PHILADELPHIA — Waterfront living takes on new meaning as FringeArts and the 2014 Fringe Festival present the world premiere of WetLand (August 15 – September 21),  a floating public art installation and community hub created by Brooklyn-based installation artist Mary Mattingly.  

Moored on Philadelphia’s Delaware River Waterfront and open to the public, WetLand is part interactive art installation, part urban farm, and part gathering place, education center and artist’s studio, invitingthe public to engage in ecological and artistic exploration that creates new human connections in the face of our watery, sinking future. WetLand will be accessible from the Independence Seaport Museum’s dock in the Penn’s Landing complex, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Boulevard.

Mattingly will live on WetLand for six weeks, offering tours, performances, workshops, skill shares, and artistic gatherings. In addition to Mattingly, six other artists will rotate in residency. The structure, an adapted 1971 Rockwell Whitcraft houseboat, will be surrounded by floating docks hosting edible plants, a honeybee hive, and a chicken coop. Approximately 20 seats will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis for events, and can be reserved starting August 1st at Fringearts.com.

WetLandis a utopian response to a dystopian vision of a near future when people live alongside the water, as rivers and oceans overtake our cities and towns. “If we accept that environmental change is happening, and it will disrupt the way we live and the global supply chains we depend on, we have to come up with positive solutions,” says Mattingly. “We hope WetLand will bring people together, connect them and start conversations about ways to produce food, energy and water – even music and art – on small scales with our neighbors. WetLand is an open, communal experience – everyone will take something a little different away with them.”

WetLandis designed to be a self-sustaining, self-contained system, providing its own drinking water and food from plants grown on the structure. Power will be generated by a solar system. Mattingly worked with students and teachers from the Philadelphia Workshop School to design and build gutter systems to recycle rain water for drinking, washing and plant hydration, as well as artistic signage and interior furniture. Philadelphia-based creative reuse organizations RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residency) and The Resource Exchange donated supplies for building the structure and the systems that will sustain it during the artist’s residency.  For more information and updated event schedules, visit FringeArts.com.

SPECIAL EVENTS (as of July 23, 2014)

Event seats are limited and RSVPs requested – reserve your seats beginning August 1st at Fringearts.com.

Ongoing
Every Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. artist Mary Mattingly will be on site to give brief presentations to guided tour groups from the Independence Seaport Museum and local visitors.

August 1 – September 21
Artist Residency: Esteban Gaspar Silva

Friday, August 15
WetLandOpening Reception
5 -7 p.m.

Locally grown food from the WetLand gardens and a pop-up wine bar by Penns Woods Vineyard will be provided for the opening of WetLand. Free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary.

August 15 – 31
Artist’s Residency: Ari Kalinowski

August 15 – 22
Artist’s Residency: Anna Ekros

Saturday, August 16 and Sunday, August 17
Boat Banquet (for Alternative Energies), Parts I and II
6 – 9 p.m.
Artist Greg Lindquist, withWetLand creator Mary Mattingly, will host a dinner informed by research exploring sustainable alternative cooking energies. The meal will include summer cocktails made from infused herbs from the WetLand garden and locally sourced ingredients.

Mondays starting August 18 (August 25, September 8, September 15. Closed Labor Day, September 1)
Fairmount Water Works
2 – 5p.m.
Hands-on family-oriented workshops, shifting focus each week on different water information: water filtration, purification, green storm and plants + water. Workshops last 20 minutes and are offered at 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Fridays starting August 22 (August 29, September 5, September 12 and September 19)
Yoga on the Pier
6 – 7:15 p.m.
Malik Wilson of Dhyana Yoga hosts Friday nights on WetLand with a mix of live musicians, spoken word artists, mediation leaders, and environmental activist instructors. Community partners will donate fresh squeezed juice onsite and provide local discounts. $20/class. Visit wet-land.orgfor weekly schedule.

August 22 – Sept 6
Artist’s Residency: Kim Reid

Sunday, August 24
Preserve Making Taste Testing Talk
3 – 5 p.m.
Sara Pilling of Skunk Hollow Community Garden will give a talk on preserve making methods. Tasting samples of her homemade preserves and plenty of goodies will be provided.

August 25 – 31
Artist’s Residency: Miriam Simun and Brian House

Saturday, September 6
Chalk Board Artists
5 – 7:30 p.m.
A 21st century opera in English that follows a classic opera format; the music, although mostly rock, spans multiple genres.

Sunday, September 7
Alison Gillespie Reading and Q&A
1 – 2 p.m.
Alison Gillespie, author of ‘Hives in the City’ will do a reading of her book on urban beekeeping followed by a Q&A.

Tuesday, September 9
Walnut Hill Community Farm
3 – 5 p.m.
West Philadelphia’s community-developed urban farm presents lecture about growing fresh food in the city.

Thursday, September 11
Kwesi K
6 – 7 p.m.
Live performance by popular acoustic soul/folk musician.

Saturday, September 13
Polluter
6 – 7 p.m.
Live performance by local band Polluter. Polluter’s band name refers to the pollution of popular music/culture by commercialization, and the need to replace with positive energy.

September 15 – 22
Artist’s Residency: Jon Chors

Tuesday, September 16
Mill Creek Urban Farm
3 – 5 p.m.
West Philadelphia’s educational urban farm presents an interactive lecture on stormwater management in Philadelphia.

Tuesday, September 16
“SLIDESHOW”
8 – 9:05 p.m.
Performance artist Josh McIlvain presents a classic slideshow, using an old slide carousel projected on a standing screen in a living room-like setting. As real slides are projected, he weaves a fictional story around them, creating a new experience with old technology. Using found footage and recycling it into a new kind of performance aligns with WetLand’s goals of recycling found objects to create something new.

Saturday, September 20
Mollie McKinley and Ariel Sims
7-8 p.m.
McKinley and Sims, dressed as nun-mermaids, perform a ceremony that takes found objects from the ocean and the Hudson River valley and repurposes them as sacred objects.

WetLandis supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Workshop School., Aqua America, AT&T, The Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Door to Door Organics, The Dow Chemical Company, Organic Mechanics, PECO, the Puffin Foundation, Skidmutro and American Native Nursery.

Special thanks to solar designer Rand Weeks, wetland gardens collaboration Karla Stingerstein, edible living systems collaborator Greg Lindquist, greywater system collaborator Nick Hoffman, and artist in residence Esteban Gaspar Silva. 

ABOUT FRINGEARTS
FringeArts supports artists and brings the world’s newest and most cutting-edge cultural experiences to Philadelphia, amplifying the vibrancy of the city as a renowned cultural center and an unparalleled place to live, work and visit. Founded in 1997 and formerly known as the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, the organization serves local, national and international artists of all disciplines and levels of achievement through an annual 18-day Festival along with a year-round series of high-quality contemporary dance, theater and music performances; commissioned public art installations; and a residency program that continues to expand and grow as a state-of-the-art incubator for artists. In 2013, FringeArts opened the doors to its brand-new waterfront headquarters in Old City Philadelphia.

A full schedule of additional festival events, performance dates, times and locations will be announced soon. Visit FringeArts.com for up-to-date Festival information.

#  #  #