In March 2016, Montalvo launched an open call for proposals for our annual summer Art on the Grounds festival. We asked would-be applicants, “if you had five hours to present a work of sculpture in a public park, what would you create?” The eleven works on view at the festival opening, featuring more than 35 artists and their collaborators from the Bay Area, Greater US, and beyond―represented the final projects selected through this process.
These mostly new works represented the expanded field of contemporary sculpture, ranging from temporary installations, interventions, gestures, actions, participatory engagements, spectacular intrusions, and performances. Many of the artworks included familiar concepts associated with traditional sculpture, like addition and subtraction. At the same time, they were in many cases temporal, overlapping with other disciplines, and employed unusual materials including the human body. Many of the works also asked for guests to participate and become part of the work of art!
The selected works utilized Montalvo’s public park as a shared social space to explore diverse themes, including our complex relationship to our natural environment (both as a source of inspiration and anxiety) and our right to have our voice heard in public spaces. They raised important questions like: “Who is Montalvo’s 175 acre public park for? Who is excluded?” And they modeled ways we can use our public spaces to exchange ideas and create community.
These mostly new works represented the expanded field of contemporary sculpture, ranging from temporary installations, interventions, gestures, actions, participatory engagements, spectacular intrusions, and performances. Many of the artworks included familiar concepts associated with traditional sculpture, like addition and subtraction. At the same time, they were in many cases temporal, overlapping with other disciplines, and employed unusual materials including the human body. Many of the works also asked for guests to participate and become part of the work of art!
The selected works utilized Montalvo’s public park as a shared social space to explore diverse themes, including our complex relationship to our natural environment (both as a source of inspiration and anxiety) and our right to have our voice heard in public spaces. They raised important questions like: “Who is Montalvo’s 175 acre public park for? Who is excluded?” And they modeled ways we can use our public spaces to exchange ideas and create community.
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Meet the Artists
Project Partners and Sponsors
Five Hour Sculpture was made possible through the generous support of the following program partners, exhibition sponsors, and Friends of the Lucas Artists Program:
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Curatorial Materials
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Call for Proposals: 5 Hour Sculpture
Montalvo Arts Center is reaching out to artists of all disciplines and interdisciplinary collaborative teams interested in experimenting with public practice and exploring the creative possibilities of temporary “sculpture” in our 175 acre public park. We are looking for innovative proposals for events, temporary installations, interventions, participatory engagements, and spectacular intrusions. Read More >> |
Related Articles
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Montalvo Announces Artists Selected for 5 Hour Sculpture
In March 2016, Montalvo launched an open call for proposals for our annual summer Art on the Grounds festival. We asked would-be applicants, if you had five hours to present a work of sculpture in a public park, what would you create? We received applications from over sixty visual artists, musicians, performers, and choreographers from the Bay Area, the greater US, and beyond. We are delighted to announce the eleven artist/artist groups we selected. Read More >> |
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Reflections: Gabe Kalfin Considers The Assailed/The Assailable
"As dusk began to fall over the last few hours of Montalvo’s 5 Hour Sculpture festival, attendees began to notice a translucent cube gently rising at the edge of the Italianate Garden, emblazoned with a multitude of brightly colored words and images. Seemingly unreadable at first, the messages scrawled across this inflatable monument appeared to be displayed in reverse, as if reflected in a mirror. This only added to the enigma..." Read More >> |
Related Videos
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5 Hour Sculpture: The Assailed/The Assailable by Jason Lazarus
This new film by Sam Gouldthorpe documents Lucas Artists Fellow Jason Lazarus’s project The Assailed/The Assailable, which he organized as part of Montalvo Art Center’s 5 Hour Sculpture outdoor exhibition this past July. Lazarus invited visitors to think of a person in their everyday life, who in the context of the upcoming election, they are worried about being left behind. He asked them to choose a symbol or text to represent this person and to add it to the interior of a structure that was inflated at the end of the evening. Read More >> |
Related Press
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PRESS RELEASE
5 Hour Sculpture: A Pop-Up Arts Festival On a warm July evening, Montalvo Arts Center invites the community to its 175-acre grounds to enjoy eleven astonishing art projects that push the limits of contemporary sculpture. Unfolding over a five hour period and involving more than 35 artists from the Bay Area and beyond, 5 Hour Sculpture: A Pop-Up Arts Festival features participatory installations where visitors help create the artwork; engaging performances; artistic interventions; and spectacular sculptural intrusions. Read More >> |
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Ephemeral Sculpture at Montalvo's "Garden" Party
by Melissa Hartman, Metro "As captivating as the works may be, those attending this Friday's "pop-up arts festival" at Montalvo Art Center would do well to resist becoming too attached to any of the pieces. At the end of the night, they will all be torn down—faster than they were even created." Read More >> |
