Flux Factory and EFA Project Space are proud to present “An African in Greenland” (working tittle), a process-oriented group show that will take place in the early fall of 2009 at the EFA Project Space in New York.

This show finds its inspiration in Tété Michel Kpomassie’s book, “An African in Greenland.” Memoir, ethnography, and  travelogue, this book is the account of Kpomassie’s unique journey from his native Togo to Greenland. As a young man living in west Africa, Kpomassie came across a book about Greenland and became fascinated with the distant Arctic. He soon engaged on a seemingly impossible 10-year-long journey across Africa and Europe. A complete autodidact polyglot, he worked as a translator in different embassies, eventually saving enough money to complete his odyssey and live amongst native Greenlanders.

We have assembled a group of artists, writers, explorers, and documentarians to engage in a reflection on Kpomassie’s work. For six weeks beginning at the end of April, participants will congregate as a book club that will engage in a critical dialogue about the text, and begin to create works in response to their discussions. For the months following, the artists will then continue a critical exchange with each other as they develop their projects further.

The final product will result in an exhibition of the artists’ responses, to be held at EFA project space and opening September 18th, 2009.

Curated by Jean Barberis and Michelle Levy. Book club moderated by Ranbir Sidhu.

Featuring works by: Amber Cortes, Jenelle Covino, Matthew Gribbon, Katerina Lanfranco, Fabienne Lasserre, Annie Reichert, Julian Rogers, Rudy Shepherd, Steven Thompson, Christopher Ulivo, Valerie Piraino, Shalin Scupham, and Greg Pond.

Contact: Jean@Fluxfactory.org

The laws of physics state that bodies in motion come to rest only when an external force stops them. But Newton’s theory would have required tweaking had he met Jean Barberis, the affable 30-year-old curator of Queens gallery Flux Factory, who barely stops moving, even after roadblocks have been thrown into his path. Barberis is constantly working on the next exhibit for the gallery and aptly named art space—it changes addresses as often as one might change apartments. He also can’t stop creating curios and art exhibits for installations across the five boroughs. “I like working as a curator and I always want to do something with my hands,” says Barberis, who resides in Woodside, Queens. “Who wants to sit at a desk all day, when I can be building stuff?”

This curator-carpenter-art-installer was born in Aix-en-Provence, a small French town just outside Marseille. At the age of 18, Barberis had his first solo art show—an installation inspired by a series of photo collages—at a small nonprofit art gallery in the nearby town of Montpelier. “It was a small show, mostly friends and family. I realized that your main audience is your community. That’s where you start and that’s what you have to build from,” says Barberis.

Just four years later, Barberis followed his girlfriend at the time to New York City, where she happened to be subletting a room at the Flux Factory, a collective launched in 1994 and named for the ever-changing cast of occupants. Barberis was drawn to the space (which was then next to the East River in Williamsburg) and the eclectic mix of artists and designers better known for their weekly dinners and parties than for their art. But the challenge to having a home in NYC isn’t just finding it, it’s keeping it. The tenants of the Flux Factory were evicted in 2001 when Williamsburg became increasingly popular and rents started soaring.

“We had to redefine ourselves as an organization. It was a challenge to find a new space where we could be more ambitious. That takes up a lot of energy, but it’s also a way to get a new start,” says Barberis, of Flux’s move to a converted warehouse in Long Island City, Queens. And so began the long, vagrant history of one of New York’s most unconventional art spaces.

That first summer in Queens (in 2002) was critical for Barberis as a curator. He helped mount the exhibit “When Everybody Agrees, It Means Nobody Understood,” in the Queens Museum. Flux artists literally dismantled part of the museum’s gallery space, tunneling into the walls to spy on visitors who were walking around the plastic installation they created. “I’m constantly trying different formats, constantly trying to challenge the notions of what an art exhibit is supposed to be and look like,” says Barberis.

In October 2008, only six years into a fifteen-year lease, Flux was evicted from its LIC space on 43rd Street; the building was taken through eminent domain by the MTA for its East Side Access Project. Due to the gallery’s physical uncertainty, Barberis realized that art exhibits could be portable and, perhaps more important, experiential. The result was “Going Places (Doing Stuff),” a free tour, offered for the first time last summer and running again this June, where local artists serve as guides to busloads of visitors for day trips around the boroughs of New York. Barberis calls it “road trip as performance art.”

The fact that the gallery is constantly moving requires most of Flux’s contributors to seek employment outside of its ever-changing walls. Barberis is not only the curator at Flux Factory, he also works as a freelance carpenter and art installer. “I have never been in a situation at Flux where we could just throw money at the problem,” Barberis says. “Flux has extremely limited resources when it comes to money, but unlimited resources when it comes to people. We have an amazing community of artists that we can tap into at any moment.”

Of course, Barberis is one of the most astounding of these artists: In addition to his performance art, Barberis crafts curious art-cum-furniture by transforming vintage suitcases into wall-mounted vanity cases (available at vanitycase.etsy.com). These delightful bits of ephemera, filled with all of the essentials you’d have in a bar or boudoir, mix old-world design with practicality—they’re like functional dioramas.

And, finally, on Barberis’s to-do list is to renovate Flux Factory’s newest space, an 8,000-square-foot, three-story former greeting-card factory on 29th Street in Long Island City. But don’t pity him; it’s only because there’s always something to do that Barberis has stuck around this long. “I thought I might spend a few months at Flux. But ten years later, here I am.” he says.Be sure to catch “Going Places (Doing Stuff), Best Summer Ever Edition” June 20th through September 9th. Details are vague, but Barberis says there may be snacks. For info contact him at info@fluxfactory.org.

Barberis’s five keys to a successful art exhibit

1 Don’t think about it—do it.
2 It takes will to coordinate people and resources.
3 You need to use your social skills and be flexible.
4 Always have your friends and family help you.
5 Art can be displayed anywhere.

Barberis’s career timeline

1978 Jean Barberis is born on August 6.
1996 Barberis has his first solo exhibit.
2000 Barberis arrives in New York City.
2001 Flux Factory is ejected from the Williamsburg space.
2002 Flux Factory moves to Long Island City, Queens.
2008 Flux Factory is evicted from its 43rd Street space.
2009 Flux Factory signs a lease for its new LIC space.

See the original article here.

Flux Factory is pleased to announce two projects in partnership with European collectives:

“Water Girls, Water Boys” at the Athens Biennial, Opening June 14

Two Flux Factory artists, Chen Tamir and Douglas Paulson, will collaborate with Urban Void, the Network of Nomadic Architecture, and Damon Rich & Jae Shin on “Water Girls, Water Boys” at the upcoming Athens Biennial. Together with the public, they will explore Athens’ coastal suburb of Phaliron at the mouth of the Kifissos River and the island of Psytalleia. These areas have fallen victim to ecological irresponsibility, and Flux Factory and company will be creating an open-source tour guide to the area.

Please see faliron-bay-athens.blogspot.com and kifissosguide.wordpress.com for more information.

“Reverse Pedagogy” at the Venice Biennial, June 1-7

Flux Factory is partnering with Reverse Pedagogy, an experimental, nomadic art school in session during the first ten days of the 53rd Venice Biennial, bringing with it an international cast of artists, curators, and writers. Taking off from its first installment at the Banff Centre (Canada), Reverse Pedagogy turns the city of Venice into its own site of art and knowledge production, communal living, play, and conversation. With air mattresses, tents, crash pads, and eleven canoes in tow, participants engage round-the-clock in activities within the residency and the Biennial itself.

Reverse Pedagogy will travel to New York in 2010 as part of Flux Factory’s newly established residency program.

For more information, please visit www.reversepedagogy.com.

We’re excited to report that we’ll be occupying an 8000 square foot, 3 story building just two blocks north of Queens Plaza at 39-31 29th street. We’re working with the wonderful HWKN design team to create a multi-purpose arts center with galleries, studios, and production facilities.

The new Flux Factory will still be devoted to producing collaborative projects and providing affordable work residencies for artists. We’ve got wonderful projects coming up in 2009, including our famous bus tours and a grande science fair! And of course an inaugural show once we’re done renovations.

You can check out photos of the new space here.

We’ve got a lot of work to do- and we want your help! We’re working in the space every Tuesday through Saturday from about 10-6, sometimes later, from now until mid-July.  We need volunteers to help with all aspects of demolition and construction. Come ready to learn all about how to renovate a building using green techniques and recycled materials, or spend an afternoon showing off your superhuman sheetrock skills for a good cause.  We’re also looking for administrative volunteers to help us with different aspects of running a sprawling non-profit, like alternative materials acquisitions, event production, mailings, and other fun office stuff.  We’ll make you lunch, give you beer after you’re done with the sledgehammer, and have so much fun together.  All levels of ability, from 98 pound weakling to master carpenter, are welcome and encouraged to come by for as much or little time as you’d like.

Interested? Call or email Shalin at 678.936.7721  or shalin.scupham@gmail.com.

We need your help in the form of donations!
Tax-deductible donations can be sent via check or Paypal:

Please make cheques payable to Flux Factory Inc.	Paypal
and mail them to: P.O. BOX 370700 Brooklyn, NY 11237

Two spots are available:

Logistics Intern: We’re looking for someone who can help with HR coordination, materials solicitation, and event production. Our main project at the moment is the renovation of our new 8000 square foot headquarters that will soon become work, live, and play space for about 15 artists and a meeting spot for the larger Flux Factory community. Intern responsibilities will include researching and contacting potential construction material donors, recruiting and communicating with construction and administrative volunteers, helping with material runs, general office work, event coordination help, and generally stepping in where needed. An ideal applicant will be a great researcher, an excellent communicator via telephone and e-mail, have a valid driver’s license and be able to drive in the city (big trucks a bonus!), be really interested in or have some experience with collective artmaking, and be generally pleasant with friends and strangers. Please send a CV and brief cover letter to Shalin (shalin.scupham@gmail.com) to set up an interview.

Administrative Intern: We’re looking for someone who can help manage online applications, assist with data management, help upload material to and manage the website, assist with press and fundraising initiatives, and generally help in running this organization. We’d love it if you have experience with web management or graphic design. Please send a CV and brief cover letter to Chen at chen@fluxfactory.org.

Martina has been a satellite to Flux Factory since 2004, causing both adventures & installations that play with the way that experience (un)weaves into holographic images and architectural space.

Officially Martina is the program coordinator for the Center for the Holographic Arts (www.holocenter.org), works at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (www.khm.de), is doing a PhD with the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (www.sial.rmit.edu.au), holds the tile of Vice Director at the Korean HOLOcenter (www.holocenter.or.kr) and on the Schamonchi Crew but really she is seen most at the kitchen table or making stuff.

Flux projects:

- Shanty Town
- NYNYNY
- DeluxeFactory
- Secret Clubhouse#1
- Down the Street and Around the Corner

NOW WITH DOWNLOADABLE MAP!

From May 16 to 23, 2009 the Kindness and Imagination Development Society (K.I.D.S.) will partner with Flux Factory to carry out a series of events and actions in parks, on quiet streets, on busy sidewalks, at workplaces, in private residences, in public libraries and museums, and anywhere else the K.I.D.S. can think of to play and work. The series will be characterized by an ethic of generosity, innovation, and open exchange.

The series of activities will be co-produced collaboratively by an open, changeable, and inclusive group of individuals, including you, we hope!

These events will take place throughout Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.
To learn more about the K.I.D.S. and for schedule updates please visit

kidsociety.wordpress.com

You can download a PDF of the map and activity book with the schedule for the week. Print out on two sides of a sheet and fold up into a book on your own. Just fold on the dotted lines and cut on the solid line (in the middle of the page), then fold it up into a book with the map poster concealed within!

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES – MAY 16-23, 2009

Saturday, May 16
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Union Square steps, 14th Street and Broadway, Manhattan.
Kickoff Gathering for the week of K.I.D.S. Work:
*Emt McEternalMojo leads us in a demonstration and sharing of his encyclopedic knowledge of all known handshake/highfive/hug based greeting variations. Bring your favorite greeting methods!
*Dress up party/imagination bee/costume swap. Bring costumes!
*Temporary fort/environment building exercises with cardboard boxes and fabric. Bring materials!
*Ice cream walk with kick-the-can ice-cream-makers and tin-can-telephones. Bring milk, ice, and empty coffee cans!
*Snacks galore, and much more.
*Get your activity book and guide to the week of K.I.D.S. Work.

Sunday, May 17
3:00 p.m.
Start at 615 West 113th Street, Manhattan.
*Songlines/What A Neighborhood: A singing, ice-cream-making walk around the neighborhood. As we pass sites associated with composers, we will sing snatches of their works. We will carry a banner that reads,
“What A Neighborhood!” (Elizabeth Adams and the Orfeo Duo leading. Contact: elizabethadams@musician.org)
Other days and locations for this project throughout week with improvised songs/music TBA.

Monday, May 18
7:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Herald Square, 34th Street and Broadway, Manhattan.
*Farty Party: a pep rally at the entrance of the subway station cheering on the commuters entering/exiting the train. Bring pompoms!

Tuesday, May 19
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
42nd Street at Lexington Avenue, Manhattan.
*Lunch Time Theater, or Text Me Theater will be an attempt to engage workers to perform their cell phone text messages and twitter updates on a make-shift theater stage that will imitate the soap box platform. Text Me Theater is a way to give office workers a chance to expose inner office conversation, offer the opportunity to exercise a workers’ right to speech, and also call attention to the performative nature of text message language. (Hong-An Truong, Huong Ngo leading.)

Wednesday, May 20
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
42nd Street at Lexington Avenue, Manhattan.
*Let’s Make Lunch! is a lunch time game with three goals: to engage workers in play; to reveal the difficulty of language and communication in relations of power; and to feed people who need a lunch. (Hong-An Truong, Huong Ngo leading.)

Thursday, May 21
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn.
*Intermittent balloon parade. Something mysterious will drift down the street. Get a helium balloon and join it! (Diane Dwyer leading.)

Friday, May 22
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Near school at 28-01 41st Ave, Long Island City, Queens.
*Blowup Sale: People will have the opportunity to blow up special balloons with multiple holes, such that a group has to work together to blow up the balloon. In exchange for this special balloon reaching a set size, the participants will get to keep it. (Eva Jung leading.)

Saturday, May 23
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Meet at the park by the East River, on Vernon Boulevard at 41st Ave., Queens.
Wrap-up Gathering of the K.I.D.S. Work Week
*Seedbomb/kite-building workshop. Build a bird-shaped kite and fly it over a nearby empty lot to drop seedbomb eggs that will grow into wildflowers. (Elizabeth Chaney leading.)
*Play with portable lawns and gardens and put mud and grass in your shoes (Emcee C.M. and Caroline Woolard leading).
*Get your feet washed afterwards (David Sutcliffe leading).
*Play music on fences with sticks.
*Spontaneously innovate card games while walking around the block.
*Rolling ball of people growing bigger like a snowball game (Jorge Rojas leading).
*Show and Tell of things that happened throughout the week, things made while at work, pictures printed by a someone special, somatic treasure map dolls, etc.
*If you have filled up your activity book through attending all the events, pick up your prize: a K.I.D. KIT to go.
*Raffle to win a K.I.D. for a day!

All Week

*Make Other Things While At Work: Make whatever you want or need while at your job this week, and bring it for Show and Tell on Saturday, May 23.

*Film From: Take your camera and load it with a roll of film (or use a disposable camera if it’s easier). Take pictures of whatever whenever wherever however. Take as much time as you need. You can forget about it and rediscover it, take a picture a day, go through a roll in two hours, whatever. When you finish the roll, unload your camera, take the roll, put it in an envelope and mail it to someone special. Friend, lover, neighbor, grandparent, pet fish, teacher, stranger, admirer. Before you send it off write a letter to the someone special about whatever, as open or as detailed or as mysterious or as perplexing as you want to be, and put it in the envelope with the roll of film. Mail it.
The someone special should develop the film.
The someone special will have your prepared photographs, a piece of you.
The someone special should do the same.
The someone should bring the pictures to the show and tell at the end of the week, on Saturday, May 23.

*The Electric K.I.D.S. performance exchange with Bulgaria: A pre-selected group of people will be performing actions based on (mis)interpreted instructions sent back and forth between Sofia and NYC.

*Somatic Treasure Maps Project: Caroline wants to hear about your aches and pains. Please tell her about every single event that ever affected your body with great detail. She will listen to everything you have to say about life’s passage and the marks it leaves behind. You are free to talk for ten minutes or two hours, without interruption. While you will be talking, she will be busy taking notes on a sheet of paper, recording your story with words and images. On Saturday, May 23rd you will be able to receive drawing for a doll, a 3-D map of your aches and pains. The doll will be yours to keep, your secret portrait, your somatic treasure map. (By Caroline Boileau. Ongoing at all K.I.D.S. locations)

*What are “Spiritual Problems”? Julia writes, “I don’t know, but I think I have some… If you’d like you can call me to speak about ’spiritual problems’ in whichever way occurs to you: as a topic, if you think you have some, other ways… I will be around to speak on Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd in the evening from 6-10pm at (484) 432-1898. If you miss me or would rather, you could write me an email: juliakathrynrich@gmail.com. My name is Julia.”

The K.I.D.S. so far:

ELIZABETH ADAMS
JEAN BARBERIS
MICHAEL BERENS
AMANDA BOEKELHEIDE
CAROLINE BOILEAU
CHRISTINE CARUSO
ELIZABETH CHANEY
PEDRO DOS REIS
DIANE DWYER
TED EFREMOFF
SAM EKWURTZEL
CORDELIA ERICKSON DAVIES
KIM ESSEX
GREEM
TAKASHI HORISAKI
ASHLEY HOWARD
TIM HYDE
EVA JUNG
EVAN LAURENCE
ALAN LUPIANI
BRYAN MARKOVITZ
MARY IVY MARTINS
EMCEE C.M.
ANDREW MCMULLAN
BRENDAN MCMULLAN
EMMETT MCMULLAN
HUONG NGO
REBECCA PARKER
DOUGLAS PAULSON
JULIA RICH
DIANA RO
JORGE ROJAS
SHALIN SCUPHAM
ERIN MARIE SICKLER
DAVID SUTCLIFFE
CHEN TAMIR
JADE THACKER
CASSIE THORNTON
KYLE TRIPLETT
HONG-AN TRUONG
SARAH VALERI
JOHN WALKER
CHRISTINE WANG
NADIA WILLIAMS
CAROLINE WOOLARD

Solution.  First, realize that all things are rhythmic and therefore, cyclical. Next, realize that there is no such thing as tangents, or lines tangent, in periodic waveforms (until you start doing calculus, but thats a whole other topic for discussion) only the periodic function itself. Now, view it like this. The waveform is composed of an infinite number of varying frequencies composed together in such a way that it forms one massive periodic function. This massive function is life, and all the components are the things that make it up. Realize that you never went on tangent, you just encountered some variable or constant along the way that gave a change of frequency or a phase shift.

Speaking of sudden left turns, Shalin also encourages you to check out the Elsewhere Artists Collaborative, his North Carolina headquarters for orchestrating constant change and dynamic displacement.

Paulson received a B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art in 2003.  In addition to working independently, he’s the New York wing of the Copenhagen-based collective, Parfyme, and works with New York’s Ward Shelley, and the collective Flux Factory.

He has organized and participated in shows across the U.S. and Europe, including Copenhagen’s Uturn Quadrennial, Nikolaj Kunsthallen, Vienna’s MUMOK, New York’s Queens Museum and The Sculpture Center, and Rotterdam’s TENT.  He once traveled thousands of miles to meet someone he barely knew in a lake for lunch.

http://www.douglaspaulson.com

By Todd Lester, March 19, 2009.

As with many civil society initiatives, it is sometimes necessary to change space … and sometimes necessary to fight for the one you already have. Herewith I am re-posting two notes from the Flux Factory and SFAI:

[Flux Factory]

After our recent eviction in October, Flux Factory is setting up house (again) in our beloved Long Island City, Queens!

We’re excited to report that we’ll be occupying an 8000 square foot, 3 story building just two blocks north of Queens Plaza at 39-31 29th street. We’re working with the wonderful HWKN design team to create a multi-purpose arts center with galleries, studios, and production facilities.

The new Flux Factory will still be devoted to producing collaborative projects and providing affordable work residencies for artists. We’ve got wonderful projects coming up in 2009, including our famous bus tours and a grande science fair! And of course an inaugural show once we’re done renovations. See: http://www.fluxfactory.org/flux-factory-is-moving/

http://freedimensional.ning.com/forum/topics/flux-factory-moving-and-santa

If you still have any questions, please fill out the following form.

We will reply to you at our earliest convenience.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Examples of past shows include turning the gallery into a giant music box, a exhibition inspired by a movie, an exquisite-corpse exercise in a derelict building, an interdisciplinary monument to Tatlin, an edible art show, bus tours by artists, and many many more.

Since we’re temporarily losing our headquarters, we’re looking for itinerant projects, or ones that we could find specific venues for. Budgets for each show are around $4000 all inclusive.

Think big!

Submissions should be no longer than a one page description of the project, and should be emailed to info@fluxfactory.org with the subject heading “Proposal.” Deadline for submissions is November 26th, 2008.A bit about us:

Flux Factory began as a collective living space in 1994, in an old spice factory in Williamsburg, New York City. Its original members were undergraduates at the New School For Social Research (now New School University). About four years later, with a new stage built and twice as many members, the Flux Factory living room evolved into a site for art events and performances of all kinds. Flux became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1999 and moved to Long Island City, Queens in 2002.

We have since evolved into one of the major arts organizations in the Queens cultural life, producing art shows attended by thousands. Our mission is to commission innovative collaborative art projects. These projects force participants to work with people they’ve never worked with before, or with unfamiliar media, or formal constraints. Over 500
international and local artists have collaborated with and through Flux Factory.

Since becoming incorporated in 1998 our funding has grown steadily. We have recently received funding from the Greenwall Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, New York State Council on the Arts, Puffin Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Queens Council on the Arts.

Opening Tuesday 23 September 6-9pm
then Wednesday and Thursday 6-9pm

also Sarah will be talking about the work at the Flux Thursday artist salon 9pm ish.

Sarah is a prolific illustrator, with clients including Stella McCartney, The Sunday Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal. This series captures a quirky sexual beauty of 500 ’sluts’ and for  50 bucks you can take one home.

more of Sarah’s work can be seen at www.sarahbeetson.com

L Magazine – July 29, 2008
Matt Levy’s Lost in History: All Boro Bonanza

Spare Times – NYTIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/arts/11wspare.html?ex=1373515200&en=5ddc117d0609ba4c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Flux Factory Is Hoping To Take You Away
http://www.queenstribune.com/leisure/FluxFactoryIsHopingToTakeY.html

A Couple Weekend Ideas
http://www.thelmagazine.com/lmag_blog/blog/post__06130801.cfm