Jarrett Moran & Nato Thompson
Waterboarding, Iraq, Katrina, immigration: these are among the charged subjects that inspire projects at Creative Time. One of Nato Thompson’s first projects as Chief Curator at the public art non-profit took him to the devastated Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans for Paul Chan’s production of Waiting for Godot. In 2008, the organization produced Steve Powers’ pointed Waterboard Thrill Ride on Coney Island, and the next year Thompson accompanied an Iraqi War veteran, an Iraqi citizen, and artist Jeremy Deller on a cross-country series of public conversations. This year Thompson worked with Tania Bruguera on her Queens-based advocacy organization Immigrant Movement International.
Now Creative Time and Thompson are applying their social and political engagement to a sprawling, twenty-year survey of public projects from around the world, Living as Form. The exhibition occupies the 15,000 square-foot Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side and includes projects by the Yes Men, Ai Weiwei, and Francis Alÿs alongside WikiLeaks and the demonstrations in Tahrir Square. True to the spirit of Creative Time, Living as Form also includes off-site projects like Superflex’s replica of a JPMorgan Chase executives’ restroom and Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle’s Time/Food, a restaurant that bypasses the exchange of money. Check online for the full schedule of talks and performances, as well as an online archive of socially engaged practices from 1991-2011.
