Art Car Parade in Houston

After the opening of my Guantanamo Brain exhibition and after putting a Bomb Bird on a roof in the center of Amsterdam. I left for Houston, Texas, where the Dreamyourtopia Borderpatrol car was part of the annual art car parade, with almost 300.000 spectators.

dreamyourtopia @ pechakucha

22nd of April I'll be talking about Dreamyourtopia at the Pecha Kucha night in Amsterdam @ Mediamatic
http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/amsterdam/9

Going into Hibernation

The Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia project went into Hibernation and will emerge later this summer again, appearing at the Lowlands Festival, 21st, 22nd and 23rd of August 2009.

You can already start preparing yourself by downloading the immigration form from http://www.dadara.nl/checkpoint/immigration-forms.htm , filling it out and mailing it to the Department of Dreamland Security. Dutch forms will be available in the future as well :-)

In the meantime check the "Spacecraft 2 More Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts" , which features the Checkpoint alongside many other cool projects. link

For now I'm concentrating on my Upcoming Guantanamo Brain exhibition at Famous in Amsterdam, starting the 2nd of May.

Checkpoint in the Netherlands

Last week the Border Control Checkpoint managed to pass the Dutch Border Control and safely arrived in its container in the Netherlands after its Transatlantic journey.
Apart from a few minor scars and bruised all has survived pretty well and is now waiting in storage for the Lowlands festival end of August.

The immigration forms page has been updated: http://www.dadara.nl/checkpoint/immigration-forms.htm and has all the info about Lowlands and some added samples of forms submitted at the Dallas event.

An online report of the Dallas event can be found at:
http://www.utdmercury.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=7359b9bf-c816-4775-9191-2b3820344ec6

The whole project will now pretty much go into hibernation until it will wake up from its Dreams this coming summer for some new adventures...........

Back Home in Amsterdam

Our last week in Dallas was pretty hectic, with my talk at the Dallas Museum of Art on the 8th of January, the resurrection of Dreamyourtopia on the 10th at Centraltrak, dismantling the installation the next day, packing the overseas container with the whole project on the 12th, and last but not least packing our seven US months in suitcases and leaving on the 14th.

But all went pretty relaxed. The event on the 10th was a great success, with over 200 "immigrants", who needed to be processed, showing up with their filled out immigration forms and photos in hand. It was a challenge to translate the Dreamyourtopia installation from the surreal desert to the very urban environment of Dallas. But it worked surprisingly well, using the whole building and concentrating more on the theatrical than visual aspects.

Some pics here and in the image gallery of the Dreamyourtopia site.

And Charissa Terranova, director of the Centraltrak artist residency wrote a theoretical essay about the Dreamyourtopia project, which can be found on the 14+1 blog :

Yours Dreamingly and Jetlaggingly.

Dadara

Invitation for the 10th ( and 8th ) of January

This is the flyer for the Dreamyourtopia events here in Dallas.

And here is the info in written text:

THE DEPARTMENT OF DREAMLAND SECURITY AND DADARA INVITE YOU TO
CHECKPOINT DREAMYOURTOPIA
A BORDER CONTROL CHECKPOINT TO ENTER YOUR OWN DREAMS
DATE AND TIME : JANUARY 10TH 2009
5.00 PM - 10.00 PM (DOORS CLOSE 9.00 PM)
CENTRALTRAK, 800 EXPOSITION AVENUE, DALLAS, TX 75226, PHONE 214-8249302

Bring a passportphoto, 4 dollars administration fee,
and Immigration Form WXRZYQ SFG 23587-492 A
(www.dadara.nl/checkpoint/immigration-forms.htm)
to obtain your Dream Passport stamped with the right visa.

Dadara will give an Artist talk on the 8th of January
7.30 PM at the Theater in the Center for Creative
Connections at the Dallas Museum of Art,
1717 N. Harwood St, Dallas, TX 75201

click here for info about the talk

Dreamyourtopia in Dallas and Beyond

After almost six months spent here in Dallas ( and in the Nevada desert ) our stay is coming to an end. I already started preparing for the Dreamyourtopia performance at the Lowlands Festival in August 2009 in the Netherlands, rebuilding the interrogation house in a sturdy, movable, better designed and waterproof way. But first the Checkpoint will still operate here in Dallas at Centraltrak on the 10th of January and I'll give a talk about the whole project at the Dallas Museum of Art on the 8th. A few days later everything will be packed in an overseas container and on its way and we'll be in a plane heading for the Amsterdam rain