Press Release

15 October 2015            

Contact: Fiona P. McDonald and Craig Campbell
(on behalf of Ethnographic  Terminalia)

E-mail: ethnographicterminalia@gmail.com
Website: www.ethnographicterminalia.org

ETHNOGRAPHIC TERMINALIA Presents:  Aeolian Politics — Denver, 2015

November 17-22, 2015
Exhibition, Opening Reception & Public Events

Ethnographic Terminalia is an on-going critical art initiative that places modes of exhibiting anthropology (the study of human beings) in conversation with contemporary art practices. From November 17-22, 2015 our curatorial collective presents its eighth international exhibition, Aeolian Politics — Denver, 2015. Held in tandem with the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), this immersive show features a sensory installation based on ethnographic fieldwork that explores the power and politics of wind and place. In the midst of a boom of writing and thinking about ecological crises brought on by human caused climate catastrophes, the Ethnographic Terminalia collective has enthusiastically collaborated with anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer from Rice University to translate their ethnographic work from Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec into a sensory art exhibition, Aeolian Politics. Through this collaboration we have created an immersive exhibition for the Emmanuel Gallery on the Auraria Campus in Denver, CO that will be installed from 17-2 November 2015.

The concept of this show is derived from the idea that we all share a primary perceptual relationship as living beings in the weather-world. We are always in the wind and air and it is always in us, filling our lungs and passing through our lips. The wind and air as a massive aerial force is also harvested and commodified according to feats of industrial engineering and resource management.  This exhibition is in part about connecting the familiar and shared experiences of wind to its relationship with commerce, region, and nation. By drawing contemporary art and anthropology together in conversation, we welcome visitors to explore a windhouse built within the walls of the Emmanuel Gallery to watch curated ethnographic footage and listen to the spoken words of Indigenous Zapotec poet, Victor Terán from Oaxaca, México. This exhibition is designed to create a space for visitors to reflect on their own experience within the weather world through the contexts of art and anthropology.

Ethnographic Terminalia is an initiative that playfully asks what lies beyond and what lies within disciplinary territories. The terminus is the end, the boundary and the border; it is also a beginning, its own place, a site of experience and encounter. The collective has curated exhibitions of international artists and researchers working at the intersection of art and anthropology in Vancouver, Washington D.C, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, New Orleans and Philadelphia. Ethnographic Terminalia Presents: Aeolian Politics — Denver, 2015 is organized with generous support from the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Visual Anthropology, Rice University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Location: Emmanuel Gallery

1205 10th Street, Denver, CO 80204
 http://www.emmanuelgallery.org/

Cost: Entry is free

Gallery Hours:  17-22 November 2015

Tuesday- Friday | 10am-6pm
Saturday | 11am-5pm
Sunday | 11am-2pm

Public Opening: Friday 20 November 4-6pm (Curators Present for Questions)

Reception: Friday 20 November 7pm – midnight

In addition to the main exhibition and reception, other events sponsored by Ethnographic Terminalia will be announced closer to the exhibition. For an invitation please contact at the address below.  If anyone wishes to host a private event within the exhibition please contact: ethnographicterminalia@gmail.com. More details on free, public events will be available at after 1 November 2015: www.ethnographicterminalia.org

Free Public Events:

Community Conversations: Forces of Power in the Anthropocene

Friday 20 November 2015, 1pm:

Come join in conversation with the curators and the ethnographers about how ethnography and contemporary art come together to create sensory experiences in our everyday lives. Confirmed Participants: Ethnographic Terminalia Collective, Dominic Boyer, Cymene Howe, and others TBA

Open Workshop: Poetry and Power in Place

Saturday 21 November 2015, 2pm:

Come join in an interactive poetry workshop with poets and anthropologists to  reflect on the work Víctor Terán who will join via virtual participation from the Isthmus of TehuantepecOaxaca, México. This is an opportunity to explore the installation and consider how sensory experiences with the wind translate in our own lived experiences in the world. This workshop will feature both Spanish and English translation services. [limited numbers only]

Sponsors: American Anthropological Association, Society for Visual Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Chapman University, Simon Fraser University, Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) at Rice University

Curators:

Craig Campbell, University of Texas at Austin (Austin, USA)
Kate Hennessy, School of Interactive Arts + Technology, SFU (Vancouver, Canada)
Fiona P. McDonald, New Knowledge Organization Ltd. (NYC, USA)
Trudi Lynn Smith, University of Victoria (Vancouver Island, Canada)
Stephanie Takaragawa, Chapman University (Orange, USA)

Print Materials: The Ethnographic Terminalia gallery guide will be available at Emmanuel Gallery during the exhibition and also online  www.ethnographicterminalia.org.

Ethnographic Terminalia  will also be officially launching six exhibition catalogs (2009-2014) during the main reception, which will available for sale online through the American Anthropological Association website.

Images: For copyright information and permissions contact: ethnographicterminalia@gmail.com.

*If reproducing the image at the top and bottom of this Press Release, please acknowledge it as “an original work designed by Ethnographic Terminalia .”

Online:

www.ethnographicterminalia.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/terminalia
http://www.emmanuelgallery.org

Follow us on Twitter:

@ethnoterminalia
@emmanuelgallery

Twitter Hashtags Include:

#ET2015
#AAA2015
#emmanuelgallery
#aurariacampus

-30-