Exit Art / The First World was founded in 1982 by Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, as a non-profit cultural center dedicated to transcultural, multi-disciplinary explorations of contemporary art issues. Exit Art / The First World is committed to organizing and presenting experimental and historical projects exploring the diversity of contemporary culture in the visual arts, theater, design, film and video.
Exit Art / The First World provides a unique historical perspective on the culture by establishing a dialogue which places the diversity of histories, values and aesthetic sensibilities in contemporary art within a context of the transcultural reality of art in the 90s. Exit Art / The First World programs create a dialogue between the different levels of comprehension and interpretation of cultures. Exit Art / The First World serves as a prototype for the way different media and disciplines are combined, creating a new model to interpret this period in our cultural history. As the country addresses its new place in the global culture, Exit Art / The First World is approaching the arts in a multilayered vision for a dynamic future.
Exit Art / The First World:
- Identifying and presenting the younger generation of artists and their
new attitudes about the aesthetics of culture through exhibitions,
performances and symposia, giving their work a greater visibility and
placing it within a dialogue of contemporary art.
- Exploring the structure, atmosphere and role of exhibitions within a
cultural multi-disciplinary space, experimenting with different
perspectives to examine the strategies of presenting contemporary art
and issues.
- Presenting historical exhibitions that examine neglected histories
within contemporary art and culture.
- Educating the public about the diversity of art; the parallel
histories which exist in our contemporary culture providing a context
for understanding art through an appreciation of the transcultural
changes and challenges occurring in our society.
- Creating a laboratory in which different media co-exist and are synthesized; to break the boundaries between mediums and present visual arts, film & video, theater, music within a context of bringing together different audiences and artists.
Exit Art / The First World intertwines the characteristics of art, culture and ethnicity to produce a signal of the 'hybrid state'. The hybrid state is a perspective in which to look at the culmination of these values. Our mission is to redefine, reshape and restructure the definition of what is American, with multilevel relations in a cultural vocabulary.
