Art in spirit of protest meets RNC

[papau]

http://www.calendarlive.com/cl-et-swed25aug25,1,2917541.story
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
Art in spirit of protest meets RNC
By Mark Swed
Times Staff Writer

Aug 25 2004

On Sept. 2, the last day of the Republican National Convention in New York City, there will be a gathering of the Brooklyn Orgastic Politics Collective. Somewhere in Brooklyn (the location is undisclosed), these followers of the radical early 20th century psychologist Wilhelm Reich will attempt to "suck the fascism from Madison Square Garden," the site of the convention. If successful, the group expects to redirect the flow of "Life Energy" in such a way as to "reduce the entire convention floor to a quivering Saturnalia."

Good luck, rational people might say with a dismissive wave, hardly bothering to wonder whether the "Anti-Convention Cloudbuster Project" is art, political protest, social experiment, mystical rite or a bunch of kooks in search of an orgy. In fact, it may be a little bit of all of the above, but on some level it qualifies as art, at least of the conceptual and anarchist varieties. It will be among the culminating events of one of the most curious, unruly, remarkable arts festivals this country has witnessed. And one of the largest.<snip>

But into the fray has jumped a diverse group of mainly lesser-known artists to form their own ad hoc festival. Most are young and most are rebellious, as young artists usually are. The spirit of the festival is protest, but there does happen to be a long and honorable tradition of that in the arts. Nor are all the participants defiant kids looking for a good time. Among the more establishment figures will be filmmaker Robert Altman, who will screen his 1984 Nixon-parody film, "Secret Honor," at Symphony Space on Sunday and take questions from the audience afterward.

Not all the events will necessarily be politically charged. On Wednesday, Alec Baldwin, Chuck Close, Joanne Woodward and other celebrities will gather at Cooper Union to read the Constitution. And the classics will not be ignored. One artist, Marshall Weber, promises a marathon public reading of Homer. To attract attention, he will, of course, do it in an artist's way. He plans to start Tuesday morning at sunrise (5:32 a.m., to be exact) at the Vietnam Veterans Plaza in Lower Manhattan with "The Iliad" and then continue on the Staten Island Ferry with "The Odyssey." He expects to finish about the time the convention does — two days later, at sunset.

No one should be surprised that what is essentially an anarchistic outpouring of art will typically take the form of political satire and protest on the part of actors, poets, dancers, visual artists, filmmakers and musicians. Saturday night, for instance, raunchy comedian Margaret Cho will do her thing at Harlem's Apollo Theater. A new organization, the Imagine Festival, has stepped in to create a semblance of order by listing more than 100 concerts, plays, exhibitions and happenings of one sort or another over the six-day period and even trying to give each day a theme.

But any attempt at governance is likely to annoy some artists, and a great deal will be happening outside the Imagine umbrella, from contributors as diverse as the wonderful meditative composer and peace activist Pauline Oliveros, who will stage a mass bell-ringing at ground zero on Saturday, and a shadowy group, Billionaires for Bush, whose members will attempt to impede convention-goers trying to get to Broadway shows.<snip>

[zbdent]

1. Could we claim vandalism of GOP posters as

"performance art"?

[HootieMcBoob]

2. I Heart New York!

:loveya: