“If You Lived Here Still…”
An archive project by Martha Rosler
Show extended through November 16
Closing conversation between Damon Rich and Martha Rosler, November 16, 7 pm
Admission is free; all are welcome!
e-flux
41 Essex Street
New York City
T: 212 619 3356
Responding to strong public interest, e-flux is pleased to extend the archive of Martha Rosler’s foundational project from 1989, “If You Lived Here…” through mid-November, to close with a conversation between Damon Rich and Martha Rosler on Monday November 16th, at 7 pm.
The exhibition, ” If You Lived Here Still,” includes a great range of materials providing insight into the process of structuring “If You Lived Here…” with its three exhibitions, four public forums, and numerous associated events, as well as the book subsequently published by Dia. Among them are notes and plans; correspondence between Rosler and numerous individuals and groups; exhibition checklists, posters, announcements (often flyers for public posting), reviews, and press releases; research into the Dia Foundation’s real estate holdings; transcriptions of the “town hall” meetings Rosler organized; videos by others on the subject of housing or homelessness; volumes of magazine articles and newspaper clippings on these topics, lavish real estate ads; archival material on urban development; and manuscripts of the book that resulted from the project. Also on view is a reel of installation views of the exhibitions themselves.
In addition to these original materials, there are numerous documents from more recent years. Rosler has continued to assemble newspaper clippings on homelessness and housing, tenant organization newsletters, and catalogues for exhibitions relating to the subject in the 20 years since the exhibition at Dia. A variety of educational materials from contemporary tenants’ rights, housing, and homeless advocacy groups are available to the public as part of the exhibition.
Collected during the show’s duration were supplementary materials from Dan Wiley, the young artist and student of urbanism that Rosler collaborated with when structuring her project in 1988 and 1989. His notes and plans for the project, contact lists, press clippings, essays relating to urban planning, and books on gentrification and housing also provide a glimpse into the processes of construction and organizational armature of “If You Lived Here …”
This presentation at e-flux project space was the catalyst for cataloguing the nearly 1500 documents that constitute the archive and was the occasion for commissioning a new essay on “If You Lived Here…” by art historian Nina Möntmann, published in the October issue of e-flux journal.
Special thanks to Heather O’Brien and Egan Frantz for helping catalogue and present these documents.
