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09-28-15

Beyond Alcatraz: @Large One Year Later

Cell Block A, Alcatraz; photo: Jan Stürmann

Cell Block A, Alcatraz; photo: Jan Stürmann

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the opening of @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. Since the opening, Ai has regained his right to travel freely following the return of his passport by Chinese authorities on July 22, 2105. As well, we are happy to report that 26 prisoners of conscience who were featured in Ai’s iconic work Trace have officially been released from prison:

Azerbaijan
Bakhtiyar Guliyev
Bakhtiyar Mammadov
Dashgin Melikov
Uzeyir Mammadli

Belarus
Ales Bialiatski
Mikola Statkevich

Burma
Dr. Tun Aung  

Cameroon
Dieudonné Enoh Meyomesse

China
Runggye Adak (Adak is a Tibetan citizen)
Tashi Rabten (Rabten is a Tibetan citizen)
Gao Zhiseng (Zhiseng is currently under house arrest)

Cuba
Iván Fernández Depestre

Ethiopia
Reeyot Alemu

Iran
Bahman Ahmadi Amouee
Keyvan Samimi

Kazakhstan
Roza Tuletaeva

Russia
Yaroslav Belousov
Artiom Saviolov

Rwanda
Agnes Uwimana Nkusi

United States
Shakir Hamoodi
John Kiriakou

Vietnam
Nguyen Van Hai
Do Thi Minh Hanh
Lê Quốc Quân
Nguyen Xuan Nghia
Le Thanh Tung

Tibetan prisoner of conscience Tenzin Delek Rinpoche died while incarcerated in a Chinese prison in Changdu, Sichuan Province in July 2015. Tibetans demanded the return of his body to give him the traditional Buddhist final rites, a right provided by the Chinese constitution. However, Chinese prison authorities secretly cremated Rinpoche’s body. Shortly thereafter, while his relatives were carrying Rinpoche’s ashes to his hometown, Chinese police stopped them and forcibly seized his remains.

Indonesian prisoner of conscience Filep Karma was offered a release from prison in August 2015, but he has refused the offer of remission. He has called for an unconditional release, which includes the revocation of the charge of treason against him.

In a recent development, prisoner of conscience Shaker Aamer is scheduled to be released from the detention center at Guantanamo as early as October 25, 2015. A Saudi citizen and British legal resident, Aamer was originally suspected of leading anti-US forces in Afghanistan while being paid by Osama bin Laden. He has been detained and held without charge since 2001. He was cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007 and by the Obama administration in 2009, but remains in detention in Guantánamo. He has testified that he has been subject to torture.

While we are very encouraged by the release of many prisoners of conscience, 141 individuals featured in Trace—as well as untold numbers of other people around the world—remain incarcerated for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, Ai Weiwei

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  • #LandsEnd featured artist Andrea Chung’s video Come Back to Jamaica (2009), & Come Back to Yourself (2013), will be… https://t.co/HXwouRNnBa
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Instagram

FOR-SITE collaborator @hankwillisthomas & artist @wideawakes designed  #EyesonIran flying billboards in solidarity with the women of Iran. 

The billboards can be seen this week on South beach, Miami and at @untitledartfair 

@forfreedoms multi-day, multi-media art installation spans Miami and artworks throughout @4freedomspark in NYC
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FOR-SITE collaborator @hankwillisthomas & artist @wideawakes designed #EyesonIran flying billboards in solidarity with the women of Iran. The billboards can be seen this week on South beach, Miami and at @untitledartfair @forfreedoms multi-day, multi-media art installation spans Miami and artworks throughout @4freedomspark in NYC
2 months ago
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1/9
This #GivingTuesday we want to celebrate and honor YOU and the other partners and supporters who have buoyed our wildest dreams. Access to all of our exhibition sites these past years—from the former Cliff House to Alcatraz to military batteries and churches—was gifted to us from our park partners. The 110 artists with whom we have worked blew us away with breathtaking, career-defining work, often under short order. FOR-SITE simply would not exist without the well of generosity and cooperation that is our friends, and we intend to express our gratitude this year. 

You can continue to support FOR-SITE by donating today at the link in bio.
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This #GivingTuesday we want to celebrate and honor YOU and the other partners and supporters who have buoyed our wildest dreams. Access to all of our exhibition sites these past years—from the former Cliff House to Alcatraz to military batteries and churches—was gifted to us from our park partners. The 110 artists with whom we have worked blew us away with breathtaking, career-defining work, often under short order. FOR-SITE simply would not exist without the well of generosity and cooperation that is our friends, and we intend to express our gratitude this year. You can continue to support FOR-SITE by donating today at the link in bio.
2 months ago
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2/9
The participating artists of FOR-SITE’s 2018 exhibition SANCTUARY, represented diverse ideologies and backgrounds (many including experiences as migrants and refugees), but their contributions to the exhibition—spectacularly varied in content and design—conformed to a single format, lending a unifying element that bridged racial, cultural, and religious differences. Installed on the floor of the historic Fort Mason Chapel, the four-by-six-foot wool rugs—woven in Lahore, Pakistan, using traditional materials and hand-knotting techniques—called to mind traditional prayer rugs, but they transcended religious connotations, encompassing thoughtful viewpoints on cultural identity, sense of place, and belonging.

Photo by @robertdiversherrick
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The participating artists of FOR-SITE’s 2018 exhibition SANCTUARY, represented diverse ideologies and backgrounds (many including experiences as migrants and refugees), but their contributions to the exhibition—spectacularly varied in content and design—conformed to a single format, lending a unifying element that bridged racial, cultural, and religious differences. Installed on the floor of the historic Fort Mason Chapel, the four-by-six-foot wool rugs—woven in Lahore, Pakistan, using traditional materials and hand-knotting techniques—called to mind traditional prayer rugs, but they transcended religious connotations, encompassing thoughtful viewpoints on cultural identity, sense of place, and belonging. Photo by @robertdiversherrick
2 months ago
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3/9
#LandsEnd featured artist @suzannehusky has explored interactions among humans, animals, and plants through a multifaceted art practice that includes sculpture, installation, photography, and film for the last 20 years. 

Husky sculpts her trees from used clothes and found textiles, translating our cast-off clothing—informed by age and gender, class, culture, and politics—to the individualizing characteristics of trees, suggesting the deep interconnectedness of humans and their natural surroundings. “Forest” is both an homage to an ecological system that supports countless plant and animal species and a memorial to that same system under threat of erasure. #artaboutplace
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#LandsEnd featured artist @suzannehusky has explored interactions among humans, animals, and plants through a multifaceted art practice that includes sculpture, installation, photography, and film for the last 20 years. Husky sculpts her trees from used clothes and found textiles, translating our cast-off clothing—informed by age and gender, class, culture, and politics—to the individualizing characteristics of trees, suggesting the deep interconnectedness of humans and their natural surroundings. “Forest” is both an homage to an ecological system that supports countless plant and animal species and a memorial to that same system under threat of erasure. #artaboutplace
2 months ago
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4/9
#LandsEnd featured artist @danielbeltraphoto’s striking, large-scale aerial photographs of melting polar ice caps and oil spills highlight the rate and scale at which humanity is impacting our world. His juxtapositions of nature and destruction provide an almost overwhelming sense of physical scale and emotional dread, through flattened but dynamic images that flirt with abstraction.
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#LandsEnd featured artist @danielbeltraphoto’s striking, large-scale aerial photographs of melting polar ice caps and oil spills highlight the rate and scale at which humanity is impacting our world. His juxtapositions of nature and destruction provide an almost overwhelming sense of physical scale and emotional dread, through flattened but dynamic images that flirt with abstraction.
3 months ago
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5/9
FOR-SITE turns 20 in 2023! We feel extremely grateful to all of you, the artists, and to our long-standing park partners, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (@parksconservancy), the Presidio Trust (@presidiosf), and the @nationalparkservice, for such outstanding companionship and support of our work.

Stay tuned! The celebrations begin next month, in December, followed by a milestone anniversary year punctuated by programs and events, and a to-be-announced biennial exhibition open to the public.

In the meantime, you may have noticed we changed our name and branding, with our new website coming soon. The FOR-SITE Foundation is now FOR-SITE, yet we remain dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place.

We look forward to celebrating with you this next year!
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FOR-SITE turns 20 in 2023! We feel extremely grateful to all of you, the artists, and to our long-standing park partners, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (@parksconservancy), the Presidio Trust (@presidiosf), and the @nationalparkservice, for such outstanding companionship and support of our work. Stay tuned! The celebrations begin next month, in December, followed by a milestone anniversary year punctuated by programs and events, and a to-be-announced biennial exhibition open to the public. In the meantime, you may have noticed we changed our name and branding, with our new website coming soon. The FOR-SITE Foundation is now FOR-SITE, yet we remain dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. We look forward to celebrating with you this next year!
3 months ago
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6/9
Election Day has arrived! VOTE for the planet and the future you want to see in the world 🌍🌊 🗳️
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Election Day has arrived! VOTE for the planet and the future you want to see in the world 🌍🌊 🗳️
3 months ago
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7/9
@anateresafernandez talking sea bodies and On the Horizon on @kqed live. #LandsEnd
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@anateresafernandez talking sea bodies and On the Horizon on @kqed live. #LandsEnd
3 months ago
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8/9
“The response among members of the visual arts community in the Bay Area was swift and certain: The Times story, a consensus of those who spoke with The Chronicle said, does not represent the region accurately, and they do not see a local decline.

The most common criticism of the Times’ reporting was that San Francisco should not be viewed through the lens of an art market, but rather as a larger arts community consisting of many public and private institutions as well as independent artists, arts workers and patrons.” - @tonybravosf 

@anateresafernandez “On the Horizon” at #FORSITE’s #LandsEnd exhibition featured  in @tonybravosf “S.F.’s art scene, disparaged by the New York Times, pushes back” for @sfchronicle_datebook
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“The response among members of the visual arts community in the Bay Area was swift and certain: The Times story, a consensus of those who spoke with The Chronicle said, does not represent the region accurately, and they do not see a local decline. The most common criticism of the Times’ reporting was that San Francisco should not be viewed through the lens of an art market, but rather as a larger arts community consisting of many public and private institutions as well as independent artists, arts workers and patrons.” - @tonybravosf @anateresafernandez “On the Horizon” at #FORSITE’s #LandsEnd exhibition featured in @tonybravosf “S.F.’s art scene, disparaged by the New York Times, pushes back” for @sfchronicle_datebook
3 months ago
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9/9

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