023 Activist Estates Exhibition | Bagchee Architects

Activist Estates – A Radical History of Property in Loisaida

Year: 2019

Type: Installation
Location: Lower East Side, NYC
Collaborator: Loisaida Center

Paper Tiger TV Office. Photograph by Jade Doskow, 2014.
Tim Jones, Joseph "Slima" Williams, Chino Gracia and Bimbo Rivas in La Plaza Cultural, 1981.
Coalition Protest March, from east fourth street to cooper square, 1987.
Mother Earth by the Bread and Puppet Theatre was paraded in the streets of New York on the event of the third UN Special Session on Disarmament. Photograph by David McReynolds, 1988.
Time line of occupants, their rooms, and their actions at the Peace Pentagon, 1969-2016. Tenant list compiled with the assistance of Ed Hedemann, past tenants, correspondence, newsletters, and meeting notes from A.J. Muste Memorial Institute.
ABC No Rio backyard. Photograph by Chris Boats, 1995.
El Bohio Community Center sectional view with select list of users and their locations within the building.

Activist Estates: A Radical History of Property in Loisaida is an exhibit designed and curated by Nandini Bagchee and commissioned/produced by Libertad Guerra and the Loisaida Center. It focuses on the intersectional histories of activism centered on three buildings thateach present a different facet of space-based resistance in the Lower East Side. These are the Peace Pentagon- an office building used by anti-war activists; El Bohio—a large abandoned schoolhouse run as a Puerto Rican community center and ABC NO RIO– a tenement building converted into a collectively run art center. These three buildings embody the overlapping political constituencies that emerged in New York City in the 1970’s when a fiscal crisis and the temporary devaluation of real estate allowed ad hoc citizen undertakings and social advocacy groups to establish control over semi-abandoned properties.

The exhibit is an expansion of some of the themes explored in Nandini Bagchee’s book Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side. In a three-part strategy which occupies the lobby, the corridor and the gallery at the (Loisaida Community) Center the Activist Estates are viewed from three different vantage points. The “View from Above” in the entry lobby presents the neighborhood as a historic bastion of immigration, diversity and creative resistance. The corridors map out the “View from the Street” which is a documentation of street actions and the pageantry of occupations that brings visibility to social movements. The different types of activism- pacifist, environmental, anarchic intertwine the collective histories of grass roots activism along a color-coded timeline. In the “View from Within” the main exhibition room is thematically organized to provide a glimpse into the interiority of the movement spaces where generations of activists have collaborated and debated concerns to shape the resistance. Whether broadcasting against government misinformation, stuffing envelopes, planning rallies, hosting performances or screening films, the activities that take place within the walls of these “Activist Estates” relies on an ethic of solidarity and DIY voluntarism.

At the center of this community room/gallery are four red utility carts refurbished with perforated metal display panels and a sectional map/model of four different Lower East Side catchment areas. These carts along with the large map in the lobby allow for visitor participation. The map locates other selected “Activist Institutions” and asks visitors to add new sites or additional insights to the existing information. Each of the four carts is co-curated by different organizers that have each upload artifacts to communicate and share information about current campaigns for the contested terrain of the city.

The cart is a vessel and a tool to disseminate the fleeting and sometimes invisible histories of counter-institutional practices. It is an open-ended invitation to those who wish to engage and partake in the project to bring the narrative of spatial practices together and create a synergetic environment of exchange within Loisaida Center.

CART 1: Environment, Art and Community
Curated by Loisaida Center
Model of 9^th street spine with El Bohio building and Christadora buildings.

CART 2: Community and Housing
Curated by Becky Amato from the Urban Democracy Lab, NYU on behalf of the Cooper Square MHA and Mary House.
Model of 4^th Street with buildings owned by the Cooper Square MHA and the Mary House.

CART 3: Cultural Survival
Curated by Miguel Trelles on behalf of The Clemente and Borimix Festival
Model of Rivington Street with the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center building.

CART 4: Art and Protest Against Displacement
Curated by Minju Bae and Linda Liu on behalf of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities and the Chinatown Art Brigade.
Model of two Bridges Neighborhood.3_Homesteads and Gardens graphic – edited again

The exhibit features the intimate portraits of pacifists by David Mc Reynolds, the Nuyoricans by Marlis Momber, and punk/ performers by Chris Boarts. Ed Hedemann and Marlis Momber’s archival documentation of the movements through time and Jade Doskow’s series of interior architectural photographs of the Peace Pentagon and ABC No Rio capture the domestic anarchy of two beloved counter-institutions. The work of collectives such as CHARAS, PAD/D, REPOhistory, Paper Tiger TV, COLAB and other dedicated artists/organizers is highlighted within the show. It is a celebration of the posters, banners, buttons, newsletters and films that advocate for social justice, housing, community and the environment within the Lower East Side. All these bits and pieces of movement histories are pieced together in the cartographic drawings of the curator/designer Nandini Bagchee.

SUPPORT

This project is supported by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Department of Cultural Affairs’ Cultural Immigrant Initiative in partnership with the New York City Council and produced by the Loisaida Center Inc. The materials for the exhibition are courtesy of the ABC No Rio, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Swarthmore Peace College Collection and the War Resisters League. The material for the Carts is courtesy of CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Chinatown Arts Brigade, Loisaida Inc. Center, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Education Center, Cooper Square MHA, Mary House Catholic Worker, Fab NYC, and Urban Democracy Lab.

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