13th annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival

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Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Art/Antiques

Published on Saturday, 05 September 2009 10:14

Written by FFTraveler Staff

The free three-day multi-site neighborhood-wide D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® is a one-of-a-kind art happening: where serendipity meets the haphazard and where the unpredictable, spontaneous and downright weird thrive.

The now teenage D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® presents touchable, accessible, and interactive art, on a scale that makes it the nation's largest urban forum for experimental art. The 13th annual event presented by the Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) takes places from from Sept. 25th to Sept. 27th, 2009.

Art Under the Bridge is an opportunity for young artists to use any medium imaginable to create temporary projects on-the-spot everywhere and anywhere, completely transforming the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York, into a vibrant platform for self-expression. In addition to the 80+ projects throughout the historical post-industrial waterfront span, visitors can tour local artists' studios or check out the indoor video_dumbo, a non-stop program of cutting-edge video art from New York City and around the world.

The immediacy of the event means many artists reflect on current issues: among others, the rise of technology, recession blues, homelessness and environmental concerns, for example:

River's Edge, is a street installation of oyster shells by John Monteith. It remembers the past use of these shells as an industrial material while it celebrates their recent use as an environmental tool.

Welcome to NYC; Boomtown 2006 by Artcodex creates a commentary about the failing boom markets of art and real estate by recreating New York as a post goldrush town. Performance times: Sat. 12-2PM; Sun. 2-4PM

Ballooning Awareness is an interactive roaming performance by John Bonafede that prompts youngsters to answer the question: "What is climate change and what should we do about it?" Performance times: Sat. 12PM; Sun. 12PM

The Tree of Life: Reina Kubota’s plastic bag installation blooms under the night sky.

Stir Crazy: Come see Ryan Roth, forced by these economic times into the endangered, caged and untamed, business werewolf. Performance times: Fri. 8-9PM; Sat. 12-9PM; Sun. 12-9PM

Eco-disco: Join Scott Rummler at the eco-disco and experience a dialogue between nature, technology, and culture.

Tercet: Throughout the streets, Angela Silver questions meaning in contemporary experience by usurping the ubiquitous traffic sign system and replacing the text with multi-lingual poetics.

The Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) has been the exclusive producer of the D.U.M.B.O Art Under the Bridge Festival® since 1997. DAC is a big impact, small non-profit, that in addition to its year-round gallery exhibitions, is committed to preserving Dumbo as a site in New York City where emerging visual artists can experiment in the public domain, while having unprecedented freedom and access to normally off-limit locations.

DAC reports that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has selected the 13th D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival for a case study on outdoor festivals, to be published in 2010.

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