Urban Video Project presents ‘Going West, Going South, Going North?’ Feb. 21 in conjunction with Th3: A City-Wide Art Open

Urban Video Project presents ‘Going West, Going South, Going North?’ Feb. 21 in conjunction with Th3: A City-Wide Art OpenFebruary 08, 2008Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

The Urban Video Project (UVP) will present “Going West, Going South, Going North?” — its seventh volume of outdoor multimedia projections — on Thursday, Feb. 21, from dusk to 9 p.m. at 444 E. Genesee St. (across from the Fayette Firefighter’s Memorial Park). The projections will take place regardless of weather conditions.

“Going West, Going South, Going North?” features works by German artist Juergen Staack and Canadian artist Gwen MacGregor. Curator of the show is the Avalanche Collective, an artist group led by three graduate students from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts: Blake Carrington, Christopher Gianunzio and Colin Todd. The screening is the first of UVP’s spring season, which features international artists and coincides with the spring evenings of Th3: A City-Wide Art Open, which is held on the third Thursday of each month.

Staack’s “Gerberstrasse 21” is a single shot of a lonely street in a village 60 miles from Berlin. An old man finally breaks the stillness, perhaps the only resident in this German ghost town. The work is a commentary on the plight of many former East German towns and cities that experienced a mass exodus of their populations after the fall of socialism.

MacGregor’s “Going South?” — also a single shot — echoes the feeling of abandonment. It features a rickety old home facing a snowstorm, with traffic from an interstate highway zooming by without a care. “Cruise,” also by MacGregor, offers an escape with beautiful views of the Alaskan sea from the windows of a northbound cruise ship.

UVP, a public arts initiative seeking to bring art to the streets and buildings of Syracuse, features video and sound in an effort to explore new spaces for contemporary art. It is a platform for the presentation of multimedia artworks, reactivating underutilized urban spaces in the city’s downtown area.

Inspired by Syracuse’s Connective Corridor and Th3: A City-Wide Art Open, UVP is the brainchild of the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force and the Avalanche Collective. Working closely with a number of University and community partners, UVP produces a series of experimental outdoor video projections throughout the year.

The Connective Corridor Shuttle Bus (Centro Route #543) will operate during the spring months on Thursdays from 5-11:40 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 9:40 a.m.-11:40 p.m. The free shuttle service provides a convenient way to travel to cultural events and happenings at SU and in downtown Syracuse, including Th3. A route schedule/map for the Connective Corridor Shuttle Bus is available online at http://connectivecorridor.syr.edu.

For more information on UVP, visit http://urbanvideoproject.org. For more information on the Avalanche Collective, visit http://avalanchecollective.net.