An international panel of artists and architects will explore how new methods of contextual engagement rethink top-down and bottom-up cultural hierarchies, facilitating unusual responses to crises within urban and other social territories. The panel will feature San Diego/Tijuana-based architect Teddy Cruz, Slovenia-based artist and architect Marjetica Potrc and New York–based artist Krzysztof Wodiczko.

This event will be presented as part of the series, “Participation and Friction: Rethinking Art and Architecture as Public Culture.” The series features conversations between contemporary artists, architects, social theorists, curators, historians and other cultural producers on how contemporary art and architecture utilize unusual methods of participation and processes of collaboration to navigate the social and political frictions of today’s urban public spheres.

About the Participants:

Teddy Cruz was born in Guatemala City. After earning the Rome Prize in Architecture, he established his practice in San Diego, California. He is internationally recognized for his research on the Tijuana/San Diego border and his work on the relationship between housing, urban policy and social and cultural programs, which he has done in collaboration with community-based organizations such as Casa Familiar. This year he has was selected to represent the U.S. in the Venice Biennial of Architecture. He is an associate professor in public culture and urbanism in the visual arts department at University of California, San Diego. 

Marjetica Potrc is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the Americas, and her on-site installations include Dry Toilet (Caracas, 2003). She has taught at well-known institutions in Europe and North America, including MIT, and has published essays on contemporary urban architecture. She has received numerous grants and awards, most notably the Hugo Boss Prize (2000) and the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics Fellowship at The New School in New York (2007).  

Krzysztof Wodiczko is an internationally renowned artist known for large-scale public projections and interactive instruments and vehicles that empower marginalized individuals and communities and give light to societal injustices and imbalances. On public buildings and monuments in 40 cities worldwide, he has executed over 70 projections specific to those sites and communities. He has presented major monographic exhibitions at such museums as the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Madrid. He has received numerous awards, including the Hiroshima Art Prize, given to artists who are engaged in promoting world peace and prosperity.

The first event in the series, “Art and Architecture in the Public Sphere of Cities,” will be held on Monday, February 2, at 7 p.m. For more information, click here.

Map of Davidson Conference Center: http://web-app.usc.edu/maps/?id=8

Parking: $8.00 per day. Please use parking structure located at Gates 3 and 4. Click here for parking lot map: http://web-app.usc.edu/maps/.

Organized by Joshua Decter, Director, Master of Public Art Studies Program, Roski School of Fine Arts, http://roski.usc.edu/pas/.

Image: New Orleans: Shotgun House with Rainwater-Harvesting Tank by Marjetica Potrc; Photo by Eli Ping Weinberg

For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.edu