April 10–14, 2013
Midtown Detroit
Art X Detroit will take over Midtown this spring as the free, five-day arts experience celebrates Detroit’s arts scene April 10–14.
An exciting collection of visual art installations, dance, musical and theatrical performances, and literary readings will debut throughout 15 cultural venues in the vibrant Midtown district, featuring all 38 Kresge Artist Fellows and Eminent Artists.
The biennial Art X Detroit attracted thousands in its 2011 debut, and Detroit’s arts scene continues to generate excitement nationally and internationally. This year’s event will feature Kresge Eminent Artists award-winning playwright Bill Harris and poet and publisher Naomi Long Madgett.
Attendees will experience new works and performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and Detroit Film Theatre, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Max M. Fisher Music Center, the College for Creative Studies and other venues in Midtown’s Cultural Center. A special visual arts exhibition will run through April 28 at MOCAD.
A schedule of events is available at www.artxdetroit.com and Facebook.
Highlights:
Opening night: Wednesday, April 10, 6:15pm–11pm
A multi-venue celebration with live music performances by Shara Worden with My Brightest Diamond, Kris Johnson, Passalacqua and Ken Meisel, and a dance performance choreographed by Laurie Eisenhower.
Corner Store by Design 99
Corner Store is a three-channel video installation at MOCAD inspired by neighborhood interactions during a rehab of the Design 99 studio-storefront space in Detroit. The video portrays the daily events and questions of neighbors and passersby as they peek through the glass or enter for a closer look. Design 99 has exhibited their work nationally and internationally including the Van Abbemuseum, Smart Museum of Art, the DIA and MOCAD.
TEX MEX by Liz Cohen
A three-channel HD video installation at MOCAD, TEX MEX documents the test drive of the Trabantimino in the south Texas desert on a road leading to the Mexican border. TEX MEX is part of an eight-year project called BODYWORK in which acclaimed artist Cohen apprenticed with automotive technicians to create the Trabantimino, a car that transforms from East German Trabant to American El Camino through the hydraulic technology commonly found in lowriders. Cohen simultaneously converted her body into one worthy of a car-show bikini model, making BODYWORK a celebration of subcultures.
De Secretis Naturae by Scott Hocking
Hocking creates site-specific sculptural installations and photography projects, often using found materials and abandoned locations. De Secretis Naturae is a mixed-media installation that focuses on creation and destruction mythologies, a prehistoric scenic garden, and 50 reinterpreted alchemical emblems. Installation at MOCAD.
Frames for the People: A City of Halos by Corrie Baldauf
Working with large sheets of colored acrylic she calls “Optimism Filters,” Baldauf will create a short film with Stephen and Cory McGee, exploring the city of Detroit through the eyes of its people and these filters. Installation at MOCAD and screening of Frames for the People: A City of Halos at the DIA’s Detroit Film Theatre.
The People’s Vision, a mural by Hubert Massey
Known for his large public art installations, Massey is creating a 30-by-60-foot mural to be installed on the Wayne State University Press Building. Preliminary drawings of the mural will be on view at MOCAD throughout April.
Batman, Iron Man, Spiderman and the Rawhide Kid by Mark Newport
In these hand-knit re-creations of superhero costumes, Newport wants to raise the relationship between childhood play and adulthood, toy and figurative sculpture, and how our ideals about the body clash with the real, the possible, and the ever-changing nature of living in a body. Installation at MOCAD.
Art X Detroit is funded by The Kresge Foundation and produced by Midtown Detroit, Inc., a nonprofit organization spearheading reinvestment in Midtown through the arts, beautification and economic development. Supported by ArtServe Michigan, the College for Creative Studies and MOCAD.
