Chiara Giovando

Selected Projects

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The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department
The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department

The Music That makes Us, Harrell Fletcher and the PSU MFA Social Practice Department

2016, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, March 13 - April 24

Exhibition organized by Emma Colburn, Roz Crews, Amanda Leigh Evans, Emily Fitzgerald, Harrell Fletcher, Lauren Moran, Anke Schüttler, Renee Sills, and Kimberly Sutherland

With Zahra Ahmed, De La Salle North Catholic High School Choir, Dorian Neira and Daniel “D.J. Max” Lasuncet, Austin Green, Robin Gordon and the Celebration Tabernacle Ministry of Music, Kenton Brass, Kenton Church Choir, Shirley A. Meador, The Obo Addy Legacy Project, Peninsula School in collaboration with Caldera, Heather Perkins, André Roberson, Lisa Schonberg, Norman Sylvester, and The World Famous Kenton Club

Curated by Chiara Giovando

The Music That Makes Us is an exhibition organized with the Art and Social Practice MFA Program in collaboration with musically-inclined partners from Kenton. Community members with musical practices have been invited to collaborate on an installation of ephemera that explores the broad range of musical experiences in the neighborhood. The project culminates with a closing reception/festival of performances by the musicians featured in the exhibition, ranging from local church and school choirs to bands and individual artists. The Music That Makes Us investigates a neighborhood through its music, and emphasizes the value of diverse musical expression within a community.    Here is a path of personal objects winding through the gallery. They mark the histories of the people they belong to… the people pictured on the walls... young musicians, guitar players, drummers, people that play in bands, people that sing songs or that record other people’s music. These people are also students and teachers... one is a minister, a bartender, a butcher, a barber. This collection of objects tells the story of a neighborhood that is complete only as a part of something larger and continuous. Individual narratives crossing over one another, weaving an accumulation of the personal that forms the social. Lived patterns shaping collective space.  - CG

Ongoing events during the exhibition include:

Opening Night, Saturday March 12, 6 - 10PM Piano music by, Robin Gordon, Dorian Neira, Daniel Lasuncet and Shirley A. Meador

The Kenton Audio Walk, Saturday April 16, 12 - 1PM,  We will host one collective group outing, or you can stream the The Kenton Audio Walk on your phone anytime and listen in the gallery or follow the tour out into the neighborhood on your own! Access the audio walk at disjecta.org/portfolio-items/audiowalk. 

Take a guided tour through the historic Kenton neighborhood, narrated by Paula Sylvester, a longtime Kenton resident. The piece is a collection of interviews and field recordings that were taken in the neighborhood during February and March of 2016, and acts as an audio archive of Kenton during a transitional period marked by rapid growth and change. Listeners are invited to experience the landscape of the neighborhood through the individual and collective memories of those who have created it. 

Featuring: Heather Perkins (experimental musician, composer and a Kenton resident), Joshua James (Kenton Club bartender), Norman "Boogie Cat" Sylvester (Blues musician, Kenton resident, and husband of Paula Sylvester), Robin Gordon (Music Pastor at Celebration Tabernacle), and Bryan Suereth (Director of Disjecta Contemporary Art Center).

Family Music Workshops, March 26, 12–2PM & April 9, 12–2PM Peninsula School in collaboration with Caldera will hold music workshops for kids and families in the Disjecta Main Gallery, that will include musical sculpture and instrument making with Julie Keefe. Afro Kidworks Dance for Every Child will also be part of this event.

Kenton Brass: Open Practice Sessions Saturday April 9, 2–5PM Thursday April 14, 7–9PM

Visit disjecta.org for event details

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche. “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” - Bob Marley. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” - Maya Angelou. “Music is ... a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig van Beethoven. “Play it fuckin' loud!” - Bob Dylan.

This exhibition is part of the Season 5 Curator-in-Residence program, Sound is Matter

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: The MFA Art and Social Practice Program at Portland State University combines individual research, group work, and experiential learning to explore critical practice, collaborative social engagement, and trans-disciplinary immersive educational environments. The program has presented projects and presentations at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; and SOMA, Mexico City.  Ongoing partnerships include an annual artist exchange program with the British Council, London; the founding of and presentation of exhibitions at the King School Museum of Art, Portland, OR; ongoing projects with Mildred’s Lane, Beach Lake, PA; and from 2010 to 2014 an evening of socially engaged art called Shine-A-Light at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.