Art and Community Activism Collide in the Heart of Downtown for Trespass Parade
Photographs by Tina Hosseinzadeh
T-shirt slogans will be in ready supply for Sunday's parade. American Apparel donated 1,600 shirts for the event.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Downtown has played host to plenty of parades and protests over the years, but it is unlikely that one event has ever tried to combine the two in quite the same way as the Trespass Parade, a celebration of art and community activism that will march over 25 blocks this Sunday. Those who attend—and those that just happen to be along the route—will see a trail of floats, music and dance performances.
"It's a hybrid between a parade and a protest," said Emi Fontana, the founder of West of Rome Public Art and one of the parade's organizers.
The parade is part of the opening festivities for the 6-month Getty initiative, Pacific Standard Time, and aims to inspire local residents to participate in their artistic and social communities. The parade formation will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 2, at Art Platform - Los Angeles and from there will march up through the historic Broadway Theater District. The public may join in the procession at any of the six access points along the way.
Organizers are expecting thousands of participants, including everyone from artists to local high school students. Fontana said this is exactly the purpose to hosting a roving event. As the group travels through different areas of Downtown and districts of Broadway, they are literally and symbolically bringing together diverse cultural worlds.
The central concept of Trespass is to "reach out to people that would not be normally exposed to this kind of thing," Fontana explained, adding that she hopes that even people just passing by will be inspired to join.
The event is a collaboration between West of Rome, musician Arto Lindsay and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Lindsay and Tiravanija have led smaller versions of these raucous parades in multiple cities including Miami and Paris, but the one in L.A. will be the largest event yet.
Lindsay founded New York New Wave band DNA in the late 70s, and has a long history of experimenting with music including punk, noise and even scoring ballets. Tiravanija is a Thai artist known for combining performance art with teaching and public service, and is on the faculty at Columbia University in the School of Visual Arts.
The actual floats will be kept very simple, Fontana said, and are meant mostly as a means to transport sound equipment and performers. The two artists will perform at the event along with a group of eclectic others including Nancy Buchanan and My Barbarian.
The parade is only part of the Trespass celebration, which also includes a party at Union Station and a t-shirt project that will be on display in the parade. Sixty L.A. artists including John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Nancy Rubins and Jeffrey Vallance contributed personal statements to the t-shirts that express political or social concerns. Slogans include, "Give," "Talk is cheap free speech is priceless" and "The Supreme Court is a terrible thing to waste."
In the spirit of this community-building event, these t-shirts will also be on sale to benefit West of Rome, the Pasadena-based non-profit which helps L.A. artists put on exhibitions in unconventional spaces.
The parade will end at the Grand Avenue cultural corridor with a performance by punk-jazz orchestra Killsonic and a reception at the nearby Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and REDCAT.
Parade Route
View Trespass Parade Route in a larger map
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 11:15AM – #1
This is going to raise some eyebrows.
The City of New York just refused to give any kind of free speech permits to a group with "no unified protest message".
In other words you can't just take to the streets for the sake of taking to the streets...That is now being defined as a mob.
Dennis Smith on September 30, 2011, at 12:44PM – #2
Just to add to the downtown marching scene:
There is another march planned for Saturday morning starting at Pershing Square at 10:00 am and marching to City Hall for the Occupy Los Angeles movement. This seems to have a lot less money and advertising behind it but it has been attracting a fair number of organizer/marchers at the nightly orientation meetings held in Pershing Square this week.
I believe these folks are loosely affiliated with the people who occupied Wall Street earlier this week.
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 12:56PM – #3
Occupy Los Angeles?
I don't think Mexico is going to give it up without a fight!
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 01:00PM – #4
Oh yeah... we should all thank "American Apparel" for the shirts.
Dennis Smith on September 30, 2011, at 01:27PM – #5
@ downtown vibe
If you missed it in school, Mexico did not give up Los Angeles without a fight. The United States conquered Mexico in a war that was precipitated by President Polk in 1846 and ended up with an American army under Winfield Scott fighting their way into Mexico City. The U.S. then claimed roughly 40% of Mexico's national territory as war booty.
Here in Los Angeles, local Californios were little pleased with this changeover to American sovereignty as manifest by their treatment of Archibald Gillespie when he tried to establish martial law over Los Angeles.
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 02:17PM – #6
Dennis,
perhaps you missed "the sarcasm" in the above statement.
I was referring to the politicians of mexican origin who are now controlling virtially ALL aspects of Los Angeles politics.
By the way in case you missed it in school. Los Angeles ONLY exists as a LEGAL territory of 1 country. That would be the United States.
For thousands of years wars have been fought for territory. Mexico lost. Many people were granted US citizenship as an outcome.
Would Mexico have done a better job governing California? Look at Mexico now.
And Dennis... people marching need permits. The people downtown are getting sick of getting stepped on...
You haven't seen a real revolution yet!
Let's get back on topic.
Dennis Smith on September 30, 2011, at 03:50PM – #7
@ downtown vibe
"Let's get back on topic". Refer to comment #2 in which I am on topic discussing another protest march planned for this weekend of which you seem genuinely concerned and consternated. Then comes comment #3 in which YOU go off on a silly sarcastic tangent reflecting your xenophobic fears of Mexican politicians. I only responded to this line of commentary that YOU initiated and now you want to return to topic.
When were you selected to be the moderator of this discussion?
As for Broadway, for more than a century it has served this city as a venue for political demonstrations, union marches, anti-war protests, postwar victory parades and celebrations of professional sports teams and champions. People moving into downtown should be aware of its history and longstanding traditions as well as the attendant use of its main boulevards.
Nor is Broadway alone in its use as a forum for public protests in Los Angeles since MacArthur Park is also used for such purposes and the Federal Building in Westwood is quite often the scene of vociferous protests that block a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard as well as limiting traffic from exiting the 405 Freeway.
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 05:31PM – #8
Dennis,
1st... Occupy LA does not appear to have any unified message of protest. Therefore it is not a legitimate legal demonstration.
The FBI will most likely deal with the mob as group of terrorists.
2nd... while you and your little buddies are marching down the beautiful heart of our City....look around.
Look at the swap meets and empty store fronts...
Your 100 years of "protests" have made Broadway unusable as a commercial center. It has been destroyed...
You want to protest corruption? You might want to start with all the money that has been funneled through your local non-profits..pretending to help poor....
Your undocumented friends have helped rob the bank... I have no sympathy.
When the rioting starts, who are we going to see on TV running down the streets with flat panel TVs?
Want a clue? Go back and look at the TV footage from the last riots.
downtown vibe on September 30, 2011, at 05:40PM – #9
If you see something, Say Something.
FBI Los Angeles
(310) 477-6565
Dennis Smith on September 30, 2011, at 06:59PM – #10
@downtown vibe
Who said I would be marching? You have to watch what you assume before you cast aspersions on my nonexistent cohorts...or maybe you don't. I just live at 5th & Broadway and will enjoy watching the passing parades. I won't be protesting anything this weekend. I will be busy grading papers and maybe going out with a friend one of these nights. Nothing terribly insurrectionary planned or anticipated.
As for Broadway being an "unusable" commercial center, I have been shopping at stores, eating at restaurants and going to the theaters along Broadway since the 1970's and there was a period of time when Broadway was the only viable commercial strip in downtown for years. The empty storefronts, and worse yet, the abandoned and trashed upper floors of many buildings on Broadway are far more the responsibility of absentee landlords and foreign real estate holding companies that own the buildings than the immigrant entrepreneurs eking out an existence in the street level retail.