Doing & Undergoing, Teachers College, Columbia University

October 16 to December 15, 2013

Curated by Robert Gero

Doing and Undergoing is a large-scale exhibition offering an immersive experience by featuring site-specific works that reflect key concepts of American Philosopher John Dewey, whose idea of experiential learning provides the ground for the works on display. Emerging and established artists from across the globe explore the underlying themes of “Experiential Inquiry” “Experiment and Experience” and “Doing and Undergoing”, to disclose rich fields of experience.

The exhibition includes works by Mac Adams, Bill Albertini, Luis Camnitzer, Mary Ellen Caroll, Christo & Jeanne Claude, Jake Cruzen & Dan Solberg, Katherine Daniels, Kara Daving, Peter Dudek, Helidon Gjergji, Ana Golici, Nicholas Knight, Vikki Michalios, Jorge Pardo, Moritz Partenheimer, Risa Puno, Michael Rees, Julika Rudelius, Gina Ruggeri, Caterina Tiazzoldi & Eduardo Duarte, Ana Tiscorina, and Monika Wuhrer.

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of Teachers College, Columbia University, the exhibition is installed throughout the historic building activating both its history and architecture. The exhibition is also intended to break down the conventional distinctions between different communities of experiencers since it engages the often separate spheres of teachers, students, facilities workers and art community at large. As Dewey points out—“the work of art is complete only as it works in the experience of others than the one who created it”.

Among the works on display, Helidon Gjergji recreates two stained glass windows from The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, formerly the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist (a World Heritage site). One of the windows will be a faithful citation of the Damascus iconography, the other one will have lost the black lead that connects and highlights the pieces, as if a mysterious source of extreme heat had melted and returned the pieces of glass back to their material origin, depriving them of their cultural glue. By focusing on this extraordinary site his project sounds the alarm to safeguard the protection of an endangered world culture and its artifacts from senseless destruction.

Onion Pinch is the newest chapter in Caterina Tiazzoldi and Eduardo Benamor Duarte’s chronicle of interactive public installations. Responding to our living environment, the artists conceived a projection based video piece that is a poetic documentary of dancers moving in the installation. The hybrid work innovates the architectural space and challenges the boundary between research and experimentation, the environment and public interaction.

The exhibition is curated by Robert Gero, who currently serves as assistant professor in the Visual Arts Department at SUNY College, Old Westbury and conceived by Richard Jochum, associate professor of art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The project was made possible by the Office of the Provost at Teachers College.

Doing and Undergoing website

Review by Joe Levine, Columbia Teachers College Community, Columbia University, 7/9/2013

Review by Madeleine Steinberg, Columbia Daily Spectator, Columbia University, 10/22/2013

Announcement on Art and Education