Biennial of the Americas Denver 2010

The 2010 Biennial of the Americas is an international event that celebrates the culture, ideas and people of the Western Hemisphere, hosted by the City of Denver.

VENUE LOCATION & HOURS

McNichols at Civic Center Park

McNichols at Civic Center Park with exterior intervention by Jerónimo Hagerman McNichols at Civic Center Park with exterior intervention by Jerónimo Hagerman McNichols Civic Center Park

Located in the heart of Denver's Civic Center Park, the newly renovated McNichols building will celebrate creativity, showcase artistic talent and provide insight and inspiration to fuel the ideas of tomorrow.

As the Biennial main stage and community gathering place, the McNichols building will provide an inspirational and energetic social space where people meet, exchange ideas and share points of view.

Home of the The Nature of Things, an exhibition-centered project dedicated to presenting contemporary artistic practices, the historic building will also play host to a diverse array of public programming including children's workshops, talks, panels and discussions focusing on hemispheric unity, innovation and development.

The Nature of Things

Jeronimo Hagerman, “Here and Now” Radial Garden - 2009 Jeronimo Hagerman, “Here and Now” Radial Garden - 2009 Jeronimo Hagerman, “Bed of Smells” - 2005 Santiago Cucullu, “Bitches of Bedlam” - 2007 Santiago Cucullu, “Black Car and Green Waters of Lethe” - 2008 Brigida Baltar, “Red Landscape” - 2009 Brigida Baltar, “Secret Landscape” - 2009

The Nature of Things brings together the artworks and energies of twenty-four contemporary artists from North, South, and Central America. These artists and their works participate in exploring the four themes of the 2010 Biennial of the Americas: innovation, sustainability, community and the arts.

The current momentum behind these themes and the frequency in which they are addressed globally in different forums proves the need to expand the selection of artists in this exhibition beyond the sphere of visual arts and to include projects by artists, designers and architects. Through newly commissioned projects and a number of preexisting artworks, this exhibition is a convergence of cultural references, personal and political histories, and geographical contexts. This collection of artworks seeks to broaden the definition of innovation, sustainability, community and the arts and provide a space for interpretation and contemplation.

The title, The Nature of Things is borrowed from the poem written in the first century by the Roman poet Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, and serves as the premise for this exhibition. The poem stands as one of the most ambitious and passionate didactic undertakings in antiquity that speculates on the physical universe and the place and condition of human beings within it. Throughout the poem, perception is given a central role as that through which our interpretation of the world is constructed, as we constantly try to make sense of what surrounds us.

Conflict is inherent to this process, as it is to the convergence of different voices. Thus, the adoption of this title functions both as an exercise to leave open the definitions of the themes and to create within the McNichols building a mapping of artistic positions and lines of investigation.

Featuring talks and panels with local and international speakers, musical performances, video screenings, and kids workshops, the four series that accompany the exhibition summarized in this program integrates a larger list of artists and participants to this project. The ultimate goal of this programming is to engage the local community, prompting dialogue by creating a platform for the exchange of ideas through discussions and collaborations.

Curated by: Paola Santoscoy
Curatorial Advisor: María del Carmen Carrión

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KidsPatch: Children’s Creativity Lab at the Biennial of the Americas

KidsPatch is an event series dedicated to new children’s creativity, presented since 2008 at numerous events in Europe and the USA. Each program consists of a series of workshops for kids (ages 5 - 12), related to the fields of contemporary music, graphic art, performance and new media. It is a 100% participatory program that utilizes an intuitive, inventive and forward-thinking approach to children’s creative education within the context of arts and culture.

KidsPatch: Children’s Creativity Lab at the Biennial of the Americas, a specially commissioned program and the largest KidsPatch production so far, will involve a number of artists from the American continent into creative exchanges with the youngest population. Beside setting up a special kids zone within the McNichols building which will be open daily, the focus of KidsPatch is customized workshops running each weekend, to be rounded up by a final parade event on July 31st, taking the young participants and their creations outdoors, to the immediate surrounding of the main Biennial location, through a special performance.

*Note on the workshop registration: On each of the weekends, three different workshops will be presented, two times per day. The capacity of a single workshop is limited to 6 (six) kids. The age limit is 5 – 12 years old. Individual workshop duration is 3 hours, including a half-hour break and refreshments at no extra charge.

In order to secure the participation for yourself or your child, please fill out the required entry form which can be found on location at the McNichols building, or HERE on the Biennial website. Upon submitting the entry form, you will be contacted by our staff several days prior to the chosen date in order to specify participation details. Also note that further charges may apply to the workshop participation.

To Enroll: Please download the below .PDF presentation of the KidsPatch Worshop Program and email it to kidspatch@biennialoftheamericas.org.

Download Application Form: KidsPatch Workshop Program (.PDF)
Need Adobe Reader to see this form? Get it here: http://get.adobe.com/reader

Questions? Please contact us - kidspatch@biennialoftheamericas.org or call 505.652.2659.

Curated by: Nana Radenkovic, Relja Bobic and Kate Lesta
in collaboration with: PICTOPLASMA

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Live Performance Series

This series is a program spotlighting forward thinking musicians and new media artists from across the Americas. Presenting over 30 artists within 11 showcases through out the month of July, the Live Performance Series spans a spectrum of ideas and genres within music, sound, and new media. Each showcase has a narrative of its own, with focused programming on week- end evenings. Intimate audiovisual experiences, playful and experimental folk shows, post- classical vanguards, and the hot and heavy dance floor of Latin America are a taste of what can be expected within this series at the McNichols building in Civic Center Park, as part of The Nature of Things exhibition.

Curated by: Kate Lesta, Jonathan Root
in collaboration with: Alain Mongeau

First Friday

Description: First Friday is a contrasting showcase, beginning with a visceral surround sound performance, moving into a deep and dubby audiovisual collaboration, and closing with a playful and active vj/dj duo. The three performances all work with immersive performance yet are juxtapositions in this context. Destined to be a powerhouse opening.

Date: Friday, July 2
8:00pm - Jamie Drouin “WHITEOUT” (Victoria / Rio de Janeiro) (World premiere)
8:45pm - Overcast Sound + Moleculagem (Victoria / São Paolo)
9:45pm - SWEATSHOPPE (Brooklyn)

MUTEK A/VISIONS

Description: Dedicated to immersive audiovisual performance, MUTEK’s A/Visions series presents artists and projects that explore the interplay between sound and image.

Date: Friday, July 9
8:00pm - Lissom (San Francisco)
9:00pm - The Jutro Experiment: David Van Teghiem, Brandon Wolcott + Morgan Packard (Brooklyn) (World premiere)

MUTEK Perspectives

Description: MUTEK is famous for presenting cutting edge artists, from both contemplative and intimate audiovisual settings, to activated, non-stop dance floors. The MUTEK PERSPECTIVES evening presents two artists who represent the opposite ends of this spectrum, as well as hailing from two of MUTEK’s festival cities in North America.

Date: Saturday, July 10
8:00pm - Murcof (Tijuana / Rio de Janeiro) (Colorado premiere)
9:00pm - Mossa (Montreal)

Future Folk

Description: Future Folk presents artists who are bridging folk traditionalism with new and edgy musical interests, including heavy use of electronics, unusual tempo and arrangements. With their feet firmly planted in their root music, each of these artists are changing what folk music is, blurring the lines between new and old.

Date: Friday, July 16
8:00pm - Lulacruza (Bogotá / Buenos Aires) (Colorado premiere)
9:00pm - Laura Goldhamer & the Silvernail (Denver)
10:00pm - Juana Molina (Buenos Aires)

Southwest Innovators

Description: This evening hosts two highly talented groups who hail from the South-West. Innovators in their fields, they have actively redefined genres. Both groups have made an impact on their local communities, toured the USA extensively, and yet always maintained a flavor of their home.

Date: Saturday, July 17
8:00pm - D Numbers + AeonChild (Santa Fe / Boulder)
9:00pm - The Dovekins (Denver)

Sight For Sore Eyes

Description: This evening hosts two acts that create sweet and soft environments within an immersive audiovisual setting. In a world where we are constantly over stimulated, many experiences can be challenging for the mind and body. These artists work within the audiovisual and mixed media realms, offering a breath of fresh air, and a sight for sore eyes.

Date: Thursday, July 22
8:00pm - Pillow Garden & Offthesky (Denver)
8:30pm - Miwa Matreyek (San Francisco) (Colorado premiere)
9:00pm - Offthesky & Pillow Garden (Denver)
9:30pm - Miwa Matreyek (San Francisco) (Colorado premiere)

Americana Futurists

Description: Americana Futurists are bands that are bridging American music with new palettes, approach, and processes in music creation and performance. Music that speaks to us all while pushing the everyday envelope.

Date: Friday, July 23
8:00pm - Jonny Woodrose & The Broken Hearted Woodpeckers (Boulder)
9:00pm - Kevin Costner Suicide Pact (Boulder)
10:00pm - Soft Landing (Brooklyn) (Colorado premiere)

MUTEK Nocturne

Description: The MUTEK Nocturne is an energetic and fun night of some of the best modern Mexican dance music. Come move to the traditional grooves of Norteño and Techno, brought together by the Nortec pioneers.

Date: Saturday, July 24
8:00pm - Time for Trees (Denver)
8:00pm - Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich & Fussible (Tijuana)

Chapter and Verse

Description: Chapter and Verse reads between the lines of the information age, demonstrating the beauty and depth of data as art.

Date: Thursday, July 29
8:00pm - Morgan Packard & Joshue Ott (Brooklyn)
8:30pm - Gabriel Dunne (San Francisco)
9:00pm - Joshue Ott & Morgan Packard (Brooklyn)
9:30pm - Gabriel Dunne (San Francisco)

Vanguard Femme

Description: The forefronts of neo classical music, these two women are modifying their instruments to meet their vision. Prepared piano and electric harp are their counterparts. Female contemporary composers who are inventive and yet serious, they will spark and surprise you.

Date: Friday, July 30
8:00pm - Melissa St. Pierre (North Adams) (Colorado premiere)
9:00pm - Zeena Parkins (New York City)

FINALES!

Description: A highly active day, the FINALES! program lets our children lead with the KidsPatch Parade, the culminating performance of the KidsPatch program. Followed by an evening music that will shake the house down with the urban exploration of traditional Latin American music.

Date: Saturday, July 31
6:00pm - Meow Wolf KidsPatch Parade (Santa Fe)
7:00pm - Ejival (Tijuana)
8:00pm - ZIZEK (Buenos Aires)

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Speaker Series

Led by an international group of established and emerging artists, leaders, innovators, and celebrated individuals, The Nature of Things - Speaker Series will explore the Western Hemi- sphere’s most pressing challenges and exciting innovations. Designed as an open platform for conversation and idea exchange, the series will provide a public forum for engaging with speakers, panels, and dialogue sessions, with topics ranging from ecology, art, technology and society, to culture, design, education and civic engagement. Please join us this July to lend your voice to a new era of ideas and possibilities for the future of the Americas.

Curated by: Lauren Higgins

Lure of the Unknown Love or Tropical Fantasies:
Conversation between curator Paola Santoscoy and artist Jerónimo Hagerman

Description: Santoscoy and Hagerman will engage in a conversation around the appropriation of distant cultural references and forms and the necessity of exoticizing the unknown in order to create idealized landscapes.

Date: Tuesday, July 6 - 4:00pm

800X60:
Adaptive Architecture and Security Infrastructure at, along and across the U.S.-Mexico Border

Description: Architects Teddy Cruz and Ronald Rael will present and discuss research that engages the metropolitan and territorial sites of conflict that encompass the USA / Mexico border.

Date: Tuesday, July 6 - 6:00pm

Catalysts for Social Good:
Redefining Global Impact through Social Entrepreneurship

Description: The Change Your City Campaign co-presents this panel of prestigious social entrepreneurs and Ashoka Fellows to explore how they have used business principles to power their initiatives while making the world a better place.

Date: Wednesday, July 7 - 4:00pm

Limitless Potential

Description: An interdisciplinary conversation envisioning the limitless collaborative potential lying at the place where art, design, sustainability, innovation, and community-centered thinking intersect.

Date: Thursday, July 8 - 4:00pm

Perspectives of a Caribbean Contemporary Creative on Living and Working in ‘Paradise’:
Conversation between curator Tariana Navas-Nieves and artist Annalee Davis

Description: Puertorican Navas-Nieves and Barbadian Davis will engage in a conversation exploring the artist’s compelling work and how the world’s first globalized arena has shaped her distinct way of thinking and aesthetic sensibility in a post-colonial/post-independent society.

Date: Friday, July 9 - 4:00pm

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium:
Sustainability, Social Justice and Healthy Spirit at Humanity’s Crossroads

Description: This event is an experiential and multimedia group experience that is reaching tens of thousands of people around the world who are informed and motivated to take action towards a healthier and moresustainable modern world. To register: www.awakeningthedreamer.org

Date: Saturday, July 10 - 12:30 pm to 4:30pm

Reweaving our Relational Web:
Gender, Justice and Sustainability

Description: Join Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers, to hear and discuss ideas that encourage us to learn from nature and the indigenous among us and deepen our own capacity for leadership on behalf of a future that works for all, to collectively co-create a more vital, just and healthy world.

Date: Tuesday, July 13 - 6:00pm

Cultural Affirmation and At-Risk Youth:
Reconnecting Youth to their Historical, Cultural, Spiritual and National Identities

Description: Calderon, ED of H.O.M.E.Y SF will focus on the use of culturally relevant practices that promote the development of a positive self-identity, reduce or prevent high-risk, self and community destructive behaviors, peer pressures and negative societal influences in the youth.

Date: Thursday, July 15 - 4:00pm

Energy Imperative:
From Fossil Fuels to Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Description: How do we transition to clean and renewable sources when traditional fuels are so entrenched in our energy system? Michael Potts, CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute, will discuss these challenges and how a whole-systems view reveals opportunities available to transition to an efficient and renewable energy future.

Date: Friday, July 16 - 4:00pm

Transfolklorico

Description: Through a series of videos called Transfolklorico Luis Maurette will explore how folklore is affected by a globalized culture, where technology, media and communication networks are infused into world cultures.

Date: Saturday, July 17 - 3:00pm

  • Person Luis Maurette Argentina

Smart by Nature:
Schooling for Sustainability

Description: Dr. Michael K. Stone, author of the Center for Ecoliteracy book, Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability, will discuss strategies for sustainability education, success stories, and lessons learned from schools around the country.

Date: Tuesday, July 20 - 6:00pm

Be a Changemaker:
Local Transformation through Homegrown Innovation

Description: The Change Your City Campaign co-presents this panel of local change-makers as they explore how everyday people are becoming inspired to make a difference in their communities.

Date: Wednesday, July 21 - 4:00pm

Indigeneity:
Ethics & Possibilities

Description: By offering a framework for situating “Indigeneity” as a way toward changing current paradigms, Armstrong will focus in the idea that the principles of “Indigeneity” must be recovered by all human beings in their various relationships to nature if we are to hope for a healthier future.

Date: Thursday, July 22 - 4:00pm

Quasitopian Dreaming:
A conversation between Pedro Reyes and Clark Richert

Description: Reyes and Richert will exchange thoughts about their shared interests in structure and space; energy and environment, while imagining ways to improve the world through creative approaches; they will offer speculations across the realms of utopia and function, individual fantasies and collective aspirations.

Date: Friday, July 23 - 4:00pm

Real Estates:
Micro-Geographic Approaches to Urbanism and Infrastructure

Description: Referencing both de Monchaux’s project “Local Code: Real Estates” and Schroeppel’s role as a prominent urbanist and DenverInfill blogger, they investigate the opportunities for a “micro-geographic” approach and its impact on planning, design, funding, and public policy.

Date: Saturday, July 24 - 3:00pm

The Health and Happiness Project:
A Real Experience of Sustainable Community Development in the Brazilian Amazon

Description: From ecosystems to healthcare systems, join Dr. Netto as he presents his groundbreaking work in the Amazon region and shares how his experience of comprehensive and sustained community development can offer new hope and insight into strengthening our most precious resources.

Date: Tuesday, July 27 - 6:00pm

Urban Roots:
Conversations on Eco-Equity, Food Justice & Cultural Activism in the U.S.

Description: Local food, green jobs, and green cities are infused with urban agriculture, art, and social justice as these five visionaries redefine “going green.”

Date: Wednesday, July 28 - 4:00pm

What Can Aesthetics Do?

Description: This presentation will open up a conversation on intersections between art, politics, and philosophy. It will chart the reemergence of the much maligned branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, indicating some of its potential contributions for reframing discussions about the position of art in society.

Date: Thursday, July 29 - 4:00pm

Going Green, Living Bling:
Redefining the Image of Wealth in Hip Hop Culture

Description: Journeying from the forest to the concrete jungle this panel and musical performance will discuss the growing movement of sustainability within Hip Hop and “hood” culture, while speaking to the basic necessities; food, clothing, shelter, community and what it means to be truly wealthy.

Date: Friday, July 30 - 4:00pm

Between the Lines:
Explorations in Borderlands Culture

Description: This panel seeks to illuminate the cultures past or present that have been born from the US borderlands as well as how the physical boundary and perceptual mind-state of the border play a role in the identity, expressions, and the rich cultures of these areas.

Date: Saturday, July 31 - 3:00pm

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Video Series: My Body Is A Weapon

As a tool or a technique, video is a direct reference to observation, to scrutiny, and to the faculty that allows us to discern a discourse when looking at a picture, whether it is linear or not. It also makes us think of the ability to interpret. Video is an extension of the senses; it is probably the most successful technique when it comes to bringing together the body and technology.

This selection of artists from different latitudes and cultures offers an interesting panorama on how individuals may appear as political weapons, as tools, signs or as parts in a composition. This show is built around the notion of the exposed body as the core principle in a creative discourse.

The coincidences that fall into the geography of the Latin American map are quite easy to notice. Argentinean artists, for instance, show a peculiar interest on how memory is contained/ interpreted by eyewitnesses and also on exploring their recent past. On the other hand, the impeccable formalism of Brazilians is opposed by the rough testimonies presented by Cuban artists. Bringing the works together according to the country of origin of each artist is not an arbitrary gesture, since this array allows us to trace a map of Latin America seen from the point of view of its artists. Far from bringing us apart, this exercise shows in what ways we complement each other.

The formats chosen by the artists are also very different from each other, so this selection can also be seen as showing how the same medium may be used to structure discourses that end up by becoming languages on their own. These pieces explore the medium, their time, and their supports-actors-subjects.

Curated by: Luis A. Orozco

McNichols History

Carnegie Library circa 1910 Carnegie Library circa 1910

In 1909, Denver's first public library, The Carnegie Library, was built near the city’s developing downtown. At the time, the vision for the grand civic space that was to eventually become McNichols Civic Center was still evolving, making The Carnegie Library the first substantial construction on the site. Designed in the Greek Revival style by Albert Ross of New York, the Carnegie Library blended seamlessly with the City's Beautiful aesthetic that the Civic Center Park plan would follow in 1917.

In 1955, the Denver Water Board moved their offices into the building, removing the original front entrance and modifying the interior to accommodate office space. The open spaces of the original library were re-imagined to make way for new walls, mechanical and electrical equipment, ceilings and an elevator.

Renamed The McNichols Civic Center Building in 1999, the existing three-story building is virtually identical to its original construction. The Biennial marks the first time since 1955 that the McNichols Civic Center will be open to the public.

Demolition / Redesign

McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway McNichols Civic Center - Demolition / redesign underway Conceptual renderings of redesigned McNichols interior by tres birds workshop Conceptual renderings of redesigned McNichols interior by tres birds workshop Conceptual renderings of redesigned McNichols interior by tres birds workshop Conceptual renderings of redesigned McNichols interior by tres birds workshop Conceptual renderings of redesigned McNichols interior by tres birds workshop

Due to its changing uses over the last 100 years, the McNichols building has been subject to many interior remodels. Unfortunately, not all of them contributed positively to the building and its environment.

During the Denver Water Board renovations of the mid-1950s, a grand skylight was filled with concrete, windows were blocked by new walls, mosaic tile floors were covered with carpet and grand spaces were shortened and reduced with dropped ceilings. This additive process subdued the original architectural elements and stifled the original interior environment.

In preparation for the inaugural 2010 Biennial of the Americas, Colorado’s tres birds workshop was enlisted to revitalize the building for this historic event. Their approach to resuscitating the old library was predominantly reductive, and focused on revitalizing the building with an abundant supply of natural light.

After removing unnecessary material and restoring the original volume of the building's spaces, tres birds workshop invented and integrated a ‘light frame’ system of display and sunlight modulation. Resulting in the recycling of hundreds of cubic yards of masonry and steel lathe, the approach has enabled the return of sunlight to the century-old landmark. Beauty has returned.