Between November and December 2015, No Longer Empty Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab) presented Intersecting Imaginaries at 900 Grand Concourse, a site-responsive exhibition curated by Natasha Bunzl, Dalaeja Foreman, Paola Gallio, Mary Kay Judy, Eva Mayhabal Davis, Lindsey O’Connor, Walter Puryear, and Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle. Including sculpture, photography, installation, video, works on paper and commissioned works by Bronx-based and tri-state area artists, Intersecting Imaginaries considered mapping as a method to understand places, time, and identities.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the philosophical concept of the social imaginary, which considers community to be composed of human interaction and perceived connection. Intersecting Imaginaries melds this abstract understanding with an acknowledgment of external circumstance, presenting a constellation of works that speak to memory and lived experience as composite parts of a map, and as the binding fibers of community.

Facing the Bronx Supreme Courthouse, and mere blocks from Yankee Stadium, the storefront sits in a highly frequented intersection of the South Bronx. These landmarks, each controversial in their own right, arouse singular stories within a diverse borough that inform the cultural and sociopolitical discussion at the heart of the exhibition. The site has served many functions: it was once a ballroom as part of the Concourse Plaza Hotel, a diner, a thrift store, and at the time of the exhibition stood empty, sharing walls with housing provided by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizen Council. Remnants of its former lives are evident in the raw space, serving as inspiration and context for works that navigate body politics, racial identity, communities in flux, and the natural environment as both separate and intersecting realities.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of public programs explored a complex vision of the culture and the contemporary environment of the South Bronx, while drawing parallels across all five boroughs, and to cities around the world.

View the exhibition zine here.

Press:

• Concourse Plaza Hotel Honored, Mott Haven Herald
• Pop-Up Art Show Strives to Confront South Bronx Gentrification, DNAinfo
• Art in the Bronx, Of the Bronx, City Atlas
• No Longer Empty Activates Former Bronx Concourse Hotel, Untapped Citites

NLE Lab Fall 2015 curators come from varied backgrounds in the humanities, ranging from Art History and Comparative Literature to Architectural Conservation, Museum Education, and Theater. Meet the curators:

The 2015 NLE Curatorial Lab is supported by the Dedalus Foundation, Puffin Foundation, and, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Special thanks: Andrew Freedman Home / Bronx Council on the Arts / Bronx Museum of the Arts / Ed García Conde / Charlie Crowell / Deborah Cullen / Sneha Ganguly / Sara Guerrero / Rachel Gugelberger / Naomi Hersson-Ringskog / Joshua Holloway / Patra Jongjitirat / Jennie K. Lamensdorf / Shaun Leonardo / Larisa Leventon / Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council / Residency Unlimited / Manon Slome / Lindsay Smilow / Kwame Sorrell / Jeffrey Walkowiak.