Fresh Art International

LIVE from Dominican Republic with Tilting Axis

 

From inside Centro Léon, Santiago, Dominican Republic, we introduce Tilting Axis, a roving arts initiative that aims to bridge the geopolitical gap between Caribbean territories by sparking creative collaborations and cultivating cultural connectivity. Organizers Annalee Davis, Natalie Urquhart, Sara Hermann and Joel Butler talk about the genesis of Tilting Axis, why they're here and what will unfold during the fourth annual gathering.

About Tilting Axis 4: The 2018 convening in the Dominican Republic is a collaboration with the curatorial studies program Curando Caribe and two institutions — Centro León, Santiago, and Centro Cultural de España, Santo Domingo. Exploring the theme Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures, artists, curators, stakeholders, instigators and activists debate ideas about the Caribbean’s interdependent future, reimagining their collective potential.

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special Audio: Sandra Vivas, After LaMonte Young

Related Links: 

Tilting Axis

Centro Léon

Centro Cultural de España, Santo Domingo

Deborah Mitchell: The Artist as Guide to The Everglades

Today, we take you to meet to artist Deborah Mitchell in her studio on Miami Beach, to talk about the ways that Florida’s southwest coast inspires her. The contested landscape, endangered by encroaching urban development and sea level rise, is where she engages as an artist and an advocate for North America’s only subtropical wilderness: The Everglades. Mitchell’s mindful practice expresses her affinity for this fragile ecology, and her desire to learn, share and preserve its science and history.

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special Audio: Deborah Mitchell | Photographs courtesy the artist and Fresh Art International

Related links: The Everglades, Big Cypress, Deborah Mitchell, Artists in Residence In Everglades (AIRIE)

Art Sparking Social Engagement

Curators and artists whose passion is social engagement share their experiments in relational aesthetics—participatory performances, interactive installations, community events, and inside/outside exhibitions—invite viewers to become co-creators, to take ownership in the creative process.

Curators Jochen Volz (São Paulo Biennial, Live Uncertainty, 2016), Susan Cross (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Material World, 2010-2011, The Workers, 2011-2012), James Voorhies (Bureau of Open Culture, MASS MoCA, The Workers) and Stephanie Smith (SMART Museum of Art, FEAST, 2012, and Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond, Declaration, 2018) share their perspectives, as do artists William Pope.L (Baile, 2016), Theaster Gates (Soul Food Pavilion, 2012) and Marinella Senatore (Estman Radio, ongoing).

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio

Special Audio:

William Pope.L, Baile, São Paulo Biennial
There Is Only Light (We Do Not Know What To Do With Other Worlds) performance-reading, July 2011, MASS MoCA. Produced by Bureau for Open Culture
Theaster Gates, FEAST, SMART Museum of Art, University of Chicago
Marinella Senatore and Estman Radio recording, courtesy Marinella Senatore and Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Art

Related Links:

Live Uncertainty, Material World, The Workers: Precarity/Invisibility/Mobility, FEAST: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art, Declaration, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation Exhibition Award, Exhibitions on the Cusp

Live from Dakar 2018

Today, we bring you Fresh Art International LIVE from Dakar, Senegal. We made the journey to West Africa in May 2018, to capture sounds of local art and culture and to document our first encounter with the biennial of contemporary African art known as Dak'Art.

In the first of our two live streaming broadcasts, you'll hear Marisol Rodríguez (Mexico City/Paris), one of the biennial's guest curators, talk about her work with a team of creatives based in the Hurricane Zone (Mexico's Yucatàn Peninsula, Central America and the Caribbean).

Also LIVE: our show from la Boite à Idée, or Idea Box, a cultural hub in Dakar's Mermoz district. In the garden of this space is where cultural activist Ken Aicha Sy, founder of Wakh'Art Music introduces us to a few of the creatives engaging in the local art and music scene. You'll hear from Ms. Sy, along with Franco-Senegalese artist Gabriel Dia, jazz guitarist Paride Pagnotti, I Science vocalist Corinna Fiore, and composer Nathan Fallou Fuhr. A modest local songwriter introducing himself simply as "Jean-Pierre," steps up to the microphone with his guitar to voice our melodic good-bye-for-now.

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special audio courtesy ZAM ZAM, Paride Pagnotti, I Science, Nathan Fallou Fuhr and Jean-Pierre 

Miami's Caribbean Arts Remix-Jolt Radio-2May2018

Today’s conversations on Miami’s Caribbean Arts Remix reveal the genesis and goals of the three-year old Third Horizon Film Festival and the first-ever Tout-Monde (all the world) Festival. Both initiatives aim to introduce some of the boldest of today’s emerging Caribbean-born artists, filmmakers and musicians in Miami, a portal to the international contemporary art and culture scene.

 

Sound editing: Anamnesis Audio

Cultural Complexity in Little Haiti

In this conversation, we talk about how the island country of Haiti has long inspired contemporary art, books and films and how the cultural complexity of immigrant communities is a creative force in South Florida. Come with us to the heart of Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood for a walk about with Carl Juste, a local cultural activist, photojournalist and artist whose family comes from Haiti and Cuba. Haitian-born writer Edwige Danticat introduces Foreigner's Home, a new film to premiere at the 35th Miami Film Festival. Miami-based curators Marie Vickles, Edouard Duval-Carrié and Tosha Grantham (with family ties to Greece and Africa, Haiti, Asia and America, respectively) talk about connecting cultural history to contemporary art in exhibitions at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex and share what sparked Visionary Aponte: Art & Black Freedom, the traveling exhibition that recently premiered in Miami. Cuban-born Lissette Mendez and Carl Juste share some of the stories behind the collective exhibition and book project Havana, Haiti and the annual Little Haiti Book Festival.

Prospect 4 New Orleans—The Lotus In Spite of the Swamp

Come with us to explore Prospect New Orleans, the Crescent City’s triennial of contemporary art. Titled The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, the fourth iteration evokes the musical character of New Orleans and the surrounding natural environment—the bayous, lakes and wetlands near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Voices in this episode: Prospect.4’s artistic director Trevor Schoonmaker, former executive director Brooke Davis Anderson, artists Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Paulo Nazareth, Sonia Boyce, Rusty Lazer, Darryl Montana, Davia Nelson of the Kitchen Sisters, and more!

 

Fresh Talk: Amy Sherald

Fresh Art International presents a live podcast event with American artist Amy Sherald at moniquemeloche gallery in Chicago. Recorded on July 9, 2016, at a moment in American history marked with killings that accentuate deep racial issues in this country, our conversation verges on joy and sadness. The timeless sense of black identity described in Amy Sherald’s figurative paintings reminds us how art can be both transcendent and aspirational.

Sound Editor: Jesse McQuarters

Fresh Talk: Creative Mornings Miami

Cathy Byrd talks about change as a creative opportunity when she makes an appearance at Creative Mornings/Miami. She recorded this Fresh Talk episode with rapt listeners in a secret garden at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens.

Sound Editor: Guney Ozsan | Sound effects: Creative Mornings/Miami

Fresh Talk: Hattie Mae Williams

American dancer and choreographer Hattie Mae Williams talks about how the abandoned Miami Marine Stadium at the edge of Biscayne Bay has become a mecca for graffiti artists, musicians, dancers, and photographers. Designed by Cuban-born architect Hilario Candela and built in 1963 as a venue for powerboat racing, the iconic stadium was an active community gathering place before Hurricane Andrew damaged its poured concrete structure in 1992. Christian Salazar shot the dance film titled Culture Concrete (2014) that Williams performed with The Tattooed Ballerinas inside the cultural landmark.

Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie | Culture Concrete soundtrack courtesy The Tattooed Ballerinas and Datamouth | Voice of Hilario Candela via the video featured in the exhibition Concrete Paradise: Miami Marine Stadium at the Coral Gables Museum. Produced by the curators Rosa Lowinger and Megan Schmitt together with exhibit designers Little Gables Group.