VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs presents An Exhibition of Proposals for a Socialist Colony, 2318 Elgin, Houston, TX, 77004, (Eldorado Ballroom @ Project Row Houses), March 27 – May 22, 2010. Now through June 19. Opening March 27th 6-9pm. Organized by Sasha Dela, Benison Kilby, Elysa Lozano for Autonomous Organization, and Nancy Zastudil.

In the mid 1800’s a box of national archives went missing during the Archive War causing Skydive’s land to revert to its original deed. It stipulates that the land be granted to any group starting a socialist colony on the property. The works in this exhibition are proposals for this new colony. They contribute a variety of perspectives on the fruitful paradoxes that reside in the quest for individual freedom and the necessity for social contracts, collective processes and their sometimes authoritarian implementation.

Mounted in Houston, Texas, the exhibition is set against a backdrop of the state’s historical independence from Mexico and the United States, and in which a libertarian spirit persists and is legally protected. There are no zoning laws in Houston: any enterprise can exist within any building or neighborhood. The premise of this exhibition takes advantage of this lenient civic stance (without it the proposed colony could never exist), to designate a zone for debate about where personal necessity ends and public life begins, and what role self-organization can play in the development of collective processes.

An Exhibition of Proposals for a Socialist Colony has been built fromproposals for systems, tools, communities, communications, resource use, historical research, democratic gestures, implementation, and a public relations campaign. To produce this project the artists and curators engaged in a collaborative practice, where artists could operate as organizers and decisions were subject to the group.

Participating artists include BAW, N55, Aharon, Amy Balkin, Zanny Begg, The Copenhagen Commune, Chto Delat/What is to be Done?, José Filipe Costa, Erin Elder, Amy Franceschini, Alex Lockett, David Mabb, Anna Pickering, The Public School, Jon Sack, Temporary Services, Chin Xaou Ti Won, and Duncan Wooldridge.

Exhibition details and free public events in Houston are as follows:

• Saturday March 20, 2:00-4:00pm
A Saturday Free School presentation: How to Build a Video Projector for $100
Skydive, 3400 Montrose, Suite 907

• Thursday March 25, 7:00pm
In the Freed Auditorium at Glassell School- A discussion with Erin Elder, David Mabb,
José Filipe Costa, Chin Xaou Ti Won and Duncan Wooldridge
Glassell School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Freed Auditorium, 5101 Montrose

• Friday March 26, 7:30pm
Screening Of Thomas Harlan’s Torre Bela, a documentary of a group of workers that
take over of a privately owned estate to start a collective farm
Domy Books, 1209 Westheimer

• Saturday March 27, 6:00-9:00pm
Exhibition opening reception
Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses, 2310 Elgin (at Dowling)

• Thursday April 15, 7:30pm
Screening of Comuna Under Construction, directed by Dario Azzelini and Oliver Ressler
Domy Books, 1209 Westheimer

For more information:
http://skydiveofficeofculturalaffairs.blogspot.com/
http://www.theskydive.org
http://www.autonomousorganization.org/Home.html

About Skydive
SKYDIVE utilizes an open and collaborative model for producing its programming. It consists of
a group of artists and curators that function as advisors to help create shows, invite artists, and
collaborate in the programming of the space. The Saturday Free School for the Arts is also a
project of Skydive and offers community proposed classes free in content and cost.
www.theskydive.org