press releases
505 MARKETING
505 East 82nd Street, Suite 1-B
New York, NY 10028
917 601 4600
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAURICIO LOPEZ SELECTED
FOR
CONFLUX 2008
Mauricio Lopez’s interactive project, “Lines of Travel,” has been selected to be part of Conflux 2008. “Lines of Travel” explores how the population of a residential neighborhood commutes through the City for their daily activities, and challenges routines by encouraging residents to change their commute for a day. ”Lines of Travel” will be created during the Conflux Festival on Thursday, September 11 and Friday, September 12 (rain date – September 13).
During a regular work day people from different neighborhoods move through the city choosing their paths. This project will encourage them to rethink their routines, leave their comfort zones and discover new aspects of the city. The goal is to involve at least 100 commuters in the “Lines of Travel” experience, with the West Village as the area of intervention. Residents will be interviewed and their daily route around the city drawn on a map. The artist will then draw a possible detour route to get to their destination. At the end of the 2-day interactive project, the ”Lines of Travel” will be part of a digital drawing depicting the journey of everyone involved in the experiment. All routes collected from the maps, will be drawn on a single digital drawing, and each person will be assigned a different color. The drawing will be created in layers
Layer 1 — The NYC map as background
Layer 2 — The route people usually take on their daily commutes
Layer 3 — The “Lines of Travel” proposed for the day.
Participants can send their feedback, and visitors can access the website, www.mauriciolopez.info, to look at the drawing to visualize how their neighborhood flow interacts with the rest of NYC. The “Lines of Travel” will be added to the drawing during the week following the Conflux Festival, with the completed piece available online Monday, September 22.
Mauricio Lopez was born in Colombia and moved to New York City in 2000. His artwork, mostly abstract paintings and installations, explores how people interact with the built and natural environment. His work is greatly influenced by his architectural background, especially his experience as City Planning Director in Armenia, Colombia, during the reconstruction process following an earthquake that almost completely destroyed this city of 400,000 people in 1999. His work has been selected for curated shows and public art installations throughout New York, Brooklyn and his native Colombia. Mr. Lopez’s work has been presented in solo shows including: Manhattan Theatre Source, New York, 2005; Parque Nacional del Café, Montenegro (Colombia), 1998. His artwork is part of the Flat Files at Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn,NY, and art collections at DWR (Design Within Reach), National Park of Colombian Coffee Culture, as well as private collections in USA, Europe and Colombia. Mr. Lopez graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1995 from the National University of Colombia (Certified RIBA), and studied art and techniques with various Colombian artists. He has continued to study contemporary art and theory at MoMA. He currently lives in Brooklyn.
CONFLUX is the art and technology festival for the creative exploration of urban public space. Center for Architecture will be the hub of Conflux for the festival’s 5th anniversary; lectures, panels, lounge and general check-in will all be at the Center, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012.
For more information contact:
Judy Harper
505 Marketing
917 601 4600
Selected artwork can be viewed at www.mauriciolopez.info
For Conflux Festival press passes – www.confluxfestival..org