Living as Form is an unprecedented project that explores over 20 years of cultural works that blur the forms of art and everyday life, and emphasize participation, dialogue, community engagement, and activism around social issues. Living as Form provides a historical look at these socially engaged alternative practices, and the role artists have played in reshaping our world. Presented by New York City-based public art presenter Creative Time, the project brings together 25 curators, document over 100 artists projects in a survey e... Read more

Living as Form is an unprecedented project that explores over 20 years of cultural works that blur the forms of art and everyday life, and emphasize participation, dialogue, community engagement, and activism around social issues. Living as Form provides a historical look at these socially engaged alternative practices, and the role artists have played in reshaping our world. Presented by New York City-based public art presenter Creative Time, the project brings together 25 curators, document over 100 artists projects in a survey exhibition at the historic Essex Street Market building, create six new social based commissions throughout the Lower East Side, hold three public talks, and culminate with a book that addresses this complex field of cultural production.

The 15,000 square-foot Essex Street Market building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan will serve as the base for Living as Form from September 16-October 16, 2011. It will house the archival exhibition—a vast collection of twenty years of socially engaged art projects and actions from around the globe—as well as play host to a series of events and performances, and offer dynamic areas for artists and collectives to work in residence for brief periods on installations and collaborations throughout the show. The Living as Form archival exhibition will feature 140 projects assembled in consultation with a wide array of curatorial advisors, including Caron Atlas, Negar Azimi, Ron Bechet, Claire Bishop, Brett Bloom, Rashida Bumbray, Carolina Caycedo, Ana Paula Cohen, Common Room, Teddy Cruz, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Hou Hanru, Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetter, Shannon Jackson, Maria Lind, Chus Martínez, Sina Najafi, Marion von Osten, Ted Purves, Raqs Media Collective, Gregory Sholette, Superflex, Christine Tohme, Bik Vanderpol, and Sue Bell Yank. Collected over the course of a year, the materials will produce a complex chronology that spans geographic as well as interdisciplinary terrain. The exhibition will be on view September 16-October 16, 2011 at the historic Essex Street Market building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.