Event

17 Reasons WhyPost an Event »

Mission 17

April 24 - May 31, 2009

Info

2111 Mission Street Suite 401 San Francisco, CA 94110
Google Map »
17 Reasons Why
Opening Reception: Friday, April 24th, 6-9pm April 24th-May 30th, 2009 David Buuck and BARGE present "17 Reasons Why", a site-specific installation and research office that will present a visual archeology of the Mission and 17th Street environment, as part of an ongoing multi-media investigation into how we see, know, and understand our everyday urban spaces. As part of Mission 17's Visual/Cultural Criticism Residency, BARGE brings its toolkit of aesthetic and critical practices to tackle the thorny task of representing a diverse site, with all its historical and cultural complexities. With this exhibition and its related public programming, BARGE aims to create a space for reflection on the complex intersections of place and memory, change and nostalgia, history and its representations. A critical poetics of visual and cultural criticism will emerge, as maps, photography, writing, sculpture, and found materials provide the basis for a 'sampling' of the site and its environs, with the installation space functioning as a kind of laboratory for materialist (re)mixing. BARGE will open a functioning 'research station' in the gallery space, where BARGE will be conducting research and investigatory projects throughout the run of the exhibition. Rather than merely presenting 'finished work' that sits idly in the gallery, The BARGE research office will be an ongoing performative space, foregrounding the contingent, everyday forces and transitions in the Mission, while also making visible the methodologies of visual criticism and interpretation at work-and at play. BARGE - The Bay Area Research Group in Enviro-aesthetics - was started by David Buuck in 2003. BARGE has organized several (de)tours around the Bay Area, investigating regional sites & spaces that are underrepresented & overlooked in more conventional touristic, commercial, & socio-political notions of place & public space. See davidbuuck.com/barge for more information. The following programs in conjunction with 17 Reasons Why are free and open to the public Saturday, May 9th, 4-6pm Reading: 3 Mission Writers Alejandro Murguía (author of This War Called Love) Lorna Dee Cervantes (author of From the Cables of Genocide and Drive) Michelle Tea (author of Valencia, Rose in No Man's Land, and Chelsea Whistle) Wednesday, May 20th, 6:30-8pm Artist Talk Author & activist Erick Lyle (author of On the Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City) with David Buuck, founder of BARGE Friday, May 30th, 4-6pm Closing Reception and Performance: Reason 17 Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 1-6pm or by appointment