Mark Tribe: The Port Huron Project (2006-2009)
Artist Mark Tribe in attendance
Co-presented with The Menil Collection and DiverseWorks
Saturday, November 22, 7:00PM 
Location: The Menil Collection Front Lawn, 1533 Sul Ross
Free Admission

A central question of Mark Tribe's artistic practice asks how media and technology have shaped the way we perform politics. The Port Huron Project (2006-2009) is a series of reenactments of protest speeches from the New Left movements of the Vietnam era. Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks and The Menil Collection will present a screening of the project on the Menil Collection lawn (1533 Sul Ross) Saturday, November 22nd at 7PM with the artist in attendance.  The screening is free and, weather permitting, the audience is encouraged to bring picnics and chairs for outdoor enjoyment. In case of bad weather, the screening will move inside the Menil foyer (no food or drinks allowed inside).

The Port Huron Project was recorded between 2006 and 2009. Each speech took place at the site of the original event, and was delivered by an actor or performance artist to an audience of invited guests and passers-by. The screening includes speeches originally by Stokely Carmichael (1967), Cesar Chavez (1971), Angela Davis (1969), Coretta Scott King (1968), Paul Potter (1965), and Howard Zinn (1971). Of the project, Artforum contributor Julia Bryan-Wilson wrote, "More than just recovering the past, these re-speaking projects use archival speeches to ask questions about the current place of stridency and forceful dissent, and the possibilities of effective, galvanizing political discourse." Videos of these performances have been screened on campuses, exhibited in art spaces, and distributed online as open-source media.

Mark Tribe is an artist whose work explores the intersection of media technology and politics. His photographs, installations, videos, and performances are exhibited widely, including solo projects at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Momenta Art in New York, and the San Diego Museum of Art. He is the author of two books, The Port Huron Project: Reenactments of New Left Protest Speeches (Charta, 2010) and New Media Art (Taschen, 2006), and numerous articles. Tribe is Chair of the MFA Fine Arts Department at School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 1996, he founded Rhizome, an organization that supports the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology.

This event is part of Gandhi's Legacy: Houston Perspectives, an initiative of the Menil Collection, that examines the resonance of Mohandas Gandhi's life by Houston cultural, educational, and social justice organizations. For a more complete and updated schedule of programs and events visit: GandhisLegacyHouston.org.  In addition to the screening, DiverseWorks will have Chelsea Knight and Mark Tribe: Posse Comitatus on view at DiverseWorks through January 10, 2015 (4102 Fannin Street, 77004). For more information visit: www.DiverseWorks.org

Learn more about Mark Tribe and Port Huron here:
http://www.marktribe.net/port-huron-project/