Migration

For the next nine months, Proteus Gowanus will consider Migration and the frequently unanticipated effects that flow from it, using art, artifacts, books and events as the tools of our investigation. We will consider animal, human and object migration and the ways in which they interact, interrupt and intercede with each other. Our final exhibition will examine how these movements are affecting our future on the planet, bringing crisis and calamity aplenty, but also exponential knowledge expansion, increasing porosity of boundaries, more and better communication of ideas and, dare we say it? greater empathy.

Our first exhibition opens in September, second in January and third in April. We will conclude the year with an exhibition of work by our Migration Artists-In-Residence.

The Migration Artists-In-Residence program, inviting a new artist for each of the year’s three Migration exhibitions to work at Proteus, is a new project at Proteus Gowanus. We have invited artists to open their process and engage with visitors. Our artists will be, in order of their residency, Lado Pochkhua of the Republic of Georgia, Sal Randolph of the U.S. and Bundith Phunsombatlert of Thailand. [Editors Postscript: Bundith suffered a severe injury to his hand as a result of the Bangkok floods and is unable to participate this year. We wish him the best and hope he will visit us next year. See below for details of the Future Migration residency.]

We are also introducing a blog for the Migration year, named Proteoscope. Krista Dragomer, artist, writer, and graphic essayist, will be Proteoscope’s Editor-in-Chief, collecting, reporting, editing and musing on the art, artifacts, books and events presented during our Migration year. We hope you will add our Proteoscope RSS feed to your feedbox and join in the conversation.

Finally, we welcome as Migration Correspondents, the following distinguished individuals: Carol Becker (Dean of Columbia School of the Arts); Svetlana Boym (Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literatures at Harvard University and a Faculty Associate of the Graduate School of Design); and Sean Hanley, filmmaker. Our Migration interns are Allison Klion, Sophia Karwowski, Caridad Bojorquez and Ryan Jones.

Exhibition 1: Population Migration

Fall, 2011 (Sept 17-Jan 7)

Migration as a term can apply to almost anything that moves but in general the term brings to mind the movement of humans and animals across geographic terrain. This is the starting point for this first exhibition of the Migration year at Proteus Gowanus.

Exhibition 2: Object Migration

Winter, 2012 (Jan 12-April 7)

 A. Object Migration

When we think about migration, we tend to focus on people and creatures, the mobile inhabitants of the planet. But life and motion create products and byproducts: tools, waste, the material manifestations of culture. These things are often what drive us onward in our migrations. We asked our community of friends and collaborators and all others to contribute objects with migratory stories for this show. With over 50 contributors, objects on display range from a 50 million year old “dinosaur fart” (or gas bubble) to a collection of wild bird’s stomach contents collected in the early 20th C for “scientific” purposes. There are also talismans, mundane objects with secret meanings, things of beauty and much more.

We will view these objects as independent beings with stories of their own, stories that began before the object’s encounter with its current owner and that will likely continue long after they part. The stories may migrate into the economic, the industrial, the political, the historical, the geologic, the environmental and so on as visitors add to the stories on display with information they may have about the object in question. 

B. The Bureau of Unknown Destinations

As part of Object Migrations, we introduce The Bureau of Unknown Destinations, offering temporary displacements to members of the public seeking to experiment with their migratory impulses.

Make a booking for a day’s journey, and you’ll be presented with a free round trip ticket for a train adventure (along with a notebook and a small, somewhat absurd, task). Begin your day by tearing open a sealed envelope and revealing the mystery of where you will find yourself by noon. Set forth, free of decisions, into the great (or perhaps, in this case, the small) unknown. Test your sense of destiny. Have lunch someplace new.

Book your travel up to two weeks in advance at the Bureau’s offices, located at Proteus Gowanus. Offices are open most Saturdays 1-5, as well as irregularly on other days, and always by appointment.

C. The Berlin Tunnel Project

(Jan 28-Feb 25)

In 1954, the CIA began to dig a tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin for the purposes of tapping into Soviet phone cables. The tunnel’s construction took a year and, unbeknownst to the CIA was monitored throughout by the KGB. In April 1956, the KGB “discovered” the tunnel and released the information to the world press. American newspapers generally marveled that the CIA was capable of such a remarkable clandestine maneuver.

Exhibition 3:  Future Migration

Spring, 2012 (Apr 14 – Jul 1)

For the third exhibition of the Migration year, Proteus Gowanus presents FUTURE MIGRATION, an exploration of the possibilities and predicaments of life in the anthropocene future. What sorts of resources will be preserved or invented to allow life on this planet to continue? Will Earth always be home or will we look out into the galaxy to find new and alternative solutions in the stars? Will we continue to exist as natural beings or will our technologies lead us to a new definition of what it means to be human.

FUTURE MIGRATION brings together artists, scientists, and visionaries in an exhibition of art, artifacts, and books, as well as talks, film and other events that explore future directions, continuing our migratory investigations into July. Co-curated with artist Krista Dragomer.

Concurrently, for our third residency of the Migration year, we are delighted to welcome Anthropologist-In-Residence,  Eben Kirksey and his collaborators with the Multi-Species Salon. They will work in text, conversation and installation. Eben will display his  ”Utopia for the Golden Frog” (co-produced by Mike Khadavi & Grayson Earle). The Golden Frog is a species critically endangered by humans and saved by the Amphibian  Ark. Deanna Pindell’s ‘Thneeds Re-Seed”, a sculptural remediation strategy with Bryum Argenteum moss, will also enliven the Salon. Our Anthropologist will examine human entanglement with plants, microbes, and animals and develop art/projects intended to help us think about living with and in a multispecies world. His particular emphasis will be on finding Hope in Blasted Landscapes.

In addition, as part of Future Migration, we welcome THE FOOL’S JOURNEY, a corollary exhibition on our shelves curated by our friends from Curious Matter in Jersey City, NJ. In the Tarot, The Fool symbolizes the beginning of a journey. He sets off to explore without knowing what lies ahead. He isn’t a fool in the sense of a buffoon, rather one who proceeds on an adventure in spite of his lack of experience. To confront the unknown; the accumulation of knowledge; transformation from ignorance to wisdom; moving from one place to another, whether physical or psychical, are aspects of The Fool’s Journey.