Cries of San Francisco: Performance Art Market Day | SOMA

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Nearly 70 Cries of San Francisco and participants engage in this embodied public art performance of exchange led by Allison Smith as the Town Crier over the course of one day on June 11, 2011 between Mint Plaza and several blocks of Market Street. Drawing from a host of media representations of peddlers, from the overly romanticized character types in Carol Reed’s 1968 film Oliver! to Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in response to police harassment, in effect sparking revolution and protests in several Arab countries. Some participants’ gestures resonate with contemporary issues of immigration and cultural displacement as well as the social histories and contemporary realities of downtown San Francisco’s Financial and Tenderloin Districts. Exchanges take the form of ephemeral acts and actions that cross and blur boundaries of public and private space while others serve as a parody on commodity exchange and the capitalistic nature of the art market, offering up potentially useful models for contemporary artists working in times of economic uncertainty.

Locations:

• Project Headquarters: Mint Plaza (Off of 5th Street between Market Street and Mission Street)
• 5th Street between Mint Plaza and Market Street
• Market Street between 5th Street and 3rd Street

Please Note: Southern Exposure has rescheduled the Cries of San Francisco Market Day to Saturday, June 11, 2011, 12-5 pm from the originally scheduled June 4th date due to an unseasonable storm predicted to hit the Bay Area this weekend. All details of the Market Day will remain the same as previously outlined.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.