Arto Lindsay and Rirkrit Tiravanija guide parade of ‘Trespassers’
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Nobody does it quite like Barbara Kruger, but dozens of artists have penned slogans for the music/dance/art/activism mash-up known as the Trespass Parade, taking place downtown this Sunday. The artists each wrote one-liners printed on T-shirts to be worn at the parade.
Learn to dream, says John Baldessari.
Mend the roads with the ruins of churches, says Lisa Anne Auerbach.
They only call it class war when we fight back, says Sam Durant.
The revolution is my boyfriend, says Vaginal Davis.
Talk is cheap/free speech is priceless, says Barbara Kruger
Less oil/more courage, says one of three designs by Rirkrit Tiravanija, who was a guiding spirit of the event along with musician Arto Lindsay.
A group of high school students from Roosevelt Senior and South Gate high schools who also wrote slogans will join many of these artists in the procession. Other participants include Nancy Buchanan, Dawn Kasper, KILLSONIC, Joel Kyack, Sylvère Lotringer, Ann Magnuson and My Barbarian as well as some art students from USC, CalArts, Art Center, Otis and UCLA.
‘The idea was to do something really participatory inspired by Rirkrit’s practice--something very inclusive and about collaboration,’ says organizer Emi Fontana of West of Rome.
As for the anti-capitalist thrust of some of the slogans, Fontana says the event is ‘a sort of hybrid between a parade and a demonstration, a parade and a march. It has both elements.’ She expects the event to have the jagged energy of downtown L.A. itself: ‘I think downtown represents a sort of broken dream of Los Angeles being a real city on the European or New York model. But of course it is something else--the first really contemporary city in the West.’
The parade, an official kickoff event of Pacific Standard Time, begins at 11 a.m. on Sunday at 1933 S. Broadway and wraps up at MOCA and REDCAT. The following night an artist-packed benefit party will take place at Union Station, complete with parade footage, to raise money for Fontana’s nonprofit public art organization West of Rome. See the website www.trespassparade.org for specific parade route and benefit information.
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--Jori Finkel