This year we are celebrating ten years of True/False with “The Collective Architecture of the Impossible”. Artist Erik Buckham’s fanciful favela is the perfect visual representation of our shared achievement, the result of the hard work and joyful energy thousands of volunteers, musicians, staff members, artists, filmmakers, sponsors and attendees have contributed to the festival over the course of a decade.
This idea of Collective Architecture speaks forcefully to the work of our design team. Every year the combined efforts of visiting artists, production staff and assisting volunteers transform downtown Columbia for four magical days, creating a utopia where new discoveries lie around every corner. The Art and Design page has a complete a venue by venue, installation by installation run down of everything happening around town. You also shouldn’t miss Rebecca Allen’s stunning photo essay of our production team hard at work.
Downtown’s main artery is Alley A, running from the Tiger Hotel over to Ragtag Cinema, and cutting right behind our box office. “Stilted”, California-based artist Yulia Pinkusevich’s ambitious take on The Collective Architecture of the Impossible, will cover the length of this passageway. You should visit Yulia’s homepage for numerous pictures and videos of her extensive body of work. Here’s a picture of small piece of “Stilted”.
The Mud Stencils, Jesse Graves and Morgan Herum, will be returning for their third True/False, decorating Columbia’s sidewalks and walls with their environmentally friendly street art. Last year they created this excellent bee mural next to Willie’s.
Moveable Type is setting up shop in the parking lot of the Picturehouse, our theater at the Missouri United Methodist Church. Kyle Durrie and her letterpressing 1982 Chevy van will be making custom prints using methods that have been around since the 1500s. Here’s a poster they made last year.
Right around the corner on the Picturehouse lawn members of St. Louis’s SPORE Collective are building “Migratory Hive Project” entirely out of reclaimed materials. This project will be massive when finished, but be sure to note the details.
For the Oddfellows Lounge Chicago based artist Theresa Vishnevetskaya created a piece called “Organ No. 2″, a hypnotic aggregation of ambient light, animatronics and interactive sound. See for yourself in this brief demonstration.
At the Southeast corner of Ninth and Cherry Gabe Meyer and Brian Doss are presenting “From Here To Home”, their dumpster-turned-work-of-art. This piece challenges traditional notions of what makes a house a home while tempting passers-by to curl up and take a nap beneath the warm glow of discarded plastic bags.
Artist Greg Orloff, the man responsible for both Ragtag’s digital conversion robot Lumen (hanging out at The Missouri Theater) and T/F 2010′s Time Machine, is turning a mishmash of gadgets and light into a film reel in the lobby of Jesse Hall. Meanwhile designers Gabrielle Parish, Audrey Keiffer, Madeline Carl and Dan Bugnitz are transforming our box office into an interactive playground of the miniature and the gargantuan.
photo by Stephen Bybee
At The Blue Note Glenn Rice’s returning sea creatures will be joined by coral incrusted TVs featuring video from the Chicago Film Archives. And Camellia Cosgray’s beautiful lighted megamap continues to adorn the wall of The Globe.
All of this just scratched the surface, as each and every venue at T/F has its own character and design. Be sure to refer back to the Art and Design page of your program all weekend to help navigate the art of True/False.
