Suspension of Disbelief
2011-12
Curatorial project, DC 5X5 public art initiative, Washington, D.C., 2012
1920 construction of the Lincoln Memorial by the Piccirilli brothers
March 20 – July 1, 2012 at numerous sites and event based performances in the Federal District and surrounding areas in the former Union state of Maryland and former Confederate state of Virginia.
The aim of Steve Rowell’s Suspension of Disbelief curatorial experiment is to investigate the rich legacy of Washington, D.C. as a place of intricate historic meaning and arcane ciphers, at the coordinates of cultural, institutional, and ideological vectors of influence. The District, neither a city nor a state, exists in an indeterminate realm, suspended between exception and inclusion. The five artist projects of Suspension of Disbelief act as ephemeral, temporal monuments on a stage crowded with contradictory interpretations of history, memorialization, and public space, in a media-saturated theater of contemporary politics.
Artists in Suspension of Disbelief:
KUNSTrePUBLIK (Germany)Lize Mogel (USA)
Office of Experiments (UK)
Charles Stankievech (Canada)
Deborah Stratman & Steve Badgett (USA)
More info at the project microsite (not maintained).