Art goes AWOL at UCCS

Caitlin Green wants to bust art out of the gallery.

How far?

How about films projected on the walls, objects and trash of a downtown parking garage?

“Site specificity means taking film out of the black box, art out of the cube and theater off the stage,” said Green, director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, which will present “Displacement: Cinema Out of Site,” a series of experimental cinema events today through Sunday. “There’s an element of discovery that I like, with that can come a conversation about the role of arts in the city.”

Her love of discovery is shared by Christopher May, director of The International Experimental Cinema Exposition, or TIE, a Denver-based nonprofit cinema group that’s collaborating with Green. May called the downtown parking garage at Nevada Avenue and Kiowa Street a perfect venue to explore expanded or displaced cinema, avant-garde films shot with 8- and 16-millimeter film.

“Expanded or displaced cinema is projected onto numerous surfaces from more than one projector,” he said. “The idea is three filmmakers projecting on whatever’s available. White concrete walls and broken glass will be creating new images and introducing new ways of viewing film,” Green said.

The subject of the films runs perfectly with that free-form theme: parkour.

Mainstream America glimpsed this free-form, running, vaulting thing in the movie “Casino Royale,” but it’s been a YouTube phenomenon for longer.

“Parkour is an athletic and spiritual practice of getting from Point A to Point B using urban obstacles,” Green said.

May said parkour is different from “freerunning,” a similar practice that highlights acrobatics.

“In parkour, you do everything to be useful; traceurs (parkour practitioners) emphasize the practice of becoming stronger to be useful to society. The practice is noncompetitive and community-based. There’s a firm belief in mentorship. The motto is ‘to be and to laugh.’”

In total, “Displacement” consists of a series of six lectures by filmmakers, theorists and traceurs, and a screening tonight that includes the work of three filmmakers.

There also will be an audio experimentalist who creates rhythm and melody with recordings of traceurs’ hands and feet slapping concrete.

“Displacement” is one of six projects under the gallery’s umbrella program “AWOL: Art Without Limits,” created by Green to bring art into the community.

“Community-based projects create a forum for discussion on public process and they invite participation from diverse audiences, expanding the population that interacts with the art,” Green said.

All of the “AWOL” projects invite discourse and rely on collaboration with other organizations, as well.

For “Flaunt: Evolution,” Green worked with Amber Coté, director of FutureSelf, and Drew Martorella, executive director of TheatreWorks, to create a multimedia fashion show with video art.

While dates have been set for “Displacement” and “Flaunt,” Green is still working to solidify details on the four remaining projects including “Etiquette,” an interactive project in which the participants follow directions from a pair of headsets, all within a public restaurant (Green has been talking to the owners of Shugas).

Green sees “AWOL” as an opportunity to break the barriers between gallery space and public gathering. “This program expands our mission to outside the gallery walls.

 It has the opportunity to grow an interest in the arts and to facilitate a dialogue in the arts about community.”

Displacement:
cinema out of site
When: After dusk today
Where: Parking garage at Nevada Avenue and Kiowa Street
Admission: Free
Something else: Reception and lectures at City Hall, 6:30 p.m. today-Sunday

Flaunt: Evolution
When: 7-11 p.m. Sept. 12
Where: under Colorado Avenue Bridge
Admission: $30