SATURDAY APRIL 25, 2009

The NFO XPO, Shelter Corps, & Free University + MORE
The Benton House complex, 3052 S Gratten Avenue (Map)
DOWNLOAD A MAP OF THE AREA
1pm to 8pm • $7 adults / $3 Children ($10/$5 for 2 day pass)

Off a small public park in Bridgeport is a 100-year-old community center complex named the Benton House. It is there on Saturday and Sunday that Version kicks off an ambitious program that includes our annual art fair platform; the NFO XPO; a temporary structures project called Shelter Corps; The Free University; guided tours; and a guest exhibition curated by Jeriah Hildwine.

Today's program is massive. It opens early at the The Benton House complex and Gymnasium and ends late at the Co-Prosperity Sphere. In between and during these times and places is a fantastic parallel program coordinated and presented by Material Exchange at the Experimental Station and Back Story Cafe.

Program Platforms:

NFO XPO
Benton House Gymnasium

The NFO XPO (pronounced "info expo") brings art groups and community orgs together to exchange information and ideas as well as provide a public platform for each group to present themselves. It's a trade show for experimental art, emerging spaces, and radical exchange. It's our version of what an art fair should be. It is a fantastic opportunity to view emerging art, to network and make shit happen.( Link : Last years XPO )

Participants include:
Albert Stabler and Paul Nudd ($heart), Green Lantern, Institute of Socioæsthetic Research ( Daniel Mellis), Alan Moore, Spoke, Antenna, The Space LIC, Reuben Kincaid, Art Shanty Projects, Hui-min Tsen, Marc Arcuri and Ellicott, Joe Baldwin, Laura Miller, Casey Smallwood, Marc Moscato, Hale Ekinci, Michael Coolidge, Andi Sutton and Anne Elizabeth Moore, Amanda Lichtenstein, Evan Plummer and Maritza Mosquera (Letter Writing Revivalists), Grant Newman, Sarah Kenny, Ashly Metcalf, Ray Emerick Studios, Trendbeheer, ChicagoArts, Threewalls, Rachael Marszewski, Aaron Delehanty, Jeriah Robert Hildwine, Doug Smithenry,Jettison, Nick Bahr, Thorne Brandt and Henry Glover (Cla's Calzone Zone), James Jankowiak, Nicholas Schutzenhofer, Stephanie Burke and others.

The Free University happens simultaneously to the NFO XPO downstairs in the classroom facility of the Gymnasium.

Food and drink will be available at the NFO XPO and Sehlter Corp sites.

Inspired by Fuller

Shelter Corps
Benton House Lot 3052 S Gratten Avenue
24+ Artists
12 Versions of Shelter
1 One Hundred Year Old Lot.

Shelter Corps Is an exercise in adaptive land use and an experiment in material reuse.
It will be on display through May 3rd, 2009.

Participants include: Peter Skvara, Martin Morse, Garret Munski, Ena Kumar, Adrianne Goodrich, Anthony Bianco, Theodore Boggs, Eric Siegel, Nick Bahr, Brian Wallace, Dara Benno, Brian O'quinn, Bryan Rautenberg, Ben Noetzel, Au Fait Collective , James Payne, Rachel Boccamazzo, James Ewert, Ron Ewert, Scotty Davis, Justin Goh, Vincent Finazzo, Ellen Kirk, Shelter Corps, Art Shanties, and others.

Free University

This year we feature the debut of a The Chicago Public School, the Chicago Free Skool, and present some workshops, presentations, talks, tours, and lectures: Programs run from 2 to 7pm each day. For expanded description see side bar to right>>>

Public Performance "a bob ross song, an orsen welles trick"
3pm
At McGuane Park Tennis Court 29th and Halsted
Isabella Ng and Millie Kapp investigate the performative capabilities of the Tennis Court on 29th and Halsted, examining how this space in particular operates as highly theatrical platform with physical directives, divisions, and information embedded in the space. Using six live bodies, they will investigate the idea of the “magic show” as the ultimate performative illusion.

Guest Curated Exhibition: That’s What She Said
April 25-26 1pm to 8pm

That’s What She Said is a group show curated by Jeriah Hildwine, featuring work by female artists addressing themes of violence and sensuality. It takes place downstairs at the Benton House with and interactive performance on the upstairs patio. Artists include Stephanie Burke, Elise Goldstein , Annie Heckman, Lauren Sleat, Karen Voltz , Elizabeth Wade, and Erin Whitman .

THE AFTER XPO
Co-Prosperity Sphere 3219 S Morgan St
9pm $7 (or free with NFO XPO ticket/wrist-band)

Performances by:
Windbreaker
Lagrange Point
MC Harv ( http://www.myspace.com/emceeharv )
Vile Display of Humanity

and Gynoslayer!!

+ EXPERIMENTAL STATION AND BACK STORY CAFE PROGRAM +

Pocket Guide to Hell Tours and Backstory Cafe Proudly Presents…A Working Man’s Guide to the World’s Columbian Exposition
Begins Where: Outside the entrance to the Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park

11AM (the tour lasts approximately 90 minutes, followed by a screening and discussion at Backstory Café, 61st and Blackstone)

Chicago asked in 1893 for the first time the question whether the American people knew where they were driving.—Henry Adams

Guarded by sentries and high barriers from unsought contact with all beyond, great gangs of us, healthy, robust men, live and labor in a marvelous artificial world.—Walter Wyckoff

This tour offers a from-the-ground-up history by looking at the labor and lives of the men and women who built the buildings and landscaped the land for one of the most significant events in Chicago’s history, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Learn how the first Ferris wheel was constructed, the Court of Honor erected, the Wooded Isle reclaimed from the lake! Thrill to the adventures of Walter Wyckoff, the young Princeton economics professor who infiltrated the fair’s labor camp disguised as a common laborer! Discover the dangers posed to the native American worker by the dreaded, wage-killing, unskilled Irish! Mourn the fate of Midway performers from distant parts cruelly abandoned in Chicago! Relive the squalor of squatting in derelict Exposition
buildings during one of the worst depressions in the nation’s history! In other words, this is a tour for people who know about Burnham and The Devil in the White City but want to hear the rest of the story (and are perhaps curious about how big events, like, say, the Olympics, shape the city and its neighborhoods).

Price: Absolutely free. Cheaper than the Exposition! A souvenir will be provided and possibly peanuts. Donations gladly accepted.

Each tour is open to 30 participants. Please RSVP to pgdurica@hotmail.com or search for “Pocket Guide to Hell” on Facebook or Google Groups.

King Ludd's Analog Arcade - Version Fest 09 at the Experimental Station
The Experimental Station, 6100 S Blackstone Ave
Saturday April 25th, 7pm-11pm (Families Welcome) $5 for adults. $3 for children.

The Midway Plaissance in Hyde Park was the site of the World's Fair of 1893, an international celebration of the landing of Columbus in North America 401 years earlier. Chicago intended to out-Eiffel the French and to prove that the U.S was where things were happening. The fair was at once a stunning achievement, and an instance of urban breakdown akin to boom-and-bust cycles the world over. It was a display of human endeavor, and its social costs.

All fairs since have a Midway, the place where games are played. The games are called "attractions,"as if like moths humans move toward them in spite of themselves, and they leave as winners, losers, or something in between. Games possess rules of engagement within a limited arena. Games allow us to submit to a given set of rules and to find our limits within them. They allow us to act out social taboos within the safety of that mutual agreement. They encourage us to strategize, fight, share, dominate, cooperate, even kill (for pretend).

King Ludd's Midway Arcade began with a call for proposals seeking home-made video games, parlor games, and carnival games that would, in some way, challenge or offer and alternative to the forward march of high technology. Games could be analog, low-tech, or hacker. Artists were encouraged to think about the games as a site to investigate metaphors for social engagement or the production of social spaces. The results have been spectacular!

Come and play!! Test your skill!!
Compete! Cooperate! Collaborate! Dominate!

9 artist-made, family-friendly arcade and carnival games.
Kids Welcome!!!
Music and Food available!

http://www.experimentalstation.org

Friday May 1st, 7pm - 11pm
Saturday May 2nd, 2pm - 8pm (Families Welcome)

FREE UNIVERSITY PROGRAM

Saturday 1pm - 6pm
Kite Making Workshop
In Bosely Park across the street from Benton House Gymnasium
Daniel Williams will provide an opportunity for youth in the Bridgeport community to create functional art. Youth will be provided with material construction supervision by multiple volunteers. They will choose between several types of kites to make and will enjoy decorating and flying their kites in the park. Youth will also have the opportunity to take the kites home. Everybody is happy.

Saturday 1:30 PM
Bridgeport's New Limestone Quarry Park>
Emily Shroeder will give a virtual tour of the new park next to Mc Guane.

Saturday 2pm
Tour: Bridgeport: Community of the Future
Mike Pocius, longtime resident and Art Fag will leave from the Benton House Gymnasium and take participants on a tour of the neighborhood including stops at artist studios, vacant lots and historically significant locations.


Saturday 3pm
Workshop Part 1: The Artist as Leader" - "Is America a creative nation? Should creativity be a national value? Do artists have skills and stuff that would make them excellent leaders in the public sector? What do you think? Check out this session and bring a sketch pad, video camera, or other art supplies.

Saturday 5pm
Presentation: The Chicago Public School
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is not accredited, it does not give out degrees, and it has no affiliation with the public school system. It is a framework that supports autodidactic activities, operating under the assumption that everything is in everything.

We are meeting together to officially launch the Chicago Public School. Come and see a presentation. Sign up or propose a class and be involved in spreading this platform to your friends. http://chicago.thepublicschool.org

This project is a model adopted and created by THE PUBLIC SCHOOL LA (http://la.thepublicschool.org/position/1258).

Saturday 6pm
Lecture: We Have a Right to Be Angry: Feminism, Fanvids and Fair Use
by Stacia Yeapanis

We Have a Right to be Angry appropriates footage from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Charmed. It is edited to "Invincible" sung by Pat Benatar. By uniting the fictional feminist icons of my adult life - Buffy, Xena, and the Halliwell sisters - with a real-life feminist icon from my childhood - Pat Benatar, I explore my own complicated position as a feminist in contemporary society.

The lecture will feature a cursory history of fanvids and appropriation art, as well as information on the doctrine of Fair Use and the current state of copyright law, from an artist/fan perspective.

Website: www.staciayeapanis.com