A researcher colleague wanted to call it the “Great Museum Cartel.” We were working on a RAND report on the visual arts, and it emerged that the vast majority of visitors, operating funds, endowments, and donations accrue to the top ten museums in the country.
Yesterday bought more confirmation of …
Title: Peace of Mind
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 101×76 cm
From Ronen:
“Around the city of Lublin Poland, on empty buildings as well as inhabited ones, in the alleys of the old city and on streets of the newer parts, I posted photos of different examples of Jewish people who lived on these streets in these houses of the center of Lublin in between in the nineteen twenties ’till 1941.
In a modest gesture, I return the people in the photos to the place they were taken. The photos show all kind of Jews. Young, old, modern, religious, political activist, Bundist, Zionist, nihilists, bourgeois, Hasidic, yeshiva student, communist, who knows? In some photos the identity is clearly visible, while in others it’s not so clear.
Near the photos appear different questions in polish:
Czy zawsze czu?e? si? inny od swoich przyjació?? / Have you always felt different from your friends?
Czy w twojej rodzinie jest wielka tajemnica? / Does your family hide a great mystery/secret?
Czy twoja babcia mamrocze w obcym j?zyku przez sen? / Does your grandmother mumble in her sleep in a foreign tongue?
Jakim ?ydem jeste?? What kind of Jew are you?
The project was made as part of the Open City Festival – Festival of art in public spaces. Lublin, Poland. curator: Krzysztof Zwirblis / Studio Gallery
From Jeff:
“Inspired by Paris artist, Jerome G. Dermuth, we’ve taken on 7 (more to follow) swing installation in San Francisco as part of an ongoing Happiness Project aimed at loss of youth. The short video below shows the installation, scouting, and lots of footage of randoms using the swings with complete and utter joy as they relent to a push and some wind in their hair. Watch it through. The joy as this autistic kid’s father’s face as he gets on a swing for the first time in 40 years is our parting shot. It’s pure and simple bliss that’s sadly been long ignored and forgotten.”