Join artist Brandon Alvendia for an after-hours, behind-the-scenes discussion about post_content, over dinner.

Drawing on motifs culled from the Stanley Museum and UI Special Collections, the evening blends covert humor, rogue scholarship, and improvisational museology to unearth a set of questionable concepts and trace the blurred line between official curation and the quieter, underground modes of organizing that sustain artist-run initiatives. In doing so, it gradually dissolves the rituals of conservation and authenticity to welcome disappearance.

Unfolding somewhere between a registrar’s briefing and an absurdist secret art society, this clandestine initiation reanimates off-site and interstitial zones as hidden lairs revealing hidden layers. Uncovered are misplaced notions, odd procedures, and unexpected vulnerabilities within the variously powerful and sacred history of images. 

The project overall imagines speculative protocols to safeguard ideas when artworks are increasingly scrutinized and policed. Throughout the project print-media of various formats will be developed, distributed, and deaccessioned to document the activities. Attendees to the final evening event will take home a very special print created for the occasion.

Brandon Alvendia is an artist, curator, and educator, actively promoting artist-run initiatives across North America, fostering community-driven exhibitions, events, and publications. As Co-Founder of artLedge, BEN RUSSELL, The Storefront, and Silver Galleon Press, he spearheaded the revival of the MdW Coalition, expanding its reach across the greater Midwest to support a growing ecosystem of hyperlocal art scenes from the region, working together to build lasting coalitions of purposeful, artist-led action.

Brandon’s visit is generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation for American Art and is part of the Fall of Freedom.

RSVP strongly encouraged!