2021

Dec 14 -

Jul 3 - Aug 7, 2022

What's that jangly beat? It might just be ephemera of the Tactical Ice Cream Unit making it's way into the permanent collection of the Nevada Museum of Art as part of the High Desert Test Sites archive, now on display for a whole year. Be sure to check out Disturbances in the Field: From Andrea Zittel's A-Z West to High Desert Test Sites, curated by Brooke Hodge.

Feb 24 -

2020

...

Damn, this year's a doozy. Stay healthy, friends!

2019

Nov 1 - 17

Art / Magic / Marxism - What a lovely potion! TULCA 2019: Tactical Magic, curated by Kerry Guinan, kicks off at multiple venues throughout Galway city and county (Ireland). On Nov. 7, 2pm, join Center for Tactical Magic's own Aaron Gach in conversation with:

• Sinead Mercier - Environmental Researcher (IE) 
• Dr. Andy Merrifield - Urban Theorist and Author: Magical Marxism Subversive Politics and the Imagination (Pluto Press, 2011) (UK)
• Dr. Clodagh Emoe - Artist & Lecturer (IE)

The event will take place at the O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance at the National University of Ireland, Galway

Oct 30 - Dec 11

Capitalism: Trick or Treat? Come find out the spooky truth at the Museum of Capitalism's latest incarnation in New York at The New School. Along with the chance to grab a free universal handcuff key from an installation of the Center for Tactical Magic's Universal Keys, there will be a wide range of works, artifacts, and exhibits from: Daniel Bejar, Dr. Jeffrey Caren, Maia Chao, Cheyenne Concepcion , Mark Curran, Jennifer Dalton, Sharon Daniel, Burak Delier, Clare Dibella, Blake Fall-Conroy, Paul Farber, Gabriele Galimberti and Paolo Woods, Marisa Jahn, Nina Katchadourian and Julia Meltzer, Matt Kenyon, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Jessica Kingdon, Michael Mandiberg, Nyeema Morgan, Tim Portlock, Related Tactics, Eva Rocha, Sayler / Morris, Jesse Sugarmann, Igor Vamos, Walmart and Banksy.

Aug 2 - 30

The haunting of society by the ghosts of our collective past resonates within a present that continues to manifest grave injustices. And so, the Center for Tactical Magic's ghost-poster campaign (scroll below) continues with the support of the Riverside Arts Center's community-engaged program, CitizenSHIP. Free posters will be available for public distribution far and near.

Jan 4, 7pm

Grab your mittens and a mug of mugwort - it's magic in the mountains! Sierra Nevada College (NV) hosts a free, public talk with Center for Tactical Magic co-founder, Aaron Gach to explore past projects and recent endeavors. This is also a 2-for-1 event with an additional talk by artist, Scott Oliver.

2018

Oct 16 - Nov 16

Joing the For Freedoms campaign founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, the California College of the Art's Hubbell Street Galleries launches Take Action - a group exhibition highlighting work by Bay Area artists working as creative citizens in their communities. Featuring work by 100 Days Action, Center for Tactical Magic, Sharon Daniel, Rodney Ewing, chris hamamoto & Jon Sueda, Taraneh Hemami, Packard Jennings, Dignidad Rebelde, Stephanie Syjuco, Kaitlin Trataris, Leila Weefur, and Christine Wong Yap, the exhibition is urgently contemporary, featuring recent video, sound, prints, photography, and installations by Bay Area artists that prompt visitors to take action and participate in civic discourse.

Aug 29 - Oct 25

The Museum of Capitalism arrives in Boston where it will be hosted by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Come check out the Center for Tactical Magic's collection of Wands along with an astounding collection of artworks and artifacts from Jordan Bennett, Ben Bigelow, Jennifer Dalton, Sharon Daniel, Blake Fall-Conroy, FICTILIS, Marc Fischer, Kate Haug, Kelly Jazvac, Michael Mandiberg, James McAnally, Valeria Mogilevich, Claire Pentecost, Tim Portlock, Jesse Sugarmann, Evan Desmond Yee, and Igor Vamos, alongside new commissions by Maia Chao and Michelle de la Vega.

April 16

Part magic show, part performance-lecture, Carnegie Mellon University's Studio for Creative Inquiry hosts a 1-day event from the Center for Tactical Magic! Join us for From Houdini to Snowden: What Magic Can Teach Us About Power. From theatrical tricks and illusions to spiritual rites and rituals, magic represents the performance of arcane knowledge. The Center for Tactical Magic looks closely at the ways in which secrets are embodied in today's society and draws parallels between magic acts and such issues as economic manipulation, political deception, vanishing resources, and social transformation. Moving beyond the symbolic, this interactive presentation highlights real-world examples of magic mixing it up with Power in today's "theater of conflict."

Feb 21 - Mar 8

The haunting of the US Department of Justice continues with another print run of 500 public posters from our project, If You See Something, Say Something. Hosted by UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Gallery, this poster is a public service announcement produced by the Center for Tactical Magic to summon resistant spirits (both living and dead) to exorcise the ghoulish necropolitics haunting us today.

Callers to the phone number are directed to a DOJ switchboard enabling them to leave detailed messages for Attorney General Jeff Sessions or any of the investigative agencies under the auspices of the Department Of Justice.  Is the new "normal" looking increasingly paranormal?  If you see something, say something.  Call the number and report any ghoulish encounters materializing around you.

Jan 11

With the support of Southern Exposure (SF) and Untitled, San Francisco, the Center for Tactical Magic will engage in live discussion of all things magical with Kate Rhoades and Maysoun Wazwaz of Congratulations Pine Tree, the Bay Area's #1 arts and culture podcast. The full conversation can be heard here.

2017

Oct 21 - Nov 12

We're back in the desert for An Ephemeral History of High Desert Test Sites: 2002-2015. Celebrating the semi-annual convergence of local, national, and international artists in Joshua Tree and the surrounding areas, the Center for Tactical Magic is contributing an archive of Tactical Ice Cream Unit propaganda to the curatorial efforts of Aram Moshayedi and Sohrab Mohebbi alongside an illustrious mix of artists including Jeremy Deller, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Aleksandra Mir, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Drain, Mungo Thomson, Yoshua Okon, and many other righteous folks.

Oct 19

7-10pm

Part magic show, part performance-lecture, MX Gallery (NYC) hosts a 1-night event from the Center for Tactical Magic! Join us for From Houdini to Snowden: What Magic Can Teach Us About Power. From theatrical tricks and illusions to spiritual rites and rituals, magic represents the performance of arcane knowledge. The Center for Tactical Magic looks closely at the ways in which secrets are embodied in today's society and draws parallels between magic acts and such issues as economic manipulation, political deception, vanishing resources, and social transformation. Moving beyond the symbolic, this interactive presentation highlights real-world examples of magic mixing it up with Power in today's "theater of conflict."

Oct 6

In the vein of the Department of Homeland Security’s campaign by the same name, If You See Something, Say Something by The Center for Tactical Magic launches from Southern Exposure (SF) spreading throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with over 1,000 public posters haunting our collective consciousness.

In this moment when the “new normal” seems increasingly paranormal, the posters that make up the project state, “Research shows that hauntings increase during periods of social stress, environmental collapse, war, economic decline, racism, and government crises.” CTM’s widely distributed posters will direct the public to report these sightings via a telephone number provided. This phone number will connect participants to the US Department of Justice, allowing them to directly report any ghoulish encounters and drawing attention to the connection between the personal, political and the paranormal.

Aug 4 - ...

The streets of Katawice, Poland play host to the exhibition 298 111, the pilot project of the OFF Museum program, which will be conducted by the Muzeum Slazskie in collaboration with the OFF Festival. Thousands of posters from nearly 40 international artists will surmount the urban landscape in a myriad of provocations. The Center for Tactical Magic will highlight a new intervention drawing parallels between ghost sightings and the ongoing paranormal hauntings in Poland's necropolitical trends.

Jun 18 - Aug 20

The Museum of Capitalism opens its inaugural exhibition in Oakland, CA with a series of multimedia exhibits created by a diverse network of artists, scholars, and ordinary citizens, exploring the historical phenomenon of capitalism and its intersections with themes like race, class, and environment in the United States. The Center for Tactical Magic is proud to be included with a display of our "Magic(k) Wands" and an installation of "Universal Keys".

Feb 21 - Mar 9

The Center for Tactical Magic will be presenting 3 projects, including a new commissioned work, at STUK's Artefact 2017: The Act of Magic in Leuven, Belgium. Curated by Karen Verschooren (STUK) & Ils Huygens (Z33), Artefact is a themed exhibition and festival on contemporary visual arts, current events and societal challenges. In 2017, Artefact examines "magic" in myriad forms. What does magic mean today? Which role does it play as a social phenomenon? How is it used as a metaphor? And how do contemporary artists tackle the subject? From poetry to strategy, from magical object to obscure systems, from harmless distraction to manipulation: the artists in The Act of Magic investigate what enchants us today.

Out Now!

Check out our contribution to the themed issue of Journal of Visual Culture: Visual Activism. Hybrid in form and intentionally multi-vocal, the issue interrogates the intersection of activism with vision, visibility, and visuality from the perspective of activists and artists alike. Edited by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Dominic Willsdon, and Jennifer González, it includes thoughtful contributions from:

Ariella Azoulay, Macarena Gómez-Barris, Deena Chalabi, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Miguel A López, Amin Husain, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Nitasha Dhillon, A. Joan Saab, Tina Takemoto, Avram Finkelstein, Aaron Gach, Cheyanne Epps, Kyle Lane-McKinley, Elisa Adami, TJ Demos, Amy Lyford, Carlos Motta, Trinh T Minh-ha, Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, Jerome Reyes, Nine Yamamoto-Masson, Teddy Cruz, Favianna Rodriguez, Zanele Muholi, Selaelo Mannya, Valerie Thomas, and Shannon Jackson.

April 30

As part of Open Engagement hosted by the Oakland Museum of California, Aaron Gach of the Center for Tactical Magic will be presenting a hybrid performance mixing equal parts magic show and lecture. The performance, From Houdini to Snowden: What Magic Can Teach Us About Power, looks closely at the ways in which secrets are embodied in today’s society and draws parallels between magic acts and such issues as economic manipulation, political deception, vanishing resources, and social transformation. Moving beyond the symbolic, this interactive presentation highlights real-world examples of magic mixing it up with Power in today’s “theater of conflict”.

Nov 7

7pm - Midnight

Join us in Atlanta on Nov. 7 for the unleashing of a new project:
FREEDOM FIGHTER - ROUND 1: FIGHT for $15

As part of Flux Night 2015: Dream (curated by Nato Thompson in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Historic District), we'll be teaming up with Dad's Garage Theater Company and music from IFLY's Extremely Michael to bring you the ultimate battle! With a focus on the national campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, "Round 1: The Fight for $15" will fight in solidarity with ATL Raise Up!

Also included in Flux Night are some amazing contributions from: Elissa Blount Moorhead (Baltimore) + Rashida Bumbray (New York) + Arthur Jafa (Tupelo, MS); Sheila Pree Bright (Atlanta); Courtesy the Artists (New York); Stephon Ferguson (Atlanta); Chris Johnson (Oakland, CA) + Hank Willis Thomas (Brooklyn, NY) + Bayeté Ross Smith (Harlem, NY) + Kamal Sinclair (Los Angeles); Jennifer Wen Ma (New York & Beijing); Yoko Ono (Nutopia); Otabenga Jones & Associates (Houston, TX); Pedro Reyes (Mexico City); and Jessica Scott-Felder (Atlanta).

See you there!

Sept 11 - Dec 12

May 28 - June 7

The Light & Dark Arts: A Radical Magic Show

What does the NSA, Lucifer, and Edward Snowden have to do with a magic show? Find out this spring during our 8-show theatrical run at UC Davis' Main Theater.

When the curtains raise on the Radical Magic Show something wholly unexpected unfolds. This is not your standard Las Vegas fare – all glitter and gloss with little in the way of conceptual wonderment. Instead, we see the merging of longstanding traditions of magical performance with contemporary expressions of social and political concerns.

Feb 14

7pm

Performance as Politics, and Vice Versa

Join CTM co-founder, Aaron Gach, for a Valentine's Day presentation on... Ghosts, of course! As part of Eric Baudelaire's Secession Sessions at Kadist Art Foundation (SF, CA), Aaron will be discussing the CTM's Ghost Machine in relation to tensions between the (social) body and the (political) spirit.

The evening will be shared with enlightening presentations by art historian, Julia Bryan-Wilson, and poet David Buuck. This session explores the convergence between political activism and performance art. Julia Bryan-Wilson will weave a brief history of artists adopting / highjacking / transforming the structures, symbols, or rituals of political systems; re-creating political systems within their practices; or building social projects as performance art. And David Buuck will lecture/perform on how artists and activists have attempted to puncture holes in the state apparatus, in moments of refusal or withdrawal.

The Secession Sessions are presented in conjunction with Matrix 257 of the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and Kadist Art Foundation.

Out Now!

The Center for Tactical Magic is proud to share space in a new book from Francesco Spampinato on creative collaborations - Come Together: The Rise of Cooperative Art and Design (Princeton Architectural Press). Here's more...

"The past twenty years have seen a new generation of artists working together in small groups and large collectives to explore new avenues of art, design, performance, and communication. In Come Together, author and visual artist Francesco Spampinato assembles an international roster of forty of today's most exciting and influential collectives, from design studios like Project Projects and political performance artists The Yes Men to flash mob provocateurs Improv Everywhere and the multimedia artists Assume Vivid Astro Focus. Alongside visual portfolios of their best work are in-depth interviews addressing each group's unique motivations, processes, and objectives. What emerges is a shared desire to turn viewers into producers and to use commercial mass-media strategies to challenge prevailing social, political, and cultural power structures. Come Together is an essential resource and inspiration for students, art lovers, and anyone interested in the cutting edge of visual culture."

Nov 16

Sun, 1-6pm

June 14-29

Opening:

Friday 13, 7pm

Toward a New Paradigm - Galway, Ireland

“Toward a New Paradigm” brings together eight artists who have experienced a significant paradigm shift.  They have been asked to address this idea of a shifting paradigm and how that might play out through their work in a larger cultural context. This shifting paradigm could be within the work itself or through the subject matter the work investigates.”

Gallery 126, City of Galway, Ireland

Curated by Malcolm McClay and Chicory Miles

Participating Artists: Lala Rascic, Dan Tague, Generic Art Solutions, Malcolm McClay, Christopher Saucedo, Chicory Miles, Jeff Becker, and Center for Tactical Magic.

Out Now!

See to believe: the Center for Tactical Magic’s Sleight of Hand
We're honored to be the subject of Gretchen Coombs latest investigation in the Journal of Aesthetics & Culture. Here's a synopsis:

The Center for Tactical Magic has been performing “magical” art interventions since 2000. The Center’s work augments traditional activist techniques by offering new conceptions of what art and activism can entail in a contemporary urban context. This article explores how Jacques Rancière’s reconfigured relationship between art and politics can be applied to the Center’s work, providing new distributions of the sensible for participants.

Sept 22

9am-5pm

The Field Trip: the Politics of Abstraction and the Abstraction of Politics

Hiding in plain sight, the San Francisco Bay’s Angel Island has served as a Civil War outpost, US Immigration Station, a Prisoner of War Processing Center, a Nike missile site, and currently, a California State Park. How do these rich historical narratives connect to current social debates? Come experience the island like never before during this one-day, roving symposium speculating on contemporary politics, artistic abstraction, data visualization, and the military’s Cold War-era psychic spying program known as remote viewing. Created by the Center for Tactical Magic in partnership with SFMOMA and Angel Island California State Park, The Field Trip will be led by Aaron Gach (co-founder of the Center for Tactical Magic), who will be joined by an art curator (Dominic Willsdon), a park interpreter (TBD), a data visualizer (Josh Begley), an investigative journalist (Justine Sharrock), a former military remote viewer (Paul H. Smith), and an NSA whistleblower (Russ Tice) for a series of site-specific discussions, presentations, and exercises across the island. These multiple perspectives will blur the lines between seemingly disparate subjects as we explore the ways in which we, as individuals and as a society, represent information through technology, art, and facilitated visionary experiences.

Tickets are available through SFMOMA, here.

Aug 2013

Arthur Magazine #35 out now w/ a new column by the CTM

The Center for Tactical Magic's ongoing column, Applied Magic(k) attempts to answer the burning question, "What do drones, demons, and magical automatons have in common?"

May 15

The Center for Tactical Magic takes over a 30ft digital billboard in downtown Manhattan with a video featuring found footage of magicians performing the classic illusion, "Linking Rings" or "Ninja Rings", alongside footage of tutorials demonstrating how to escape from handcuffs, and a rolling text of "Know Your Rights" information from legal advocacy groups. Supported by Artadia, the video titled Linking & Unlinking can be seen here.

May 17-June 8

Stop by Coagula Curatorial in LA for a peek Séance, a group exhibition curated by Mario Vasquez. Along with documentation from the CTM's own Ghost Machine, the show features the magical works from Sue De Beer, Francesca Gabbiani, Glenn Kaino, Roni Feldman, Laurence McNamara, Kathleen Melian, Sean C. Flaherty, Elizabeth DiGiovanni, James Marshall, Matthew Carter, and Christy Roberts.

March 1

The Bank Heist Contest Final Judging & Award Ceremony!

Join us this Friday at Southern Exposure (SF), when bank heist proposals will be displayed in the gallery and judged live by a jury of experts based on conceptual vision, presentation, feasibility, and creativity. After each entry is summarized and discussed by the jurors, five finalists will be chosen, and one winner will be awarded $1,000 at the end of the night.

The jury includes:
• Joe Loya, author & former bank robber with literally dozens of heists under his belt.
• Dale Seago, a security management professional with over 25 years' experience in military and private sector security programs, including several years in the security department of Wells Fargo Bank
• Representatives from the Center for Tactical Magic and Southern Exposure.

Jan 31

The Bank Heist Contest proposals DUE at High Noon!

All proposals for the Center for Tactical Magic's Bank Heist Contest are due at Southern Exposure by noon, Jan 31, 2013 for your chance to win $1000.00 cash money!!

Contest Deadline Jan 31, 2013

Exhibition Dates: Oct 5th-27th

Special Event: Oct 17, 7-9pm

Sat. Workshop: Oct 27, 2-4pm

For Bank Heist Contest, the Center for Tactical Magic invites the public to imagine the possibility of a successful bank heist. $1000 will be given as a reward to the best proposal. The contest is being held in conjunction with Southern Exposure's exhibition, Making A Scene, with artists Torreya Cummings and Bessma Khalaf. During the exhibition period, the Center for Tactical Magic will lead participants in workshops, presentations, and films to provide inspiration for their developing proposals. Writer and former bank robber, Joe Loya, will give a talk on October 17, 2012, 7:00 - 9:00 pm. The Center for Tactical Magic will lead a Bank Heist Contest Proposal Workshop on October 27, 2012, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. The project will conclude in 2013 with an award ceremony for the winner of the Bank Heist Contest. Proposals are due January 31, 2013 at high noon.

Sept 20

8-9pm

Arts In Dialogue presents Subversive Art Panel Discussion

UC Berkeley Extension – Art and Design Center

The Yerba Buena Community Benefit District’s Arts in Dialogue series presents “Art Making in the 21st Century: Social and Subversive Practices” — a panel discussion on urban community based projects, guerrilla interventions, street performance, interactive media, and collaborative “social sculpture” — with reactionary artists Anthony Discenza, Aaron Gach of the Center for Tactical Magic, Dawn Weleski and Ray Beldner.

Sept 7th-30th

Reception:

9/7, 6-9pm

Public Trust at Flux Factory, NY

Flux Factory commissioned ten artists and groups to investigate and reveal the hidden values of our most popular pillars of culture, generate new social relationships through this process of questioning, and celebrate the crucial roles public institutions fill. For Public Trust, the Center for Tactical Magic is working in collaboration with NYC souvenir vendors and the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center on a public project designed to confront the NYPD’s aggressive racial profiling tactic known as “Stop & Frisk.”

Aug 4th-18th

Reception:

8/18, 7-11pm

S.H.E.D. Projects presents House Show

The Center for Tactical Magic, in collaboration with artist/curator Steve Shada, will be developing a new immersive art as part of House Show. Sited in the unfinished basement of a West Oakland residence, this project works through sparse environmental modification designed to amplify and augment sensory perception at the very foundations of social construction.

March 15 - March 29

Work by the Center for Tactical Magic makes an appearance at 319 Scholes Gallery in Brooklyn, NY for "Big Reality". Curated by Brian Droitcour, this exhibition "proposes that contemporary everyday life seamlessly integrates elements of fantasy and play through consumer technology and networked media." In addition to the CTM, you'll be astounded by some great projects by 27 other artists including:

Arcanebolt (Mark Beasley, Tamas Kemenczy, Alex Inglizian), Bradley Benedetti, BFFA3AE, Laura Brothers, John Bruneau, The Center for Tactical Magic, Jacob Ciocci, Brody Condon, Chris Coy, Julia Ellingboe, Desiree Holman, Timothy Hutchings, Butt Johnson, Daniel Leyva, Guthrie Lonergan, Nick Montfort, Shana Moulton, Brenna Murphy, Oregon Painting Society, Robby Rackleff, Billy Rennekamp, Deb Sokolow, Eddo Stern, Third Faction, John Tynes, Andrej Ujhazy, and David Wightman.

March

Art Micro Patronage is presenting Inverse Internet Operating Manual - an online group show with Anthony Discenza, Center for Tactical Magic, David Horvitz, Elizabeth Sims, Destructables.org (Packard Jennings), Kristina Lee Podesva with Alan McConchie & Anna Lundh. Curated by Dena Beard, this project explores use-value, exchange-value, and "tactical alternatives to the normative functioning of the Internet" through a range of diverse works, including 2 new projects from the Center for Tactical Magic along with some downloadable magic(k).

Join us live or online on March 22 for an artist talk, hosted by Pro-Arts in Oakland, CA.

Sept 17 - Oct 29

Oct 15

Mar 10 - May 22

March 9

Jan 16 - Feb 20

Dec 16

7-8:30pm

2nd Floor

Oct 14 - Dec 10

Aug 12 & 14

May 15 - July 4

Feb 13 - Apr 10

Feb 5

Nov 28 - Jan 31

Oct 22-25

Oct 3

March 5

Nov 15

Sept 21-27

Sept 19 - Jan 11

Sept 19 - Oct 11

Sept 13 & 14

June 7 - Sept 7

April 17-27

April 4

7-9pm

March 22

March 15-May 17

March 7 - April 25, 2008

Opening: March 7, 6pm - 8pm

The ISE CULTURAL FOUNDATION is hosting a veritable banquet of spicy aesthetics in "Détourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism". Curated by Brianna Toth, Detourned Menu brings together a group of artists who investigate the relationship between food and the economic, social, ethical, and political realms. Artists include: Erik Carver & Howard Huang, The Center for Tactical Magic, Cori Crowley & Bert Bergen, DoEAT,  Bessma Khalaf, Alessandro Nassiri, Chris Sollars & Jerome Waag, Eva Strohmeier, and Adam Zaretsky

Call to Action!

Opening: March 7, 6pm - 8pm

A curious irony frames a current exhibition entitled 'Detourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism' that opens this Friday, March 7th (6-8 pm) -- the hosting gallery, ISE Cultural Foundation, is funded by ISE America, a corporation whose factory egg farms have been the target of animal cruelty lawsuits and recent accusations of consumer fraud.

Join in protest of an exhibition on food and activism funded by a
corporation who has been the target of many animal rights lawsuits!

Nov 16

October 27

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will be teaming up with Food-Not-Bombs at the final rally point (Delores Park) of the Anti-War Protest in San Francisco. So dissent to your heart's delight and then swing by for some eats and some treats!

October 25

Join the CTM at the opening of Biotechnique at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. CTM members will be on-hand to help distribute the Vital Psigns seed project. Participants will learn about human/plant communication and take home a do-it-yourself experiment in psychobotany.

October 11

The Center for Tactical Magic ventures to the nation of Georgia for a new public project on the streets of Tbilisi. The CTM's "Ghost Machine" will be one of 12 international projects presented for One Stop: Art Caucasus 2007 - International Contemporary Arts Forum

August 18

Save the Oaks! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit lends its tasty support to the Berkeley, CA tree-sitters at a community rally to stop the axes from a-choppin'.

July 13-15

The 1st International Copwatch Conference takes place at Laney College in Oakland, CA !!! And the Tactical Ice Cream Unit will also be there to provide frosty treats to beat the heat!

June 8

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit teams up with Larry Bogad of the Rebel Insurgent Clown Army as we cruise into Davis, California for "Temp Work: Temporary Public Art Projects in Downtown Davis". Temp Work is a collaboration between the Nelson Gallery of UC Davis and the City of Davis Civic Arts Commission.

May 12-June 16

A social laboratory for experiments in psychobotany will be established at Machine Project in LA. Psychobotany cultivates a cultural terrain that includes a wide array of efforts at human/plant communication. One can expect to find military scientists rubbing shoulders with druids; tree-sitters cavorting with tech wizards; and conceptual artists conspiring with herbalists. Check out psychobotany.com for more details!

April

Lars Bang Larsen invokes the Center For Tactical Magic within the pages of Frieze magazine (April issue) for an article entitled: Art and the Occult.

March 29 -

April 1

The 4th Annual Transmodern Festival in Baltimore, Maryland plays host to 4 days of local and national performers, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, video artists, sculptors, writers, and mischiefmakers. The CTM's Free Occult Services Project will be distributing Do-It-Yourself institutional hexes for your use against your (least) favorite institutions.

March/April

Legendary enabler, Gregory Sholette interview's the CTM's own Aaron Gach in the March/April issue of Art Papers.

March 17-18

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit unleashes delicious pops and righteous propaganda at the 12th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair!

Jan. 30 - 31

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit rolls on to the University of California at Santa Cruz for a 2-day Tactical Magic Expo complete with experiments in Extra-Sensory Perception, Know-Your-Rights Training Sessions, a Self-Liberation Workshop, and an ice cream social.

Dec. 1 - Jan. 6

WHW and Gallery Nova in Zagreb, Croatia play host to Dataesthetics: How to Do Things with Data. Curated by Steven Wright, "Dataesthetics seeks to foreground some of the most cutting-edge practices in the field of research-based art..." Including the works of The Atlas Group, Jean - Pierre Aubé, Bureau d’études, Center for Tactical Magic, IRWIN, Mark Lombardi, Trevor Paglen, Marko Peljhan/I-TASC, Martha Rosler, Bálint Szombathy, Mladen Stilinovic', Visible Collective/ Mohaiemen, Roy, Huq, Lin, Dataesthetics is a three-phrase project, comprising an exhibition, a discussion forum with the artists and the publication of a bilingual reader, featuring critical writings by theorists and artists working in the field of dataesthetics.

Nov. 26

Join the CTM in Copenhagen, Denmark as we present Our Program for Creative Engagement at YNKB (Outer Nørrebro Culture Bureau ). The enchantment begins at 7pm.

Nov. 17-18

The Center for Tactical Magic presents "Revolutionary Breakthroughs in Extra-Sensory Perception" in Frankfurt, Germany in the closing address of the BLICK.SPIEL.FELD (Gaze.Play.Field) conference at the Goethe-University. Combining a number of disciplines in the arts and sciences, BLICK.SPIEL.FELD sees seeing as an experiment, focuses on the gaze, maps the field of the visible, and plays with perception.

Nov. 15

12-2pm

The University of Southern California's Graduate Lecture Series at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts hosts an afternoon presentation and discussion with Aaron Gach, co-founder and spokesman of the Center for Tactical Magic. The public is welcome to join the fray at the USC Graduate Fine Arts Building & Roski MFA Gallery.

Nov. 3

7pm

Co-founder and spokesman of the CTM, Aaron Gach, joins Elizabeth Mangini, San Francisco-based scholar and critic, for the final session of The New New Masses Salon Series at the San Francisco Art Institute. The New New Masses seeks to address the confluence of art and politics as well as artists' social responsibilites.

Oct. 28

2-4pm

Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA

PANEL DISCUSSION: Interventionists

Art made to attach to buildings or to be given away? Edible art for demonstrations or art that appears as a booth at a trade show? This is the art of the interventionists, who trespass into the everyday world to raise our awareness of injustice and other social problems.
Panelists include: Nato Thompson, Curator at MassMOCA; Pamela Bolton and Cynthia Cleary of Free Fruit/Fruta Gratis; Shannon Spanhake, founding member of DoEAT; and Aaron Gach, Center for Tactical Magic. Moderated by Chief Curator, Patricia Watts.

Oct. 25

5pm

Fight for Police Accountability! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will team up with Berkeley Copwatch and concerned citizens for a rally and march to the Berkeley Police Review Commission (PRC) to demand that the besieged civilian oversight agency take bold action to preserve civilian review. Meet at The Public Safety Building (MLK and Center St.) March to North Berkeley Senior Center (Hearst and MLK) for the PRC Public Hearing on "The Future of the PRC".

Oct. 22

2pm

Come and join us for the 11th Annual National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality! Wear Black ! Fight Back ! The Tactical Ice Cream Unit will provide support and treats for the march from Haight and Stanyan to the Fillmore on Oct 22, 2pm. For more info, check out http://www.bayarea1022.org/

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit thunders around the San Francisco Bay Area and teams up with the LAB for Détourned Menu.Curated by Brianna Toth, DM presents a collection of artists who perceive their
work as tactical treats, ones that are used to infiltrate contemporary visual culture. By providing food for thought, as well as something to fill one's belly, these artists produce work that disrupts the visual and spatial codes of everyday life. The subversive concoctions created for Détourned Menu will demonstrate how food consumption is saturated with additional dimensions of meaning that can be understood as stemming variously from economic, social, ethical, ceremonial, fetishistic or gluttonous concerns ... ideas that move beyond the notion of eating just for survival.

Opening Reception: Friday, October 20, 6 – 9 PM.

Panel Discussion: Thursday, October 26 at 7 PM. Panelists include: Curator Brianna Toth, artists Colleen Flanigan, Aaron Gach of the Center for Tactical Magic, Chris Sollars, Jerome Waag, and special guest Patricia Watts, Chief Curator of the Sonoma County Museum.

STRANGE POWERS, Creative Time's summer group exhibition, assembles works by more than twenty internationally acclaimed artists--Pawel Althamer & Artur Z.mijewski, James Lee Byars, Sophie Calle & Fabio Balducci, The Center for Tactical Magic, Peter Coffin, Jennifer Cohen, Anne Collier, Christian Cummings, Trisha Donnelly, Douglas Gordon, Brion Gysin, Friedrich Jürgenson (presented by Carl Michael von Hausswolff), Joachim Koester, Jim Lambie, Miranda Lichtenstein, Euan Macdonald, Jonathan Monk, Senga Nengudi, Paul Pfeiffer, Eva Rothschild, and Mungo Thomson--whose works explore the transformative power of art through a variety of magically charged manifestations. While a number of exhibitions have recently looked at aspects of the occult and the spiritual, STRANGE POWERS highlights artworks that are made to actually have a paranormal effect on the world, including spells, talismanic objects, and apparitions conjured and transcribed.

Co-curated by Laura Hoptman and Peter Eleey, the exhibition will be presented on the second floor of an East Village building (64 East 4th Street), rumored to be haunted, Thursday and Friday (4-7pm), Saturday and Sunday (noon--7pm) from July 20 through September 17, 2006, with an opening reception on Wednesday, July 19, 6-7:30pm.

Spring -

Tour Schedule

The Tactical Ice Cream Unit continues its SoCal hijinx with stops at the following places of mystery and mayhem. Contact us to set up a tour stop near you!

April 2: Come for free popsicles & propaganda in downtown Riverside at UCR's Sweeney Art Gallery from 1-4pm!

April 4-5: Mixin' it up at Otis College of Art & Design

April 7: Tag-team with radical artist Robby Herbst at Pitzer College

April 9: Chillin' at Santa Monica Pier

April 10: Serving up some treats at UCLA

April 22: Hanging out in Tijuana with the good folks at Lui Velazquez

April 24: Talking tactics at the University of California - San Diego

April 29: Mirth & magic at Machine Project in LA

May 1: General Strike!!!

May 4: More mischief at the magical Marvimon

May 5-7: Beating the heat with frosty treats at High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree

May 9: Lurking around Cal Arts in Valencia

May 11: More conjurations at Cypress College

May 14: Parade! The TICU will be joining Fritz Haeg and his students, along with various other artists, for Our Parade along the Santa Clara River.

May 15 - 20: The TICU teams up with the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts in Santa Barbara for the "State of the Arts" conference.

May 23: Enchantments at U.C. Santa Cruz

More to come! Want to support a tour stop? Email us!

March 12 thru April 10

Special Event:

March 6

The Huntington Beach Art Center unleashes Detours, an exhibition featuring projects from the Center for Tactical Magic, Survival Research Labs, Finishing School, and others. The CTM will be organizing a community kite-building workshop on March 6 from noon-3pm as part of our aerial activism project, Uprising! - Messages in the Sky. A panel discussion of the participating artists will take place prior to the opening on the evening of March 12.

See the Call for Participation!

Ongoing -

(until Apr. 2005)

October Surprise! Creative Interventions and Underground Politics in Northeast Los Angeles. Join us & 40 other artists/collectives for this LA offshoot of the Department of Space & Land Reclamation. More info can be had at: www.theoctobersurprise.org

Currently -

Keep an eye out for an article discussing Tactical Media by Trevor Paglen and Aaron Gach called "Tactics Without Tears" appearing in The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest.

TBA -

(~ 2/25-28)