FIRST PROGRAM – POCAS SALON: CONTRA CORRIENTE

Date: Monday, June 20th, 2022

Time: 5:00-6:30 PM

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89350529239

Bit.ly for Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/ContraCPanel

Moderator: Silvia Inés Gonzalez

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An annual program and exhibition surveying environmental and resistance work in Chicago’s Lower West Side neighborhoods.

Contra Corriente brings together the work of six artists exploring the intersectionality of racial and environmental justice on the Lower West Side of Chicago. The title of the project and inaugural exhibition, which translates to “against the current” in English, alludes to countermovements by activists and creative laborers fighting against numbing capitalist forces that favor profit over people. The exhibition specifically centers its messaging around environmental racism that impacts Little Village and surrounding communities: displacement, the toxic air pollution that gives the Lower West Side the worst air quality in the city, and dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure disproportionately affecting communities of color.

POCAS (People of Color Artist Space) hosts a conversation between the six artists of Contra Corriente on view at Chicago Art Department in Pilsen and Edith Tovar of Little Village Environmental Justice on racial and environmental justice in Chicago. Panelists will discuss how they’ve engaged their art practices to advocate, organize, and heal the impacting trauma of extractive capitalist forces on working-class Black and Brown people. How do we create places of freedom that work for more people? What do we imagine in our environmental futures and how can we engage in collective ideation to make those futures possible?

ABOUT POCAS:

POCAS is a space for POC (People of Color) artists to discuss work, share events, resources, and ideas with one another. Started in 2016 by Silvia Inés Gonzalez, it serves to connect artists of color from across Chicago to resources through meet-ups, salon series, WIP (work in progress) Critiques, and development opportunities. The group has since grown into a community of over one thousand members.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT: https://bit.ly/3Njl1lQ

WHO:
This first installment of Contra Corriente features the dynamic works of six artists ::

ADELA GOLDBARD

HUGO IVAN JUAREZ

SALVADOR JIMENEZ

ELSA MUÑOZ

CARLOS FLORES ( Curator )

SEBASTIAN HIDALGO

WHEN:
On display JUNE 10th through JUNE 29th
Friday, JUNE 10, 2022
2nd Friday Opening Reception
6PM-10PM

Please contact Carlos@chicagoartdepartment.org to schedule an appointment outside of these times.

WHERE:
Chicago Art Department
1926 South Halsted Street, Chicago, IL

Official Website

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Tags: Adela Goldbard, Carlos Flores, Chicago, Chicago Art Department, Contra Corriente, Elsa Muñoz, FIRST PROGRAM - POCAS SALON: CONTRA CORRIENTE, Hugo Ivan Juarez, Lower West Side, Salvador Jimenez, Sebastian Hidalgo