Exhibition Opening: Monument to Cold War Victory

Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 7 - 8:30pm

Add to Calendar

Image
Szabolcs KissPál, 'Hollywood Ten,' 2014. Wallpaper. Courtesy of the artist

Szabolcs KissPál, 'Hollywood Ten,' 2014. Wallpaper. Courtesy of the artist

Monument to Cold War Victory is a conceptual project by the artist Yevgeniy Fiks, taking the form of an open-call, international competition for a public, commemorative work of art. It is open to the public from October 7 until November 7, with an opening reception at 7PM.

In November 2012, The Committee for Tacit History (Fiks and curator Stamatina Gregory) issued an international call for proposals for a monument to the Cold War to be built in the United States. Unrestrained by budget considerations, and untied to a specific place, the call implied an invitation to imagine socially based, utopic, dystopic, or ultimately unrealizable projects. In April 2013, a jury including Susan Buck-Morss, Boris Groys, Vitaly Komar, Viktor Misiano, and Nato Thompson considered nearly 200 submissions and selected 17 finalists, whose proposals comprise this exhibition. These artists, from the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics, and Latin America, are diverse in their formal and conceptual strategies, their approach to material and ideological history, and their take on monumentality. Collectively, they wield the conceptual form of the public commission as a potent form of political imaginary.

Organized by Stamatina Gregory and Yevgeniy Fiks

Artists: Yuri Avvakumov, Aziz + Cucher, Kim Beck, Constantin Boym, Camel Collective (Anthony Graves and Carla Herrera-Prats), Sasha Chavchavadze, Christoph Draeger, Deyson Gilbert, Francis Hunger, The National Toxic Land/Labor Conservation Service, Szabolcz KissPal, Angelo Plessas, Lisi Raskin, Dread Scott, Dolsy & Kant Smith, Michael Wang, Société Réaliste

Located at 41 Cooper Square, on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.