QMAil: August 2007

In this ISSUE:

   EXHIBITIONS: Generation 1.5 | Il Lee: Ballpoint Drawings | Corona Plaza, Center of Everywhere: Four Site-Specific Projects

   EVENTS: Passport Fridays-South Africa | Spoken Word & Performance Workshop with Erica R. DeLaRosa | Passport Fridays-China | Bolivian Diversity Fest | Passport Fridays-Tunisia | Cocktail Hour + Poets in the Galleries: Sarah Husain | CINEMAROSA - queens only queer film series | UN-A Queens Screening + Potluck | Passport Fridays-Korea | For Seniors

   RIGHT COLUMN: Subscribe | Ongoing Programs | Language Programs | Adult Programs | Permanent Exhibitions | Special Announcements | Credits

August masthead: Il Lee (b. 1952, Seoul, Korea), BL-071, 2006. Ballpoint pen on canvas, 75 x 115 in. Courtesy of Artist and Art Projects International (API), New York.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Generation 1.5

On view through December 2, 2007

Generation 1.5 is an exhibition of the work of eight artists who emigrated in their teenage years. The term "generation 1.5" is used in some communities to describe those who are neither adult immigrants nor American born – the in-between generation of people who moved from one country to another between the ages of 12 and 18. Already undergoing physical and intellectual change during these formative years, 1.5 generation individuals also experience a change in context, in language, in culture. The premise of the exhibition is that the relationship of a 1.5 artist to their adopted country is different than that of a person who immigrated when they were much younger or older. Generation 1.5 is curated by Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art, Tom Finkelpearl and Chief Curator, Valerie Smith. The participating artists are: Shirin Neshat, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Emily Jacir, Nari Ward, Lee Mingwei, Pablo Helguera, Ellen Harvey and Seher Shah.

In lieu of a printed catalogue, Generation 1.5 will feature an online component that will grow throughout the time of the exhibition. This site is intended to generate thoughtful debate, from artists and non-artists alike, on the influence that being 1.5 may or may not have on artistic practice. Please stop by and contribute comments.

Generation 1.5 has been made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Taipei Cultural Center and the Crystal Foundation.

More information is available here.

Il Lee: Ballpoint Drawings

July 19 - September 30, 2007

The Queens Museum of Art introduces the work of Il Lee (b. 1952), a Korean-born artist living and working in Brooklyn since 1977. Using disposable ballpoint pens, Lee creates dramatic ink fields on surfaces of canvas and paper. The exhibition includes a selection of large format blue and black ink drawings, early experimental studies, and an impressive fifty-foot installation-his largest work to date. Il Lee: Ballpoint Drawings is curated by Joanna Kleinberg, guest curator.
This exhibition is funded in part by the Korean Cultural Service New York and The Vilcek Foundation.

Click for more information.

Corona Plaza, Center of Everywhere: Four Site-Specific Projects

On view through October 14, 2007 at QMA

July 1 - October 14, 2007 at Corona Plaza

Corona, Queens has experienced a significant population increase since 1980 due to an influx of recent immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Today, Corona Plaza mirrors the neighborhood's diverse population in a bustling mix of shopping, eating, entertainment and leisure. The Queens Museum of Art has commissioned four emerging artists to produce temporary site-specific art in Corona Plaza, just a few blocks away from the museum's home, Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The projects are part of a larger "Heart of Corona" initiative in which the museum and community partners work towards three main objectives: to improve the health of community residents; beautify the neighborhood; and activate public spaces in the area thereby enhancing the environment for visitors, residents, and merchants alike. Artists Hector Canonge, Stephanie Diamond, Shaun Leonardo and Xaviera Simmons were asked to develop projects that would integrate with the specific conditions of the plaza. Corona Plaza, Center of Everywhere: Four Site-Specific Projects will include an exhibition at the Museum which will document and expand on the projects in the plaza. The works exemplify much contemporary artistic practice that values audience participation, fun, generosity and community engagement.
Corona Plaza, Center of Everywhere is made possible with support from the Institute for Museum & Library Services and the Ford Foundation.

Click for more information.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Passport Fridays - South Africa

Friday, August 3, 6:30 - 10 pm

DANCE: Dance in Queens Awardee Nibroll presents a multimedia performance for three dancers and a video artist entitled Public=un+public, which explores the concepts of individuality and difference through the struggle to communicate across cultures.
MUSIC: African Underground All-Stars featuring MCs, DJs and live percussion from Africa and the Diaspora.
FILM: African Underground: Democracy in Dakar shorts Episodes 5 & 6 followed by U-CARMEN E-KHAYELITSHA
(Mark Dornford May, South Africa, 2005, 120 min, Xhosa with English ST) Set in the sprawling township of Khayelitsha and sung entirely in Xhosa, U-Carmen is a rousing and imaginative contemporary adaptation of George Bizet's 19th-century opera Carmen. It's impressively performed and operatically sung by the Dimpho Di Kopane theatre company, and stars Pauline Malefane (who also co-wrote the script) as the titular cigarette factory worker who seduces the Bible-reading policeman with fateful consequences- Tom Dawson. Winner Golden Bear, Berlinale 2005. Co-Presented with African Film Festival & Nomadic Wax.

Click for Passport Fridays details.

Spoken Word & Performance Workshop with Erica R. DeLaRosa

Monday, August 6 (at Flushing Library)

During a July workshop, Artist/Performer/Educator/Activist Erica DeLaRosa took participants on a journey of remaking and sharing their personal histories using the tools of spoken word, performance and the visual arts. The workshop culminates in a free performance, Waiting to be Born, Voices of Love and Diversity later this month. Date and time TBA. Please call 718.592.9700 for more information.

Passport Fridays - China

Friday, August 10, 6:30 - 10 pm

DANCE: Dance in Queens Awardee Noemi Segarra / no e[s] collective presents inhabiting a forgotten space / habitando el espacio olividado a duet with Rebecca Lloyd James that investigates bicultural identity, mobility, continuous in-between-ness, and the possibility of the body as "home."
MUSIC: Wing Hong Lion Dance Group & Dragon Style Kung Fu Demonstration
FILM: CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
(Zhang Yimou, Hong Kong/China, 2006, 114 min, Mandarin with English ST) Set in 10th century China, here is period spectacle as lavish entertainment from one of Asia’s most important living filmmakers. Curse of the Golden Flower portrays the imperial Chinese family rapidly losing internal strength due to a power struggle between the emperor (Chow Yun-Fat), the empress (Gong Li), and the couple’s three sons. A truly dazzling costume epic and a visually thrilling entertainment from the director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers. "Shakespearean royal tragedy executed with Hong Kong action scenes and Chinese art-house pageantry!" -Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Click for Passport Fridays details.

Bolivian Diversity Fest

Sunday, August 12, 3 - 7:30 pm

In honor of Bolivian Independence day, QMA is proud to host a day of screenings, music and dance organized by Zoraya Asturizaga with Hector Canonge. From 3 – 6pm there will be a double feature screening of the award winning film American Visa directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia followed by the new documentary by Marcos Loayza El estado de las cosas / The State of Things. The local music ensemble Estudiantina Bolivia de Nueva York will perform traditional folkloric music using pre-Columbian instruments followed by the energetic movements and choreography of members of the dance troupe Fraternidad Cultural Pasión Boliviana. Light Refreshments will be provided after the screenings. *Presented with the in-kind support of Nación Cine, Fundación Puerta del Sol, and the participation of the Comite Cívico Cultural Boliviano, the Bolivian Delegation to the UN, the Bolivian Consulate in New York City, and Metro Plus.

About the Films
American Visa (Juan Carlos Valdivia, 2005, 96 min)
Winner of the Premio Ariel (Mexican Oscars) as best foreign film of 2007, American Visa treats carefully the most recent wave of Bolivian immigration to the United States. In post-9/11 Bolivia harsh new laws let authorities assume that all visa applicants want to immigrate to the US. That is exactly the hurdle that Mario Alvarez faces at the beginning of the film. He plans on traveling to Miami to reunite with his son and start a new life in the US, but first he must secure a visa. Mario soon finds out that this is no small task, and he may have to resort to slightly unorthodox methods to get what he needs. Further complicating matters is Blanca, a charming young woman who is looking for change in her life. She envisions leaving her job at a local strip club, and perhaps building a relationship with Mario in Bolivia.

El estado de las cosas / The State of Things (Marcos Loayza, 2007, 76 min)
Documentary that explores the social, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity of Bolivia. After traveling around the country with his production team for some time, Loayza interviews politicians, local union leaders, intellectuals, and common people who manifest the state of things in their communities, cities and the country in general. Class and regional divisions of the Bolivian state are questioned in this film that investigates the aspirations of the people in relation to the state and to the universal rights of every individual.

Passport Fridays - Tunisia

Friday, August 17, 6:30 - 10 pm

DANCE: Dance in Queens Awardee YAA SAMAR! Dance Theatre will present Lahom-Haq fil-Hayaat / Their Right for Life. Danced to the music of Yval Ron Ensemble, this piece is an affirmation of will and the universal right to a home and security. Through the performance of these stories both artists and audience are given a better understanding of the complexities of Arab culture as well as the universality of their experience.
MUSIC: Tarab performs the classical Arabic repertoire, instrumental (with such genres as samai, lunga, dulab) and vocal, with special emphasis on the Andalusi Muwashah and Sufi repertoire. The ensemble also explores traditional folk music from various regions of the Arab world.
FILM: EL HAIMOUNE / WANDERERS OF THE DESERT
(Nacer Khemir, France/Tunisia, 1986, 95 min, Arabic with English ST) A young teacher arrives to a village on the brink of a desert. There is no school and the children are running through murky alleys, constructing a garden made of broken mirrors at the village edge or digging for treasures buried in the sand. All the other inhabitants are either elderly people or women including a mysterious, beautiful young girl. The men have been lured to search for the boundaries of the limitless desert. Are they merely an illusion or the keepers of another world? Co-presented with Alwan for the Arts & the NY Arab & South Asian Film Festival

Click for Passport Fridays details.

Cocktail Hour + Poets in the Galleries: Writers Respond to Generation 1.5

Saturday, August 18, 5:30 - 8:30 pm

Poets in the Galleries series utilizes the galleries as invigorating sites of exploration, investigation and interactive readings and discussions. Lively presentations and provocative intellectual and artistic exchanges will allow audiences new ways of accessing the resources of the museum, while simultaneously presenting visitors with various inroads into the exhibitions’ offerings. The Generation 1.5 exhibition lends itself especially well to this inaugural iteration, as it allows a wonderful springboard for the exchanges of ideas related to the immigrant experience, with the participation of distinguished and emerging voices in the local, national and international literary scene. So join us for a cocktail hour followed by interactive gallery tour & readings by Sarah Husain. Ms. Husain was born in New York City and grew up in Hong Kong, Sudan and Pakistan. She is the editor of an anthology titled, Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War Faith and Sexuality. Her written and performance poetry is concerned with memory, nation, violence, cancer, (bio)terrorism and the female body. She is working on a collection of poetry on cancer and the affects of our metastatic environment. She is also currently creating a series of performance pieces titled Invented Happiness: my body in a time of war and hunger.

CINEMAROSA - queens only queer film series

Sunday, August 19, 3 - 6 pm

Los Jornaleros / The Day Laborers (Lane Shefter, USA, 2003, 88 min, Spanish with English ST)
Set in East L.A., Los Jornaleros tells the story of three young Mexican illegal immigrants who believe in the idea of making a new start, a new life, in America but soon learn the harsh realities involved with trying to make a living as day-laborers. One of the three cousins comes out and these men from a macho culture must deal with this as well as simply existing on a daily basis.

For more information, visit Cinemarosa.

UN-A Queens Screening & Potluck

Sunday, August 19, 6:30 - 9 pm

Come and meet some UN retirees and learn about their experiences. Meet people of diverse cultures and taste their ethnic cuisine. Each person will bring some food of his/her ethnic cuisine for exchange, followed by video presentation on UN Association, Peace & UN 60 Ways.

Passport Fridays - Korea

Friday, August 24, 6:30 - 10 pm

DANCE: Dance in Queens Awardee Christopher J. Giarmo presents i love bobby p, a frenetic, muscular and tender movement to the music of Led Zeppelin, featuring the wholly cathartic vocals of Robert Plant aka "Bobby P" who has the voice of a siren--skating the thin line between serenade and guillotine.
MUSIC: Korean Traditional Cultural Center headed by Master Chil Seung Kwon will perform Korean drumming and fan dancing.
FILM: Joint Security Area
(Chanwook Park, Korea, 2000,100 min, Korean with English ST) After a shootout at the common security area at the border of the two Koreas, when two soldiers were murdered, Maj. Sophie E. Jean is assigned by the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to investigate the incident. The smart Major finds lack of consistency in the statements of the survivors, and in spite of being pressed by her superior, she interviews South Koreans Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok and private Nam Sung-shik, and the North Korean Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil, disclosing a tragic story of friendship.

Click for Passport Fridays details.

FOR SENIORS

Senior programs will return in the fall. Please call 718.592.9700 x133 for more information.

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