[thingist] "House Magic: Bureau of Foreign Correspondence" at ABC No Rio 4/17-5/10

[Alan Moore]

hi Folks,
this is coming up -- if you know this scene and are here in NYC, please come on by and chat with us about it!
best,
-am


1. PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

_House Magic: Bureau of Foreign Correspondence_ process exhibition at ABC No Rio
April 17 to May 10, 2009
evening events Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings

The social center movement in Europe will be the focus of a project exhibition at the Lower East Side cultural center ABC No Rio during later April and early May. Images and information, videos and discussion will engage the realities of this vital urban movement.

An outgrowth of political squatting, the social center in occupied vacant buildings was a key feature of the Italian Autonomist movement of the 1970s and '80s. Squats on the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1990s borrowed elements of the English and German social center models, including cafes, infoshops (library/bookstores), performance spaces and art galleries. These models also influenced the _infoshops_ of the anarchist movement throughout the U.S.A.. Across Europe, the often short-lived social centers became important organizing foci of the global justice movement during the first decade of the new century. 

The "House Magic" exhibition will be an open structure, a channel for a continuous flow of information from the social centers themselves. Bulletins will be posted, banners will be painted, soup will be served. Video documentaries will be screened, and guests will discuss their experiences with social centers.

The social centers arose out of direct action squatting. In the new century, however, these actions have been less about housing, and more intended to create social, cultural and political space for action in the city.

In many cases, social center squatting is a response to gentrifying development in the city, an instance of "bottom up planning and architecture." The social centers are usually well integrated into the neighborhoods in which they are set up, and provide free space for cultural activities to take place. Many social centers work closely with immigrant groups, organizing, supporting and demonstrating to protect their rights.