The Future is on the Table: Community-Based Art Collaboration Opens at City Gallery at Waterfront Park
For Immediate Release, September 2008
From Sept. 13 to Oct. 26, the City Gallery at Waterfront Park will present art installations, performances and gift exchanges for The Future is on the Table, an international community art collaboration, started in 2003 by Charleston artists Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet when they sent 56 handmade three-legged stools to artists around the world. The public is invited to the free opening performance and reception, Sept. 13 from 4 to 7 p.m., with the performance starting at 4 p.m. and the reception immediately following at 5 p.m. The public is also encouraged to visit the exhibition as well as participate in the Web site at http://thefutureisonthetable.ning.com.
When sent to artists, Gallimard and Mauclet proposed that the stools, each cut from a single sheet of marine plywood with a painting of a world map, representing a piece of the global community, be used as forms of art to generate conversations about globalization and social justice issues, focusing on water and shelter as basic human rights. Artists, artisans and arts collaboratives who agreed to participate were then challenged to create an object, installation, performance or other art project in response to these issues.
From England to France and India to South Africa and the United States, resulting projects include, artists-in-residencies, workshops, stone carving, gift exchanges, and many others. These projects were lead by the Arpan Cooperative/MarketPlace India, Phinias Chirubvu, Omari Fox, Arianne King Comer, Marcia Kure, Rajni Shah and Delphine Ziegler.
“We built this project based on our belief in the importance of local communities, and our goal in creating The Future is on the Table, was to use art to start an open dialogue and encourage activism around the metaphorical table referenced by the title,” says Gallimard. “This is a table around which the local community, as part of the global community, can gather to share ideas, discuss problems and contemplate the future of our world.”
The Gibbes Museum of Art will house an installation from Sept. 12 to Nov. 2 representing the evolution of the five-year project and each participating artist or arts collaborative. Participating artists will also be in residency at the exhibition sites prior to the openings and will give presentations at Columbia College and at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. November 3, the exhibition will move to the North Charleston City Gallery where it will remain until Nov. 25.
Other special events, including multi-disciplinary performances and dialogues on community-based arts, collaborations in the field of visual arts, the tradition of gift exchange and the cultural impact of the arts in a global culture, will be held on the following dates:
Lectures:
- Sept. 14, 1-5 p.m., Gibbes Museum of Art: “The Future is on the Table. Welcome”
- Oct. 25, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Redux Contemporary Art Center: “We all love Art but Art can be an uncomfortable issue. Welcome.”
- Oct. 26, 11a.m.-5 p.m., City Gallery at Waterfront Park: “Now What? Welcome”
Gallery Tours:
- Sept. 13, City Gallery at Waterfront Park, led by artists, assistants and all participants
- Sept. 26, Gibbes Museum of Art, led by Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet
- Oct. 10, Gibbes Museum of Art, led by Arianne King Comer
For more information about these events, please call (843) 958-6484.
The City Gallery at Waterfront Park, owned by the City of Charleston and operated by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, is a venue for contemporary artwork that is new, vital and innovative, with a focus on broadening the Charleston’s arts outlook. The Gallery aims to do for fine arts in Charleston what Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto have achieved for performing arts. The City Gallery is located at 34 Prioleau St. in downtown Charleston, S.C, and its hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m. For more information, please call or e-mail the City Gallery at (843) 958-6484 or CityGallery@ci.charleston.sc.
