Roadside Attraction - The Art Truck

The idea for Art Truck was first developed by me for The European Cultural Foundation’s Idea Camp. Here is my completely unbridled proposal. I am really not a believer of art created by EU cultural institutions, they usually suck and are very self-conscious and curtailed to institutions which I believe dehumanizes art by separating it from its natural audience, basically putting it in a straight jacket. In here I just let my idea full throttle:

A scalable, mobile public participation installation which will invade public and personal spaces with the materials and processes traditionally reserved for the artist, the studio and the gallery, activating people in public spaces from spectators into active creators. 

In public spaces throughout Europe and with the collaborative participation of the public, it will create pieces unique to the public space and the momentary community that shapes it . The resulting pieces will be assembled into a cross-cultural European puzzle.

------------

A large art truck will travel around Europe and serve as a Mobile Art Camp (MAC) - it will deliver wearable or loose primed canvas pieces, water based paint and brushes on sticks to public spaces around Europe. The public occupying the public spaces will be invited to wear the canvas pieces and paint on each other, or paint on loose canvas pieces mounted on small delivery trucks, thus collaboratively painting a series of pictures in the context of, or inspired by, the public space. The resulting canvas pieces will be collected and physically and digitally stored, eventually all pieces from all location will be sewn together and mounted to compose a cross-cultural painting of Europe.

MAC will allow instantaneous democratization of the public space in that it will allow non-destructive creative intervention by individuals and the community, an act usually reserved for public figures and art practitioners.  It will allow for the transformation of public spaces, with carefully guarded and cultivated role and image, into an augmented reality of that public space. It will  transform the individual experience of passive consumption of the public space into collective memory of a creative act. The act of wearing canvas pieces in the public space will re-introduce the idea of contact and tangibility of personal space within the context of digital society and experience of the public space. 

By engaging people from disparate walks of life who are temporarily unified by the collective experience of a public space, MAC will create a micro level momentary community bound by the act of collective and cooperative creation within the public space. MAC will attempt to thread together Individuals within a public space who may be otherwise segregated by economic disparity, access to transformative experiences and means to positively impact local culture.

---------------------

Imagine you are standing on a public square in a small village. A small delivery truck pulls up and a couple of people dressed in white canvas pieces climb out holding small buckets of orange and yellow paint and brushes on long sticks. They ask you if you’d like to paint on them. You might politely refuse but there are a couple of 11 year old kids playing in the square and they jump at the chance. Soon the white canvases are covered in strange designs of yellow and orange and you can’t help but take a few pictures. Perhaps other adults or kids will join in the fun, temporarily yet permanently altering the experience of the public square until the paint runs out. 

The only permanent result of this MAC operation will be the collaboratively painted pieces. A permanent MAC base camp will operate a website and support a MAC app, collect and store installation pieces and work with European Cultural organizations to fund the collection, store and exhibit the installation pieces. 

The central idea of MAC is to create immediate opportunity for the individuals inhabiting a public space for a non-destructive intervention transforming the purpose of the public space through a creative act, from utility and mere public promenade to creativity, and actual physical transformation of the public space via the presence of the mobile painted canvases. 

The central motivation of MAC will be its scalability and mobility, much like a travelling musician, to immediately engage a public space without having the logistical overhead of a large operation, and the need to advertise to find an audience, a guerrilla ambush with paint run on a shoestring budget, funded on an ongoing basis.

The ultimate goal will be to collect and the installation pieces and sew them together into a large Pan-European map like tapestry, which will become a part of the European collective cultural heritage.

---------------

All-inclusive, Pan-European creative act that will engage individuals of all walks of life.

Each MAC installation will rely on local resources: local artists and volunteers who will help organize and run MAC along its route and local art councils and festivals who may elect to host a MAC. 

The target of a MAC will be the random inhabitants of public spaces from remote village squares to beach parking lots to tourist destinations. 

 App developers who will create a MAC app to track MAC as it travels throughout Europe and assemble the results gradually building on the cross-cultural Pan-European puzzle. 

Art Truck - American version

The Art version of the Taco Truck.

Have you ever had a chance to experience a Taco Truck? Some people swear by it. But it is the kind of product that instead comes to you. And so will be the Art Truck.

Couple of years ago I did a 3000 miles solo drive across the American South. I drove I-10 through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and took frequent stops along the highway, at rest areas and truck stops. I have always been fascinated with American trucking and roads. The most colorful thing to look at on the road were nicely decorated large trucks.

The first in a series of Roadside Attractions will be the Art Truck. Imagine a traveling circus where the audience is the performer. A large colorful truck stops, a large canvas unfolds, out come trampolines and brushes and all kind of wonderful things.

I will rent a 24 foot moving truck, package it in primed canvas and park it at rest areas and parking lots along the i-95 highway. I will have acrylic and sign paints (all water-based paint ) available as well as brushes on sticks and ask the audience to paint on the truck. Canvas will be hung alongside cargo area of the truck (see diagrams) using fishing line. Truck will be protected with plastic drop cloth underneath canvas. The intent of the piece is to ultimately collaboratively produce a 56 feet long painting.

The Art Truck is special in that it was originally inspired by the American trucking culture I have long been fascinated with. I meant it as a country version of an art installation, where a large truck makes frequent stops along highways – at truck stops and rest areas, and out of the cargo hold come art materials. Primed canvas is stretched over the truck and then a quick and impromptu painting happens with people that happen to be there.

Art Truck - Urban Variant

This is also the mini version where the Art Truck is played by a rental Cargo van.