November 09, 2006
Center for Advanced Visual Studies
N55
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies presents N55 :: Monday November 13th, 7:00 pm :: MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning,
265 Massachusetts Ave, 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139 :: 617 253 4415
N55 is a Danish artists' group which designs and builds humorous but functional tools meant for a utopian way of life. Their vision of a democratically organized collaborating body of self-reliant individuals is described in their writing and embodied in their designs. Most of their writing takes the form of manuals: From their website you can learn how to build a "MICRODWELLING" or "SMALL FISH FARM," or how to create situations and relationships with "ROOM," "WORK," and "KOMMUNE." With their simply titled works, N55 engage a number of fields: "LAND" deals with land ownership by providing an alternative scheme of publicly held sites while "SHOP" provides an alternative to money by proposing a system of bartering "shops" that anybody can set up anywhere.
N55 do not claim that their manuals and designs solve pressing social and economic problems. But they believe that the very act of setting to work can empower a person and help change the way he or she sees the world.
N55 was invited to the Center by the Interrogative Design Group (head: Krzysztof Wodiczko).
N55 is based both in Copenhagen, and in LAND. The group grew out of an initial collaboration in 1996, when a number of persons started living together in an apartment located in the center of Copenhagen, trying to “rebuild the city from within” and use their everyday life situation as a platform for public events and collaborations. While their work exists primarily in the sphere of the public and everyday, the group has exhibited widely internationally in venues including the Venice Biennale; the Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Tramway Arts Centre, Glasgow; the New Museum, New York; MassMOCA, North Adams, MA; the Camden Arts Centre, London; the Royal College of Art, London; and more.
LAND is constructed from pieces of land in different places in the world. The various parts are added to LAND by persons who guarantee that anybody can stay in LAND and use it. Any person can initiate expansions of LAND. The geographical positions of LAND are updated continuously and can be found online.
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a fellowship program that commissions and produces new artworks within the context of MIT. The Center facilitates exchange between internationally known and emerging contemporary artists and MIT's faculty, students, and staff through public programs, support for long-term art projects, and residencies for MIT students.
Posted by jo at November 9, 2006 02:09 PM
