LONG ISLAND CITY — A new festival coming to MoMA PS1 this spring and summer will tackle the challenges the city faces in an age of climate change and economic instability, the museum announced.
"EXPO 1: New York," will run from May to September, featuring a series of art exhibits, lectures and other projects, including an open call for sustainable waterfront design ideas for the Rockaways, which are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.
"EXPO 1: New York focuses on some of the most pressing issues of the day — specifically recent ecological challenges set against a backdrop of economic and socio-political concerns that have made a dramatic impact on daily life," director Klaus Biesenbach said in a statement.
The museum has issued an open call to artists, architects and designers to help improve sustainability in waterfront communities in the Rockaways, with the deadline for video submissions this Friday.
The ideas that are chosen will be presented in a series of discussions in April, to be held at the VW Dome 2, a temporary cultural space the museum and Volkswagen have built in a parking lot between Beach 94th and Beach 95th Streets.
EXPO 1 will also partly transform PS1's Long Island City building, with the planned installation of solar panels, a temporary energy-saving enclosure of the terrace, and the planting of produce and other plants, the press release said.
A main exhibit of the project is "Dark Optimism," in which the work of 35 artists will explore the pressing threats facing America at the beginning of the 21st Century, as well as the hope provided by new technology and innovation.
Online magazine Triple Canopy will run a "school" at PS1 from May 12 to July 28, holding daily lectures, debates and discussions related to the exhibit.
