Note: This event will happen at The Franklin (3522 W Franklin Blvd), not at Comfort Station
What are the various functions and modalities of the artist-run-space in different geographical contexts? What social or historical conditions do they relate to in the way they operate within and outside of a strict “art world”. Chicago is known for its proliferation of artist-run spaces within the domestic context of a house, apartment, garage, or backyard, and we will gather, grill and converse at one of the city’s most important alternative spaces, The Franklin, to ponder these questions with artists and organizers from Comfort Station’s Close to There <> Perto de Lá exchange with Salvador, Brazil based Projeto Ativa.
Close to There < > Perto de Lá is an international artist exchange project between Comfort Station (Chicago, USA) and Projeto Ativa (Salvador, Brazil), in collaboration with Harmonipan (Mexico City, Salvador), made possible by the MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund. By bringing members of these two artistic communities in proximity with one another, this project aims to gestate long-term artistic collaborations between the participants, share arts-organizing models from their respective socio-political-artistic contexts, and encourage creative discourse around ideas such as the African Diaspora and contemporary Latinx/Latin American identities.
The exchange will begin with a multi-disciplinary group of Salvador-based artists visiting Chicago August 9th - 29th 2019, carrying out a variety of programs, performances, and research through Comfort Station and its partner spaces across the city. In February of 2020, a group of Chicago-based artists will in turn visit Salvador to engage with the city’s creative landscape via Projeto Ativa’s network of artists and cultural institutions.
Our institutional partner venues in Chicago include:
The Poetry Foundation
Links Hall
Rebuild Foundation (Stony Island Arts Bank, Dorchester Art + Housing Project)
Spudnik Press
Co Prosperity Sphere
6018 North
Arts Incubator (University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life initiative)
This project is made possible by the generosity of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund.
Organized and curated by Jordan Martins, Lanussi Pasquali, and Juci Reis.
Graphic Design by Paco Barba