ZER01 does Mariachi

I often say that the 01SJ Biennial – I’m the artistic director – is multidisciplinary and medium agnostic. I’m not sure I ever thought that meant we would be programming at a mariachi festival.

This weekend, however, I’m very excited about some programming that ZER01 is presenting at the “T-Mobile San Jose Mariachi & Mexican Heritage Festival Presented by Target.”

Pilar Aguero-Esparza and H. Dio Mendoza

Pilar and Dio are San Jose-based artists, and based on the Mariachi Festival’s thematic focus on the Mexican village, I asked them to construct out of recycled materials a tri-partite, temporary “home” for ZER01 and its artists during the festival.


Temporary Manhattan art park

Canal Street Getting Public Art Park No One Knew it Needed. Via Curbed

Canal Street Getting Public Art Park No One Knew it Needed. Via Curbed

via Curbed.

It’s not entirely clear what will be happening here, but the basic idea is that while the property owner waits for the real estate market to revive, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is working with architects Interboro Partners to create Lentspace, a temporary public park and exhibition with event programming. Excellent.

“LentSpace’s landscape design features a tree nursery that provides shade while incubating street trees to be planted throughout the downtown neighborhood at a later date. In addition, a custom operable fence opens the space to encourage a variety of social encounters, incorporating benches for seating and a display surface for a c ommissioned graphic design series. LentSpace is a free outdoor cultural space open to the public from 7am to dusk, made possible by LMCC.”

Who woulda thunk that Canal and Sixth would become the greenest intersection in town?  Photo: Curbed.

Who woulda thunk that Canal and Sixth would become the greenest intersection in town? Photo: Curbed.

The visual arts exhibition curated by LMCC’s curator Adam Kleinman includes work by artists: Olivier Babin, Olga Chernysheva, Eli Hansen & Oscar Tuazon, Graham Hudson, Tobias Putrih, Ryan Taber, and Corban Walker. Opening September 18.


In praise of the temporary

A recent article about Frank Gehry’s Serptentine Gallery Pavillion reminded me of a somewhat magical rainy afternoon last summer wandering around Olufar Eliason’s 2007 Serpentine Gallery Pavillion with Kjetil Thorsen.