Not An Alternative

Tate Modern: Tommorow Is Another Day (After the Economic Crisis)

What: Brookyln-based arts group Not An Alternative is one of 70 around the world featured at the Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary show “No Soul for Sale: A Festival of Independents”.
Where: Tate Modern in London
When: May 14-16, 2010

In 1996 artist/architect Rikrit Taravanija built a to-scale replica of his East Village, NY apartment and installed it in a gallery. Entitled “Tomorrow is Another Day” and made with 2×4’s, he invited visitors into his space to watch television, eat dinner, take naps. The lines between life and art were blurred, the walls porous, inside and outside collapsed.

This installation heralded a new era of participatory art, a practice widely celebrated in biennials, galleries and museums around the world. With participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring business models, creative and activist practice, the architecture of the city, the internet, and the economy, we have to ask: what are the limits of participation? Who gets to participate, and who is left out?

In an installation at Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary festival in London, NY-based arts organization Not An Alternative locates these themes within our contemporary historic moment. The piece, entitled “Tomorrow is Another Day (After the Economic Crisis)” shows the façade of a building constructed in 2×4’s, the windows shuttered with plywood, the door padlocked. With a foreclosure sign nailed to the entrance, your participation in the piece is effectively foreclosed.

A contradiction is teased out on an old television set, found amidst garbage bags outside the front door. Flickering news reports implicate Tate Modern corporate sponsors Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch in the housing bubble and ensuing economic crisis. The banks accrue reputational currency from their cultural sponsorship of the museum. But with this gesture their façade of social responsibility is cracked.

The television footage also depicts homeless people and activists responding to the crisis with tent cities, foreclosure defense teams, building occupations, and other forms of collective action.

Accompanying the installation will be literature for distribution featuring an essay by writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor, best known for her films Zizek! and Examined Life.