural and political opposition with themes that are important to us: gender and LGBT rights, problems of masculine conformity, absence of a daring political message on the musical
and art scenes, and the domination of males in all areas of public discourse.”

Interview with Pussy Riot

http://www.vice.com/read/A-Russian-Pussy-Riot

(This interview is a must-read.)

pussyriot4

 

The charge: Hooliganism?!

 

What is hooliganism and why could a conviction put Pussy Riot in prison for seven years?  “any deliberate behaviour which violates public order and expresses explicit disrespect towards the society." Pussy Riot? -

Google Docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNPeqD...


1 of 3 8/11/12 3:17 PM This law was often used by Soviet authorities against political dissidents and clearly still comes in handy. Sounds like an a punk band’s job description, and the kind of activity politically aware artists everywhere
should be ready to embrace.


What did they actually say?


“The protest song Virgin Mary, redeem us of Putin was performed in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow on 21 February 2012 by several members of the feminist Pussy Riot group with their faces covered in balaclavas. The song calls on Virgin Mary to become a feminist and banish Vladimir Putin. It also criticizes the dedication and support shown to Putin by some representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was one of a number of performances intended as a protest against Vladimir Putin in the run-up to Russia's presidential elections in March.”

—Amnesty International


 


Where are they now?

pussyriotnow

Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who are accused of “hooliganism on the grounds of religious hatred” have now been behind bars for months —Amnesty International


Check this statement by one of the prosecutors: "All the defendants talked about being feminists and said that is allowed in the Russian Orthodox church," said Yelena Pavlova, a lawyer for several of the nine
complainants who claimed they were insulted by Pussy Riot's performance.

"This does not correspond with reality. Feminism is a mortal sin." [Prosecutors] also argued that the leader of the church, Patriarch Kirill, had been personally insulted and was "not just an ordinary citizen".

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/07/pussy-riot-madonna-concert-plea?newsfeed=true

The treatment Pussy Riot has received suggests that Russia is sliding back into dictatorship, with Putin, their main target, as untouchable strong man, supported by a religious institution so patriarchal its leader is known as The Patriarch. Their trial is only one of many example of how the Russian justice system is being abused by the powerful, but artists everywhere need to show solidarity with Pussy Riot. There are parts of the United States where fundamentalists are attempting to institute functional theocracy. The religious right has a history of attempting to silence artists, from Andre Serrano to Robert Mapplethorpe. As their political power increases, will artists begin to self-censor in order to be able to show their work? Have they
already?

The attention Pussy Riot has is receiving has turned their incarceration into a PR problem for Putin and the Russian Orthodox church. Both the church hierarchy and Vladimir Putin have said they believe Pussy Riot should be treated with leniency. Attentive to the wishes of their master, prosecutors are asking for three years imprisonment for Pussy Riot.


You need to help Pussy Riot

to defend free speech in Russia.

Go to

 

http://www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/sms-action-network/pussy-riot


to find out what you can do.


Pussy Riot? - Google Docs

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNPeqD...


And in case you think Pussy Riot are a bunch of silly twats who don’t deserve your support and are only getting noticed because of their stupid name, a) you are an asshole, and b) Here’s a link that’s serious as a heart-attack. Happy now?

 

http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/support-pussy-riot-by-all-means-but-support-the-kazakh-oil-work
ers-too/

pussyriot5pussyriot3 pussyriotprotests

"

The Social Event of the Season!!!

"

Critics agree – Bizarre Artist Happenings is the social event of the season!

One can’t truly claim to have summered in Boston without having experienced the multimedia phantasm that is The Biennial Project’s Bizarre Artist Happenings.” Clea Saharoli, noted art critic and curator

Warholian”, Boston Phoenix

“Did you ever feel like you were missing out on all the fun?  Well, if you weren’t at the Biennial Project’s Bizarre Artist Reception this Thursday then you’re correct to think so.”  Stephanie Arnett, critic, and star of the blogosphere

Well-attended”, Boston Globe

They’ll be talking about this one in Berlin for a while”, Alec Onsemska, film critic

Freakin bizarre”, Erica Femino, style icon

“With its summer show at Atlantic Works, the Biennial Project makes a serious effort to satisfy your minimum monthly requirement of horny Boy Scouts, opium-smoking eccentrics, circus freaks, aging hippies, lumberjacks, and sex workers. Even if you missed the opening party…come to the closing reception: Aug 16, 7-10, Martha McCollough, Boston’s Reigning Hippest Person

Free Beer, then more free beer”, Michael St. Germain, the most interesting artist in the world

No Joke – just look at the press we got!

Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

More Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Still More Boston Globe on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Globe Pick of the Day for Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Phoenix on Bizarre Artist Happenings

Boston Phoenix Pick of the Week for Bizarre Artist Happenings

The Art Blogs on Bizarre Artist Happenings

More Art Blogs on Bizarre Artist Happenings

NOW, If you missed the opening, don’t despair – we’re having another awesome event this very Thursday Aug 16 from 7-10PM.

Bizarre Artist Happenings Pajama Party!

Sleepovers are the perfect alibi for youth around the world.

Tell your parents you are spending the night at your bestie's house and prepare for a night of debauchery and teenage fulfillment. Don't miss one of the last hot parties of the summer of 2012!! Let's show Hugh Hefner how its done in 2012!

Come to the sexy closing party for The Biennial Project's Closing Reception for their show 'Bizarre Artist Happenings' Music being created by DJ Dylan Jones and venue is The Atlantic Works Gallery.

You are encouraged but not required to show off your skimpiest or most comfortable sleep ware. Pillow fights, bedtime stories and steamy sex are encouraged. This also happens to be Madonna's 54 birthday so give the old whore from Detroit some honor and heighten your level of hedonism with us.

Don’t Miss it!!!!!!!!!

Here are some great moments from our opening party!

PPalldancing 

Hell yes it was crazy!

 PPcrowd2   PPchar

With TONS of people!

   PPericBJPPandrewhittingmePPmegettingmakeupPPericanddig

And LOTS of LOVE for Biennial

Project ICONS Anna and Eric!

 

Love ME Love MY Work by Mitchel Ahern

Plus amazing live Performance

and Super Excellent Moving Images!

PPmitchPPcommerical

PPdannuboyatworkPPsoniamark

Many gorgeous Fashionistas!

 PPstephandaudrinaPPsamandfernanado

And let us not forget the

U.S. Launch of The Biennial Project’s

Signature Fragrance STAR OF VENICE!

starofvenice111

The U.S. Launch of STAR OF VENICE

 

More Art World Glitterati!

PPkristenPPmatt

PPbrandenandmePPsexybartender

PPcutercouple     PPericasteph

They LOVE us in North Korea!

PPmark1

And Mark Peterson jurying our

Art with the Stars Photo Contest as

well as winning Best Performance

of the evening!

 

Mark Sends a Shoutout to Dads Everywhere!

 

Ok, kids that’s it for now.

See you this Thursday!!!

Bizarre Artist Happenings Pajama Party!!!

       

 

 

"