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Read the press release here.

Artist Swapping Sweatshirts for Personal Objects at New Museum

By Lisha Arino | December 15, 2015 5:28pm
 Artist Pia Camil will give away 100 of the sweatshirts she co-designed, pictured here, in exchange for personal items from New Museum visitors.
Artist Pia Camil will give away 100 of the sweatshirts she co-designed, pictured here, in exchange for personal items from New Museum visitors.
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New Museum

LOWER EAST SIDE — A Mexican artist is encouraging the public to be part of her upcoming exhibition at the New Museum by handing out sweatshirts in exchange for personal objects.

One hundred sweatshirts designed by artist Pia Camil in collaboration with Lorena Vega will be traded Thursday evening to collect items for Camil's new sculptural installation, “A Pot for a Latch,” which opens on Jan. 13, the New Museum announced Monday afternoon.

In exhange for the sweatshirts, the museum will collect personal belongings from museum visitors, according to its website.

Visitors can bring a variety of objects, including clothing, photographs, paintings, mirrors, potted plants, X-rays, wigs and “nondescript items of undetermined function,” according to the artist’s invitation online.

“Bring objects of power, of aesthetic interest, and of poignancy. The monetary value of these items is insignificant; their value lies instead in their richness of meaning and in the new life that they acquire on the grid within the Lobby Gallery,” Camil wrote.

A few items however, will be prohibited, including electronics, weapons, chemicals and perishable items like food.

The goal is to collect 100 items that will be used to fill an installation inspired by vendor displays inside the museum’s Lobby Galley, which will be turned into a “‘shop in which the monetary value of an object is supplanted by its personal history and significance,” she said.

The piece will change regularly as other visitors take and leave objects in five other exchange events scheduled next year, according to the museum.

The event is free and open to the public.

“Pia Camil: A Pot for a Latch” Exchange Day will take place on Dec. 17 from 5 to 9 p.m. or whenever the artist runs out of sweatshirts. For more information and to see a list of prohibited items, click here.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article implied Camil would be present at Thursday's event. She will not actually be there in person.