Opening: Sunday, September 13, 3-8pm
Dates: September 16 – October 3, 2009
Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 3-6pm
Location: 223 East Broadway (LES) New York)
Invited by No Longer Empty, a not for profit organization that places art in vacated storefronts to inject life and creativity back into the site, the interdisciplinary artist, Brandstifter, will occupy a Lower East Side / Chinatown storefront at 223 East Broadway over the course of three weeks. Visitors are encouraged to bring their empty plastic bottles and hand them over to the artist. In exchange, Brandstifter will provide a certificate/receipt commemorating the visitor’s collaboration while equally acknowledging the refund value of the bottle. With these plastic proceeds (bottles), Brandstifter will create a sculpture for the storefront window.
The title “THE SOCIAL PLASTIC” derives from German Artist’s Joseph Beuys’ expanded concept of art, according to which every person, through their creative social activity and behavior can contribute to the public good and “sculpt” society. This three week perfomance/installation will conclude with a monetary exchange of all the collected “refundable” bottles, of which the proceeds will be donated towards a charitable cause.
In 2008, Brandstifter made his first Social Plastic event in Mainz (Germany) at the gallery/performance space Walpodenakademie. This new installment commemorates the project’s second occurance here in the U.S.. The aim of this project is to take place in different locations all over the world.
http://thesocialplastic.wordpress.com/
This project would not have been possible without the support from Tara de la Garza and No Longer Empty.
Brandstifter is an interdisciplinary Artist and Networker from Germany, currently the Residency Unlimited/ Balmoral Resident Artist at Flux Factory. With Happenings, Visual and Perfomance Art, as well as sound and music and interventions in public space, Brandstifter uses communicative means of social interaction to transform anarchic concepts from everyday life into burning-down-the-house Intermedia.
