Sat 10/7 @ 10AM-4PM
It was quite a coup when SPACES gallery dirctor Tizziana Baldenebro and moCa curator Lauren Leving were chosen to curate the U.S. Pavilion at 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale , which opened May 20 and runs through November 23.Their exhibition, Everlasting Plastics, focused on how plastics impact our environment, as interpreted by five diverse artists from Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan and Cleveland. Ohio.
Obviously not many Clevelanders can make the trip to Venice to see the show. But at least some of the ideas behind it will be coming to Cleveland in a daylong symposium called Canal to Cuyahoga: Everlasting Plastics in Context, taking place at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“The symposium serves as a forum to consider our cultural relationship to the ubiquity of plastic, its impact on material cultures, and the consequences and possibilities it entangles for our collective futures,” they tell us. “Forging a space for connection and dialogue among artists, architects, curators, scholars, students, and members of the Cleveland community, the symposium traces the complex networks of plastic production, consumption, and waste from the Venetian Lagoon to the Lake Erie watershed, opening new possibilities for innovation, collaboration, and revitalization.”
All five contributing artists will be present: Xavi Laida Aguirre, assistant professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Detroit-based designer Simon Anton; Ang Li, assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Northeastern University; Norman Teague, assistant professor of industrial design in the School of Design at the University of Illinois Chicago; and Cleveland sculptor/conceptual artist Lauren Yeager. Magdalena Moskalewicz, chief curator of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, will moderate.
The afternoon will feature small-group breakout discussions. Finally, the day ends with a keynote by interdisciplinary writer, artist, and theorist Dr. Katie Schaag, assistant professor of theater and performance at Spelman College.
The event is free; you can get tickets here.