José Pérez de Lama / Group XIII, Oct 01 - Feb 02

OPEN HOUSE - OPEN STUDIO

10/1/01 to 2/28/02

The activities took place at a variety of venues including: the Mackey Apartments Garage, 1137 - 1141 South Cochran Avenue, Los Angeles, CA; the MAK Center for Art and Architecture L.A at the Schindler House, 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA; the Flor y Canto, an autonomous community center, 3706 N. Figueroa Avenue in the Highland Park section, Los Angeles, CA

In his project, "Some Ideas for an Anarchist/Zapatista Urbanism," Spanish-born Jose Pérez de Lama conducted research into the new ways of being in space and time that he perceived were taking place in Los Angeles. He presented his project in two formats — video and a web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~osfavela2002. Approaching Los Angeles as a "post-metropolis“ urban laboratory, global, digital, and multi-cultural in aspect, Pérez de Lama utilized his web site to present a rhizome of interconnected writings, images, and maps. Among his texts were an exchange of e-mails about Los Angeles, an essay entitled "Los Angeles, Sunshine or Cyberpunk?," which discusses ambivalent perceptions of the city, and "From the Rear Mirror," a discussion of cultural-urban critiques, by critics such as Reyner Banham, Mike Davis, Norman Klein, and Edward Soja. Other essays considered architectural innovation in Los Angeles, spatial issues in films about the city, "cyberpunk“ fiction by author William Gibson, and an exploration of “Anarchist Geographies,” a concept based on the protests during the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Pérez de Lama also screened his video The E.Z.L.A. Takes Rudolf Schindler’s Kings Road, or Whatever Happened to Rudi’s Promise for America? produced by El Retorno de la Columna Durito (Jose Vergara and J. Pérez de Lama, 2002).