Exhibition and Film Series
March 17 - April 30, 2011

Contact: Thomas Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

Note: This release is available as a pdf file.

UMBC's Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) presents Where Do We Migrate To?, an exhibition accompanied by a film series, from March 17 through April 30.

Curated by Niels Van Tomme, Director of Arts and Media at Provisions Learning Project in Washington, D.C., and organized with the CADVC, Where Do We Migrate To? explores diverging ways in which forms of migration, experiences of displacement, and questions of belonging have been addressed by artists in recent years. Displaying a multiplicity of migratory encounters, the exhibition presents multiple perspectives about its subject matter, opening up a range of political, psychological, poetic, and pragmatic manifestations of the contemporary migrant experience.

Situating the contemporary individual in a world of advanced globalization, Where Do We Migrate To? proposes to imagine the migrant as a figure, a conceptual entity, through which we may recognize our present day selves. As someone who enters from the outside to re-define the inside, can the migrant be turned into an agent of change, instead of a subject of exclusion? What can we discover from its ability to adapt to temporary, uncertain, and hostile circumstances, from its experience of never being able to fully settle down? And which lessons are to be learned from its fundamental form of expression: migration? Calling for an increasingly complex understanding of the human condition, the exhibition establishes an imaginative framework to inspire new insights about such conditions.

Where Do We Migrate To? features nineteen internationally recognized artists and collectives: Acconci Studio, Svetlana Boym, Blane De St. Croix, Lara Dhondt, Brendan Fernandes, Claire Fontaine, Nicole Franchy, Andrea Geyer, Isolla & Norzi, Kimsooja, Pedro Lasch, Adrian Piper, Raqs Media Collective, Société Réaliste, Julika Rudelius, Xaviera Simmons, Fereshteh Toosi, Philippe Vandenberg, and Eric Van Hove.

An accompanying film and video program, curated by Sonja Simonyi, will feature a series of screenings by a broad range of international filmmakers and video artists: Chantal Akerman, Herman Asselberghs, Ursula Biemann, Pavel Brailia, Oliver Husain, Isaac Julien, Tanja Ostojic, Egle Rakauskaite, Ben Russell, Ulirch Seidl, Usha Seejarim, Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan. This series is described more fully in a separate release.

About the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture
The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture is dedicated to the study of contemporary art and visual culture, critical theory, art and cultural history, and the relationship between society and the arts. The CADVC serves as a forum for students, faculty, and the general public for the discussion of important aesthetic and social issues of the day. Disciplines represented include painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, digital art, video, film, television, design, architecture, advertising, and installation and performance art.

Since 1989, the CADVC has incorporated a number of public programs into its exhibition programming schedule to further impact the communities it serves. Symposia, lecture series, conferences, film series, visiting artist series, and residencies have all been fundamental in an effort to create an ongoing dialogue about contemporary art and culture. The Center has also initiated a number of projects with Baltimore and surrounding schools to integrate the contemporary artist and their concerns into the classroom. These projects take place on-site at both middle schools and high schools and are team taught by the instructors at these schools, professional artists, and students from the CADVC's Internship Program.

The Center produces one to two exhibition catalogues each year. Each document is fully illustrated and contains critical essays on the given subject by a variety of distinguished professionals in the field. Recent publications include Postmodernism: A Virtual Discussion and Paul Rand: Modernist Design. These books and catalogues are published and are distributed internationally through Distributed Art Publishers.

Since 1992, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture has actively pursued the organization of exhibitions that contain the aesthetic, theoretical, and educational potential to reach both a national and international audience. Over the years, the CADVC has traveled these exhibition projects to a broad spectrum of museums, professional non-profit galleries, and universities national and internationally. Recent traveling exhibitions include:

• For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights (2010)
• White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art (2003)
• Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations (2001)
• Adrian Piper: A Retrospective (1999)
• Bruno Monguzzi: A Designer's Perspective (1998)
• Minimal Politics (1997)
• Kate Millett, Sculpture: The First 38 Years (1997)

Beyond the scope of these traveling exhibitions, the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture also undertakes projects such as the Joseph Beuys Tree Partnership. As part of the educational mission of the CADVC, one graduate thesis exhibition and one undergraduate senior exhibition are presented each year. This multi-faceted focus for presenting exhibitions, projects and scholarly research publications focused on contemporary art and cultural issues positions the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in a unique position within the mid-Atlantic region.

Hours and Admission
Tuesday through Saturday 10 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Admission is free.

Telephone
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture: 410-455-3188

Public Information
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts
Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture: http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc

Images for Media
http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/

Directions
The CADVC is located on the ground floor of UMBC's Fine Arts Building. Daytime metered visitor parking is available in the Walker Avenue Garage. Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/
• From I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, take exit 47B. Follow Route 166 toward Catonsville. Turn right on Hilltop Circle and proceed to public parking.
• From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and left on Hilltop Road. Turn right on Hilltop Circle and proceed to public parking.