OPEN CALL: FREE ART FOR FAIR EXCHANGE AT THE 2012 ARMORY SHOW

Piers 92 & 94, New York City
Saturday and Sunday, March 10th & 11th
1-4pm
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Occupy Museums invites all artists and non-artists to join a mobile exchange art fair on the sidewalk outside of this year’s Armory Show in New York City. Participants are encouraged to bring items such as paintings, drawings, sculpture, conceptual art, crafts, food, and other objects to exchange with Armory attendees and each other. We particularly welcome modes of exchange are not based on profit.

Initiated in 1994, the current Armory Show shares a name with the famous 1913 Armory Show in which important avante garde works such as Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase were exhibited to the US public for the first time. While the 1913 show stands for the shock of the new, the current Armory Show stands for the economic shocks administered by the 1%. While unemployment and foreclosure continue to spread, the luxury markets, including Sotheby’s auction house and the Armory Show, have experienced rapid growth in line with the booming bonuses on Wall Street.

As the world of art and culture develop within this system of manufactured inequality, culture becomes equated more and more directly with financial capital. Rather than fostering new creative possibilities through collaboration, the dominant institutions of the art world divide artists and antagonize them through competition. Conflicts of interest, tax dodging, and chandelier bidding practices, which give the false sense of value that arbitrarily inflates prices, are part of this practice. The wealthiest 1% exploit our art and culture for their personal gain. Artists and art-lovers are left wanting.

Amidst this crisis, we offer an experiment in systems of art-exchange that do not emphasize financial capital, but rather celebrate abundance and connection. We believe that art is not a commodity for speculation but rather a fundamental part of the commons, inherited and shared by all. We invite all the 100,000+ artists in New York City to join us outside of Piers 92 and 94 to engage in a new kind of art market.

Booths at this fair are free of charge.

Occupy Museums
www.occupymuseums.org/  occupymuseums@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / #occupymuseums