WOOLOO.ORG: PARTICIPATE OR DIE (Copenhagen - now!)

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NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN
Art Festival & Social Experiment

December 7 - 18, 2009

http://www.wooloo.org/festival

WOOLOO.ORG: PARTICIPATE OR DIE

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN
NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is an art festival and social experiment organized by the artist-run community Wooloo.org.

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN takes place in thousands of private homes during the United Nations Climate Change Conference from December 7th to 18th, 2009.

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN does not involve any actual exhibitions or physical works of art. Instead, we invite our participants to live together - and to live in new ways.

Participating artists include Superflex (DK), Marisa Olson (US), Raketa (SE) and Signa (A/DK).

Learn more at: http://www.wooloo.org/festival

PARTICIPATE OR DIE
Today is the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. For the next two weeks, representatives from 192 nations have gathered in Denmark to reach an agreement on a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

However, there are not enough hotel space to accommodate most of these visitors, as all hotels in Copenhagen and the surrounding area have already been booked for the official delegates.

In order to help solve this substantial problem, Wooloo.org has been running a volunteer-based campaign in Copenhagen asking private families to open up their homes for the activists. By November 2009, this initiative had created free housing for more than 3,000 activists and climate campaigners coming to Copenhagen from over 100 countries.

Utilizing this large-scale human meeting as our exhibition platform, we have invited artists to explore its social architecture.

AN OPEN CALL FOR NEW LIFE
Via an Open Call on Wooloo.org, we have asked for ways to challenge the human meeting. Both the grand meeting of thousands and the intimate meeting of guest and host.

These are some of the artistic concepts we have chosen to present as part of NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN...

SUPERFLEX (DK)
Superflex uses the context of the climate conference to respond to the increasing amount of goods marketed towards our ´green´ conscience. Through a legal contract they ask if each participant – in case of death during the climate conference – would commit themselves to being buried in an newly developed ecological way?

MARISA OLSON (US)
Marisa Olson is hosting a mysterious housewarming party engaging both activist, diplomatic, and tourist audiences alike. The "warm reception" will reflect on the backdrop of the UN Conference's agenda and the role of spectacle and personality in the proceedings

RAKETA (S)
Raketa has infiltrated the NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN matching system and selected ten hosts and guests for their exclusive Home Away Resort. Throughout the conference period, Raketa provides the participants with instructions and special services to challenges the roles of home and away.

SIGNA (A/DK)
The performance duo Signa has created a book that is being sent to all participating hosts and guests in Copenhagen. The intention of the publication is to influence the outcome and experience of their meeting.

Learn more at: http://www.wooloo.org/festival

PEOPLE BEHIND
NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is organized by the artists-run community Wooloo.org.

Founded in 2002, Wooloo.org is today used by more than 13.000 artists from over 140 countries. Wooloo.org projects have been presented in such places as: Artists Space (USA), White Box (USA), Basel Kunsthalle (Switzerland) and the Third Guangzhou Triennial (China).

For more information, see http://www.wooloo.org and http://www.wooloo.org/festival

For further questions about NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN or Wooloo.org, please contact Martin Rosengaard; email: contact@wooloo.org / phone: +45 6171 6101, Wooloo.org, Pastursvej 46, DK-1778 Copenhagen
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