We Are Here To Serve You
February 20, 2020 - March 20, 2020
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 20, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Related Public Programs
MONDAY, MARCH 2, 6:30-8:00 PM
We Are Here to Serve You – Round table discussion
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th St
A round table focusing on how foreign economic and political dominance over Greece and Puerto Rico has impacted the daily lives of local people. Panelists include Neni Panourgia, Ed Morales, Natalia Viera Salgado, and Stefanos Tsivopoulos. Moderated by Lydia Matthews. An exhibition walk through will take place in the gallery from 6:00-6:20 pm.
CANCELLED – SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2020, 5:00PM
Bomba Dance and Percussion Workshop with Los Pleneros de la 21
Starr Foundation Hall, U L102, University Center 63 5th Avenue New York NY 10003
A dance and percussion workshop related to the exhibition We Are Here to Serve You at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons School of Design. Los Pleneros de la 21 (LP21) is the premier East Harlem-based performing ensemble and non-profit community organization.
CANCELLED – THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020, 6:00PM to 7:30PM
She doesn’t wear earrings till this day – performance by Eleana Antonaki
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, N 100, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
As part of the exhibition We Are Here to Serve You Eleana Antonaki will be performing a new work titled She doesn’t wear earrings till this day. Continuing to explore matters of transnational feminism, postcolonialism, and oral histories, Eleana will be engaging with the audience throughout the duration of the performance to re-narrate an event that took place during the population exchanges between Turkey and Greece. The performance will start promptly at 6:30 pm and will end at 7:15pm. This a participation based performance and you might be asked to participate actively. For that reason we kindly ask you to stay for the duration of the event.
WE ARE HERE TO SERVE YOU, a traveling exhibition which began as a collaboration between Puerto Rican artist Natalia Almonte and Greek artist Nicole Economides, focuses on connecting artistic practices from Puerto Rico and Greece that are confronting similar intangible realities. The artworks on view — ranging from multimedia video installations and photography to performance and painting — critically engage with reductive perceptions of Greece and Puerto Rico and infuse ideas of cyclical futility and ephemerality with humor and double meaning, bringing cultural symbols and specificity to activism. They explore the repercussions of being in financial debt to political entities that already control their economies through colonial puppeteering. In debt, but not indebted to, conceptually permeates WE ARE HERE TO SERVE YOU, an intentionally sarcastic title suggesting an assumed foolishness that in actuality reveals our hyperconsciousness.
Featured artists include: Natalia Almonte & Nicole Economides, Eleana Antonaki, Miguel Luciano, María del Mar Hernández Gil de Lamadrid, Elsa María Melendez, Yiyo Tirado, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, and Adonis Volanakis
Curated by Natalia Almonte & Nicole Economides, MFA Fine Arts ’19
Exhibition support generously provided by Spectral Masters Digital Imaging
In the Other Gallery
