Daniele Perra + ArtLab + TeCo

In Residence: March 23 – May 6, 2011
Exhibition: Opens Friday, May 6, 2011, at Fox Family Idea Box, MCA Denver; continues through May 29, 2011
Learning Lab: Confluence Project*: ArtLab + TeCo

ANARCH-ETIQUETTE: the etiquette of anarchy: preserving the writing on the wall

PlatteForum’s Creative Resident, Daniele Pario Perra created new work and lead workshops with twenty-two teens from PlatteForum's ArtLab and MCA Denver's Teen Council. The artist's and students' works are exhibited in the Fox Family Idea Box at MCA Denver. This residency is the second Confluence Project between PlatteForumm and MCA Denver, this year supported by faculty and students in the Anthropology Department at the University of Denver. This the first time the artist has worked in the United States and experienced graffiti in our culture.

Perra led intensive workshops with students from ArtLab and TeCo, where they learned about how wall writings and graffiti are forms of spontaneous communication in urban culture. The project began with a search of Denver’s urban environment for graffiti and writings that communicate the integral, sociological aspects of the city’s various cultural and ethnic influences. Then, Perra and the students used a fresco removal process to extract the selected writings from the original structure.The graffiti is coated with a fresco-like material, left to sit for several days, until every detail is absorbed and can be stripped from the wall. The writings are transferred onto large canvases through a gluing technique. A collection of the final project aims to create a forum for open discussion where visitors can experience and participate in the spontaneous communication and ideas within urban communities. ANARCH-ETIQUETTE: the etiquette of anarchy: preserving the writing on the wall is not about the uniqueness of a single statement on a wall but the collection of various writings, which reveal an understanding of the DNA of a city or area itself. The project has been done throughout Europe over the last ten years, and now in Denver, where it is the first in his on-going investigation.