PRESS RELEASE

ART IN NATURE NEW YORK 2000, INC presents
Reconstructing Ecologies: Reclaiming urban aquatic environments through art
and science

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
5th Avenue at 88th Street, Peter B. Lewis Theater
June 12, 2000
7 pm - 9 pm,  open to the public free of charge seating is limited

Reconstructing Ecologies,  a conference probing the benefits and the
limitations of collaborations between artists and scientists, will take
place at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Auditorium. Reconstructing
Ecologies will explore the intersection of art and science in the effort to
reclaim water resources that have been damaged or destroyed through the
process of urban development in and around New York.

This symposium is being sponsored by Art in Nature New York 2000, Inc., an
organization dedicated to encouraging artists’ projects that promote the
recovery and rehabilitation of natural land and aquatic environments such as
water sources, stream courses, rivers, lakes, bays, and oceans.

Through presentations and discussions, the conference will look at some of
the projects that have scientists, engineers and artists working together to
reclaim natural resources.  One of the issues to be explored is the
difference in objectives of the scientific, technical and artistic
disciplines.  How is success measured in a multipurpose project?  What are
the ingredients of a successful collaboration? At what point does the
practical application of technology constrain the metaphoric role of the
art?

In the first part of the evening, Artists Tim Collins and Jackie Brookner
will each present examples of recent collaborative projects.  Following
them, Sidney Horenstein, Geologist and Curator at the American Museum of
Natural History, and Peter Janiesch, Ecologist at the University Oldenburg,
Germany, will discuss the problems and the pressing need for artists to
apply their genius to bringing these issues to the fore.

The second half of the conference will be comprised of a panel discussion
that will include Horenstein and Janiesch, as well as Jon Ippolito,
Assistant Curator of Media Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Reza
Khanbilvardi, Executive Director, Center for Environmental Resources and
Development, City College, CUNY, and Christoph Vitali, Director, Museum Haus
der Kunst, Munich, Germany.  Brookner and Collins, along with well-known New
York environmental artist Alan Sonfist and German artist Peter Strauss, will
be present for the discussion, which will be open to the public.  The
program will be introduced and moderated by David Hupert, former Director of
the IBM Gallery of Science and Art.

In conjunction with the conference, a companion two-project exhibition
titled Beneath the Surface will explore and reveal the natural substrate of
Manhattan.  The projects will be executed by Alan Sonfist and Peter Strauss.
  Plans for the projects will be on view at the Goethe-Institut, New York,
from June 13 to July 14.



Conference Background

For decades, visionary thinkers have been calling attention to the seemingly
inexorable destruction of the fragile biosphere upon which life on this
planet depends.  The increasing pace of species extinction and the
diminishing availability of fresh water are markers of the disappearance of
natural environments that has characterized urban development and modern
advances in industrial and agrarian technology.  The obvious benefits of
progress have overshadowed the environmental disruption that in the long
term threatens the sustainability of our civilization.  In the 1960s, events
such as Rachel Carson’s publication of Silent Spring, the photograph of
Earthrise from behind the moon, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the earthworks
of Robert Smithson, Michael Heiser and Walter de Maria, all contributed to a
new awareness of the Earth and to how we live in its environment.

During this period, on LaGuardia Place in New York City, Alan Sonfist
created Time Landscape, a re-creation of a pre-colonial botanical
environment.  In this important project Sonfist worked not only in nature
but with nature to create a revealing image of a lost heritage.

More recently, artists have focused their attention on rehabilitating
damaged environmental systems.  In their activities, the separate roles of
artist, engineer, landscape architect, political lobbyist and environmental
scientist are becoming blurred.  Today, artists working on environmental
themes are likely to be working with scientists and environmentalists on
specific technological projects, and to be creating works which address the
particular goals of the interdisciplinary team with whom they are
collaborating.

Art in Nature International Programs are managed by Kultur Konzepte
Sprengel, Munich

For further information please contact:
Amy Lipton  431 3208   [log in to unmask]

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