2nd Floor Rear officially wrapped as of noon Sunday, and the festival seems to have been a smashing success. A giant thanks to all contributers, hosters, helpers, and funders! Please see the collaborators page for a complete list of people to whom kudos are due. Also, keep an eye on this blog for soon-to-come festival photos, afterthoughts, and more.
2nd Floor Rear
a festival of alternative and itinerate spaces
Breaking updates!
2nd Floor Rear is underway as of now! We have two event updates from contributors. Learn more about Anthony Stepter’s Call for Artists here: http://www.callforartistsproject.com/, and the PJ Party Brunchfast here: http://itsaponyprojects.com/2012/02/03/pj-party-drop-in-brunchfast/.
Welcome to 2nd Floor Rear 2012!
2nd Floor Rear is happening TOMORROW! It goes without saying that we are excited. Our Kickstarter campaign exceeded its goal. I (festival producer) am putting together festival materials for participants, frantically writing emails, blog posts, and trying to find a photographer, all while watching the sun come up. We finalized and printed the festival map yesterday. It looks like this:
Printed maps will be available at all indoor spaces. You can also download a schedule of events: ghid 24h spate and a map: ghid 24h fata beforehand. With the exception of some outdoor installations that can only be located by happenstance, all sites will be marked with a dash of sparkly blue ribbon and perhaps some blue chalk markings, so be on the lookout for those things as you search out some of the more off-the-beaten path sites.
Some last-minute SOS’s: we are still looking for a photographer who can meet with the festival producer tonight and commit to documenting the festival from around 11am to midnight on Saturday (you will be paid!) and the itsa_pony! PJ Brunchfast needs some help running errands before/during Sunday morning, so if you would like to pitch in, or are interested in taking photos for money, please email itsa_pony! projects at itsaponyprojects@gmail.com.
See you Saturday!
Ok, so the real post is coming soon…
…in, like, a few hours. After I take a quick disco nap, or have some rather truncated sleep. In the meantime, the Kickstarter campaign was a success!!! Bright and early tomorrow I plan to post a shiny new post for you complete with updates, tips, a downloadable festival map/schedule of events, and more. In the meantime, tell all your friends about Saturday and remind yourself to check back in tomorrow for more.
Calling all Fairy Godfunders!!!!
Hey everyone! Only 4 hours left till the deadline for the Kickstarter campaign and we are $49 shy of our goal. So close! Awesome prizes! Even more awesome festival! Contributing is pretty much a win-win-win.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/445506472/2nd-floor-rear-a-24-hour-festival-of-alternative-a
Kickstarter Campaign Up and Rolling
We need YOU Chicago! Help out the festival by funding through Kickstarter. $500 in 10 days! you can help us get there. Click the link below to get going.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/445506472/2nd-floor-rear-a-24-hour-festival-of-alternative-a
Event Sneak Peak: New Wave Ladies Night
Hey folks, just to whet your appetite for what’s to come, here’s one of the proposals that’s been accepted for 2nd Floor Rear. Curated by Robin Kang of Carousel Space Projects:
What: New Wave Ladies Night
Where: Carousel Space Project, 1310 N. Hoyne Ave. Chicago, IL
2nd Wave, 3rd Wave, New Wave, No Wave…Although the current timeline for the
feminist movement may be blurry or undefined, the quality of the artwork created by
emerging female artists is clearly strong. Amid powerful movements of globalization,
eco-feminism, cyber-feminism, a return to craft movement, and even progress in female
candidates for political positions, the soil is rich for gender issue conversation and
headway.
Adding the term “new wave” to the exhibition, is both a verbal pun and a comparison to
punk music’s electronic daughter. The sub-genre of rock music that emerged in the mid
to late 1970s saw revivals in the 1990s and early 2000s. Common characteristics of
New Wave music, aside its punk influences, include the usage of synthesizers and
electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as a great amount
of diversity.
Juxtaposing an exhibition of a new wave of female artists to a background of synthpop,
draws comparisons to the similar timelines of the two movements and highlights their
repetitive persistence and evolution over the years.
Confirmed artists include:
LeeYoo Heeran
Christalena Hughmanick
Angela Marie Hoener
Michaela Murphy
Rose Sexton
Show will feature new wave music, painting, collage and performance & video art.
2nd Floor Rear: a 24-hour festival of alternative and itinerate spaces
2nd Floor Rear is a 24-hour festival of alternative spaces, apartment galleries, and ephemeral and migrant projects celebrating Chicago’s vibrant community of alternative and DIY art spaces.
In 1980, the Neoists, a little-known avant-garde subculture descended from Fluxus, held their first annual “International Neoist Apartment Festival” or APT, a four-day long event complete with concerts, performances, film screenings, and installations, in the apartment of one of the members of the Neoist group. Poorly documented and marginally historicized, it is thought[1] that APT carried on annually, in various iterations, until 1988.
Drawing on the 24-hour block party model (think Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Mainx24 festival), 2nd Floor Rear adapts the spirit of APT to a condensed, 24-hour timeline. From noon on February 4th to noon on February 5th, festival participants such as Pop-up Art Loop, Carousel Space Projects, Milk Gallery, the Happy Collaborationists, and individual artists such as Chiara Galimberti and Karen Faith will host pop-up exhibitions, dream yoga sleepovers, site-specific installations, and New Wave synth-pop art extravaganzas.
[1] See Stewart Home’s The Assault on Culture. http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/neoism/neoass.htm
