Wednesday, February 21, 2007

An Outside Opinion


This week we met with the film maker Jem Cohen in order to get his opinion about the tour, since he spent almost ten years documenting and touring with Fugazi. To prep for the meeting we watched Instrument, the Fugazi documentary he made. And I forgot how inspirational and persistent the vision of Ian MacKaye of Fugazi actually is. Self Made acts as a touring band but shows art, and I think our intentions and ideals should mirror bands like Fugazi in a way. They wanted nothing to do with the music industry, did mostly benefit shows, and adopted the DIY(do it yourself) mandate. We want to follow this aesthetic by presenting art differently, not in an arena concert way like Justin Timberlake but in a DIY way like Fugazi. So comparably, Biennials are the Justin Timberlake's of the art world and Self Made wants to be the Fugazi's of the art world.

So we met with Jem Cohen and our conversation with him was helpful. He thought the idea was great, but told us that booking might be a problem depending on what types of venues we wanted to show at i.e. alternative spaces, art galleries, art centers, living rooms. And he gave us some advice about dealing with each other on the road and how the last leg might get trying.

All in all it has been a good week.

Brice

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Self Organization

Everything is coming along as planned. The roster of artists on the tour so far are me (Brice Bischoff), Whitney Lynn, and Kevin Parks Hauser(which is having a show opening tonight!) We are thinking about adding an additional artist and/or inviting 1 or 2 local artists from each community we visit to be a part of the exhibition. Having local artists from each city participate in the exhibition will help generate support for the event and encourage other people organize their own art tour, and the communication/ dialogue between the us and the locals will prove invaluable.

And...transporation has been resolved! Its not a tour bus, but I think it will work.

And..the tour will begin in NEW ORLEANS, LA! What a great place to start it up.

all for now,

Brice