EAI VIDEO PROJECT SPACE at X SUMMER 2009 EAI Video Project Space X Initiative 548 West 22nd Street, Ground Floor New York, NY 10011 www.eai.org Admission free For the summer of 2009, EAI is pleased to announce a collaboration with X, the not-for-profit, temporary exhibition space located in Manhattan's West Chelsea neighborhood. This summer EAI will present at X a video project space featuring a changing program of artists’ video from EAI’s major collection of media artworks. Highlighting a multi-generational, multi-disciplinary range of artists and practices, the video project space will bring new works by emerging artists into dialogue with rarely seen historical treasures from the EAI archives. Located on the ground floor of X, the EAI video project space and summer exhibition program present a new opportunity for EAI to bring works from the EAI collection to the public. X is located at 542 West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. On June 23rd, EAI's project space will launch with Character Witness, a program of videos by artists who take on the role of actor in their own narratives. Featuring a cross-generational group of artists, including Kalup Linzy, Alex Bag, Michael Smith, William Wegman, MICA-TV, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, and Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, these works also share a focus that resonates in the current economic and cultural climate: the irreverent investigation of the artist in relation to the art world and the art market. In casting themselves in their own stories, the artists pursue a range of strategies, from playing or voicing a suite of multiple characters to performing alongside an ensemble cast or assuming fictionalized versions of themselves. Blurring the lines between narrative, performance and documentary, the artists take on these roles to critique, question, and satirize the systems around the marketing of the artist and the selling of their art. This program, on view from June 23rd until July 3rd, will open in conjunction with X's project NO SOUL FOR SALE: A Festival of Independents. NO SOUL FOR SALE will bring together 30 not-for-profit organizations, alternative spaces and artist-run projects from around the world for a public convention on the ground floor of X. On July 9th, EAI will launch a program featuring artist Seth Price's most recent video, Redistribution. This work emerges from Price’s conceptual practice, in which he engages in strategies of recirculation, appropriation and packaging to consider issues of cultural production and the distribution of information. Please visit www.eai.org or join EAI on facebook to learn more about EAI’s summer programming at X. ___________________________________ About X X is an initiative of the global art community, with a goal to inspire and challenge us to think about new possibilities for experiencing and producing contemporary art. In the creation of the not-for-profit organization X, artists, curators, museum professionals, gallerists, collectors, art historians and critics are reaching across traditional boundaries to form a consortium interested in responding quickly to the major philosophical and economic shifts impacting culture. Organized into four phases starting from Spring 2009 through Winter 2010, the programs at X will feature durational artist interventions, site-specific projects, historical in-depth exhibitions, one-night performances, lectures and weekly events. Questions posed in the form of programming will address relevant and pressing issues pertaining to the changing landscape of contemporary art. http://x-initiative.org/ ___________________________________ About EAI Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is one of the world's leading nonprofit resources for video art. A pioneering advocate for media art and artists, EAI's core program is the distribution and preservation of a major collection of over 3,500 new and historical media works by artists. EAI fosters the creation, exhibition, distribution and preservation of video art and digital art. EAI's activities include a preservation program, viewing access, educational services, extensive online resources, and public programs such as artists' talks, exhibitions and panels. The Online Catalogue is a comprehensive resource on the artists and works in the EAI collection, and also features extensive materials on exhibiting, collecting and preserving media art: www.eai.org Electronic Arts Intermix 535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor New York, NY 10011 (212) 337-0680 tel (212) 337-0679 fax info@eai.org