Press Room

Featuring Bjarke Ingels, James Wines, Pamela Anderson, Maluca Mala, artist collective Yemenwed and many more.

May 7, 2016, 11 am to 8 pm
$20 general / $15 members and students
http://madmuseum.org/seeding

New York, NY (April 28, 2016)

On May 7, from 11 am to 8 pm, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) will present SEEDING, a day-long eco-conference organized by the Museum's Public Programs Manager, Katerina Llanes, and guest curated by Michael Bullock and Felix Burrichter of PIN–UP magazine on the occasion of the release of its garden and landscape issue.

The event will address cultural, physical and spiritual cross-pollination from an ecological, economic and holistic point of view. Bringing together visionary models for the present and the future, the eco-conference will address everything from architectural utopia to environmental and fiscal activism. It will feature installations and workshops on the Museum's 7th floor and concurrent talks and screenings in the theater on the ground level.

"We've been working on an entire issue of PIN–UP dedicated to the art of the garden, and to the subject of landscape in all its different varieties—from the aesthetic to the social and economic aspects related to it," says Burrichter. "It is a great honor to have been offered by MAD the opportunity to organize a conference that addresses the concept of 'seeding' in such a novel and inclusive way. The goal of this day-long event is to continue this conversation as well as offer new impulses to discuss and think about the subject."

"I am very excited by the opportunity to work with PIN-UP, especially in relation to their new garden and landscape issue," says Llanes. "It's the perfect time to talk about the idea of 'eco' as both ecological and economic being that they are inextricably linked in today's sociopolitical climate."

Programs for both mind and body include a keynote address by original eco-architect James Wines; an Ikebana flower workshop with master craftsman Nori Noda; a moderated discussion with famed architect Bjarke Ingels; a guided meditative installation by the artist collective Yemenwed; yoga and chakra alignment classes with Dominican pop-star Maluca Mala; and a Q&A with Pamela Anderson and director Luke Gilford following the New York premiere of Gilford's short film Connected.

The full list of the day's programs is as follows:

Rise and Shine yoga with Maluca Mala
11:00 am
7th floor, MAD
$10 general / $5 members and students
(In addition to the price of SEEDING eco-conference ticket)
Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/events/seeding-rise-and-shine-yoga-maluca-mala

A morning yoga class led by Dominican pop star Maluca Mala, featuring a creative sequence of poses that help you stay grounded and intentional. Focus is on the root chakra muladhara, associated with money and security. An hour of yoga will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A and closing mantra—the perfect way to plant the seed for the day.

'SEED MONEY' Panel Discussion
11:30 am
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

Exploring innovative 21st century approaches to arts funding, this discussion features Brittni Collins (Creative Capital), Pati Hertling (MATERIAL Vodka) and Terry Hope Romero (Kickstarter), moderated by Michael Bullock. With cities becoming increasingly unaffordable for artists, what projects get funded and how have become powerfully relevant questions. Art funding is crucial to the development of new forms, new ideas and the advancement of non-commercial work.

'Weedeater' Screening (NYC Premiere)
1:00 pm
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

This 2016 film by Eden Batki, Marty Windahl and Amy von Harrington follows Nance Klehm, a self-described "steward of the earth." She is an ecological systems designer, a perma-cultural grower, a horticultural consultant, and a much sought-after teacher and speaker respected internationally for her work on land politics and growing for fertility. Weedeater trots alongside Klehm through various landscapes, gathering a collection of her thoughts and philosophies on everything from wild weeds, to human waste composting, to "the dark cosmos" she calls soil.

See and Be Seen: A Keynote Address by James Wines
2:00 pm
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

The day's keynote address from artist and architect James Wines expands on the concept of SEEDING. His interpretation focuses on integrative ideas in architecture and public space that sow the seeds for interaction. Wines' presentation shows how environmentally responsive solutions for contemporary urban centers can grow out of information that already exists within a cityscape—including social, psychological, aesthetic, topographical and ecological elements. Wines is the winner of the 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the founder and president of SITE, an art and design organization chartered in New York City in 1970.

Ikebana with Nori Noda
2:00 pm
7th floor, MAD
$25 general / $20 members and students
(In addition to the price of SEEDING eco-conference ticket)
Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/events/seeding-ikebana-nori-noda

This adult workshop is designed to introduce varying skill levels of Ikebana, the traditional Japanese art of flower arranging. More than simply putting flowers in a container, Ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together. Participants will create an arrangement with exotic flowers in a container constructed of leaves. All arrangements made in the workshop will be placed on display and can be taken home at the end of the day to share with family and friends.

'Lost Paradise: The Gardens of Burle Marx' Screening
3:30 pm
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

A 1992 cinematographic profile by Colin Waldeck and Malcolm Daniel of Roberto Burle Marx (1909–94). Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect, distinguished amateur botanist and one of Rio de Janeiro's most famous artists. His use of local South American plants in the design and layout of open spaces was a creative attempt to reconcile two of Brazil's major problems: conserving the rich tropical plant life and bringing places of recreation to the densely populated cities. With contributions by Lucio Costa (the architect of Brasilia), William Howard Adams (curator of Marx's 1991 exhibition at MoMA) and Dr. Simon Mayo from the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in England.

ICE - Guided Meditation
4:00 pm
7th floor, MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

ICE, a talking block of ice central to many of the artist collective Yemenwed's previous works, will take you on a cool and meditative journey. Get ready for your mind to open and your temperature to drop. All your worries will melt away with ICE.

Pragmatic Utopia
5:00 pm
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

A conversation about architecture and the environment between Danish-born, New York–based architect Bjarke Ingels, who was recently named among the one hundred most influential people by TIME magazine, and architecture writer and curator Carson Chan. The discussion will be moderated by Felix Burrichter of PIN–UP magazine.

Sundown yoga with Maluca Mala
5:00 pm
7th floor, MAD
$10 general / $5 members and students
(In addition to the price of SEEDING eco-conference ticket)
Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/events/seeding-sundown-yoga-maluca-mala

An evening yoga class led by Dominican pop-star Maluca Mala. The class centers on planting seeds and intentions through a creative sequence of poses that will help you stay grounded and intentional. Focus will be on the root chakra muladhara, associated with money and security. An hour of yoga followed by a 30-minute Q&A and closing mantra.

'Connected' Screening (NYC Premiere)
7:00 pm
The Theater at MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

This short film by Luke Gilford—starring Pamela Anderson and Dree Hemingway, and narrated by Jane Fonda—will be followed by a Q&A with Gilford and Anderson. Connected is a portrait of a woman grappling with aging, self-perception and transformation in a technologically optimized world. Jackie (Anderson) is a burnt-out AuraCycle instructor in the midst of a midlife crisis. She's obsessed with self-improvement podcasts (voiced by Fonda), and she is soon drawn to an advanced yet enigmatic wellness spa that promises to enhance her mind, body and soul. Guided by her effortless and nubile mentor, Luna (Hemingway), Jackie will give up anything to feel "connected"—to herself, to the future and to a precarious sense of perfection.

'Over Lotusland' Looped Screening (Premiere)
11:00 am to 8:00 pm
7th floor, MAD
Included with SEEDING eco-conference ticket purchase
SEEDING Tickets: http://madmuseum.org/seeding

Over Lotusland, a 2016 film directed by Ouida Angelica Biddle, is a meditative work shot using drones to capture the lavish fields of Lotusland, a visionary garden full of rare and ancient plant specimens from across the world on 37 acres of central California farmland. Freed from human physical constraints, the drone camera continually re-shifts its position and warps the geometries of perspective and scale. The hovering presence of the drone registers occasionally in wind and shadow, blurring as it creates disturbances typically unseen suggesting a subtle expansion of sentience. The film features a soundtrack by DLSsolution.

ABOUT PIN–UP MAGAZINE
PIN–UP is a biannual architecture and design magazine that regularly features interviews with renowned architects as well as critical essays and photography portfolios on contemporary architecture, art and design. In 2011, the Art Directors Club awarded PIN–UP the Gold Medal for Editorial Design and in 2013, PIN–UP published its first book, Interviews, a compilation of 68 interviews taken from the magazine's first issues. PIN–UP's twentieth iteration has the theme "Garden Variety," and is on newsstands in May 2016.