Hrokkur and Roll
 
10:45am | Last month FLOOD, the artist group responsible for curating SoundWalk these last eight years. called out to artists to participate in “an exercise in communal curation merging creative individuals with the Arts District’s business and residential communities.”

That call will be answered Saturday from 5–10 p.m. in the East Village Arts District, when MERGE, “a one-night event of video projection, sound installations, performance art, theater, music and more by local artists” who are free to do pretty much whatever they/we like, will happen — in whatever form(s) it takes.

“With an approach to curation that has as much to do with collaborative performance as it does exhibition,” said the event press release, “we as FLOOD seek to mobilize diverse groups of individuals to create artwork that is innovative and culturally relevant.”

Anyone who submitted a proposal to take part was given a space to do his/her/your thing. But FLOOD is hoping even artists who didn’t get the word will spontaneously take part. (And pure spectation is welcome, too.)

“We’re as curious about what’s going to materialize as anybody,” says FLOOD member Marco Schindelmann. “We’re very much almost spectators in the process. […] MERGE is a processual piece. It’s really about what e-merges.”

The idea for MERGE came partly from SoundWalk proposals that FLOOD (other members include Kamran Assadi, Frauke von der Horst, Shelley RuggThorp, and Nick Dynice) has rejected, proposals that often leaned toward the purely musical and away from the concept of sound installation that makes SoundWalk the unique experience it is.

“Obviously there’s a lot of desire for creative energy,” Schindelmann explains, “so we thought MERGE would be an opportunity for [artists] to present. […] This is a sort of communal curation [and] an opportunity for self-expression[and] an investigation of what’s out there.”

Similar MERGE events will take place in June and December, but this is the time of birth, and FLOOD is ready to meet their new baby with high hopes, but measured expectations.

“For any new project, it’s difficult to get people motivated and engaged, because there’s some uncertainty about what it is,” says Assadi. “[But] our goal is to have a self-sustained event that will become a tradition in the East Village.”

“This is the moment of inspiration,” adds Schindelmann, “and we’ll see how it fleshes out.”

Von der Horst emphasizes the original meaning of “inspire”: to breathe life into: “We’re hoping MERGE will help further the East Village as a living, breathing arts district.”

FLOOD says Saturday “will be an evening highlighting a diversity of interplayful sensibilities, visitors will find themselves within an expressive city space, shifting with fluid aesthetic interactions and energized by creative tension.”

Exactly what how that looks/sounds will depend on who turns out and what we do.

MERGE will be a free happening (for spectators and participants alike) Saturday, March 31, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. in various spots from Linden to Elm Avenues and 1st to 4th Streets. For more information, click here.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Including me: I’ve got the alley off Linden Ave. between Cement Records and the Broadlind parking lot. Guitar, effects rig, tambourine (!). Come out and play?

Cerulean Cheer- Harmonicas of the Gods