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September 20, 2006

International Airport Montello

WAITINGLounge.png

eteam CAUSES EXTENDED LAYOVER at IAM

eteam CAUSES EXTENDED LAYOVER at IAM :: International Airport Montello :: On Friday, September 15, 2006, an 8-passenger Beechjet 400 of AiG Airlines was on its way to Las Vegas for a weekend of art and gambling, when the pilots received a radio call about a sand storm in Nevada causing an unexpected 8-hour layover at the International Airport Montello (IAM).

Fortunately, IAM was prepared. The terminal’s food court and services were ready to serve, including the five star Juan’s Coffee Shop, the VIP Sky View Dinner Club, the Cowboy and Saddle Sore Bars. And IAM employees welcomed AiG Airlines passengers and other layover tourists with the utmost attention. Adventurous travelers and unique characters were among the passengers who were stuck at the IAM, adding to the distinctiveness of this layover. Despite that the IAM kept its air conditioning at extremely low temperature and its fans at high speed it was the perfect airport to experience an extended layover.

The International Airport Montello (IAM) is a project done in collaboration between the Brooklyn-based artist’s collective known as eteam and the citizens of Montello in Nevada. It takes place around a 10-acre piece of land purchased by eteam from an auction at eBay.com for less than $500 dollars. IAM consists of a series of recurring events in or about an abandoned airstrip—that is approximately 6000 feet and located nearby the eteam’s land—in order to reignite its use or potential.

During the summer, in a program at the New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics with writer Jeffrey Kastner and Matthew Coolidge of the Center for Land Use and Interpretation, eteam presented IAM to New York audiences. Weeks later, curators Jeffrey Walkowiak and Rachel Gugelberger of Sara Meltzer Gallery helped eteam turn that gallery’s penthouse into an airport gate, where passengers waited for hours to catch a plane that never came. Before the layover, IAM hired the Brooklyn-based artist and writer Jason Dean as one of its Layover Crewmembers, who together with eteam was present at the layover. In October, and thanks to park ranger Linc Hallowell, eteam will use the runways of Floyd Bennett Airfield in New York City to connect to the middle of nowhere where IAM operates.

These events, including the layover, are part of the eteam’s art project IAM, which will culminate in an exhibition at Art in General opening on January 27, 2006. The IAM wiki-website is created and administered by eteam and the citizens of Montello: www.internationalairportmontello.com

The International Airport Montello by eteam and the citizens of Montello is commissioned by Art in General. The website component of the project is co-commissioned by Art in General and the Digital Matrix Commissions of Longwood Arts Projects in New York.

Posted by jo at September 20, 2006 11:33 AM

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