2005 Demonstration Project
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Above are the first images of the October 9 Thanatopolis Exhibition. Most of the Physical Projects are represented. Much more to follow: the Artists, ‘Breath’ Sequence/Ritual Adieux, Music Composition/Sound Sculpture/Concert, Performance, Paper Projects. We are also working on the video documentation and an update report on the status of Thanatopolis. Note: included in this series of images are 4 projects that predate the Thanatopolis Exhibition. They are included here because they have a memorial or memory theme and remain in the I-Park landscape.
If you attended the Exhibition and took photos, please contact the office. We definitely missed some things and would really appreciate it if you could share your images with us so our documentation is complete – Thanks!
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Congratulations and Appreciation to the Thanatopolis Artists/Prize Winners forTheir Wonderful Music, Installations, Performances, Ideas and SpiritMusic Composition/Sound Sculpture
Memorial Composition: Jack DW Ballard, Jr., Ohio, Lament Processional: Rohan De Livera, United Kingdom, Remembrance Tone Sequence: Nuno Rebelo, Spain, Chamamento Ritual Adieux: Jennifer Higdon, Pennsylvania, Soliloquy Monica Houghton, Ohio, Quase Um Soneto Thanatopolis Concert: Tricia Minty, California, Wicked Dreams Sumiko Sato, Japan, Misthaven Sound Sculpture: Elise Morris, New York, Dawn
Thanatopolis Noir: Todd Merrell, Connecticut, The Last Transmission
Physical/Land Projects/Installations
Norbert Francis Attard, Malta, Grave Field
Paul Bagley, Oklahoma, Symbiosis François Fréchet, France, Free as a Bird Terra Goolsby, Rhode Island, From Landscape to Culture, From Culture to Landscape Pulling Together/Legends of Willimantic/Weighing Anchor Group, New York, Connecticut, The Citizen Shipwrights of Willimantic, CT Andrea Thompson, Massachussets, Dream Eyries Alison Williams, New Hampshire, Reliquary for Five Performance/Ritual
Kathy Bruce, New York, Landscape as Costume (Burial Robe) Kelly Hanson, New York, Against the Dying of the Light Jordan McKenzie, in absentia*, United Kingdom, Gathering of the Breath Noa Sagie, New York, Fragments Teresa Smith, New York, Companionship of Memory
Marco Dessardo, France, A TUMP for Thanatopolis Claudia Dinep, Connecticut, (trans)Migration Garden James Dinh, California, Lines in the Woods Cecil Howell, California, Senescence Elena Kalman, Connecticut, Proposed Architectural Complex Amanda Martin Katz, New York, Penn Yan/Elegy KS3: Myung-Sun Kim, Joy Shipman, Clara Shipman, John Shipman, Rhode Island, Canada, Leaves of Grass Benjamin Monette & Emily McCoy, Pennsylvania, Re-compose Brendan Ravenhill, California, A Vehicle for Remembrance Georgianna Wells, New York, Impressions
Guest Artists
Miya Ando, New York, Obon [Meditation 1-8] Holly Ewald, Rhode Island, Twins Carolina Rubio-MacWright, New York, Drifting Love Nhan Nguyen, Canada, Calling for the Widow Ba
* Jordan McKenzie was not able to participate in person due to a scheduling conflict. However, he collaborated remotely with the I-Park creative team and was assisted by members of the other Performance/Ritual troupes to realize an alternative/simplified version of his original proposal. We are pleased that we were able to work through this challenge to create a significant piece for the Thanatopolis Exhibition.
Extraordinary Creative, Conceptual Contributions François Fréchet, France and Cornelia Konrads, Germany Special appreciation for their early and ongoing commitment to the Thanatopolis project |
To all who came out for the Thanatopolis Exhibition, thanks so much for your support. And lots of appreciation is in order to the staff and volunteers, the Symposium panelists, the Thanatopolis jurors and the professional support team — for making this, I-Park's most ambitious special project to date, a most gratifying success. Comprehensive documentation to follow Page last updated on December 22, 2010
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What is Thanatopolis? • a special space for creating serious, fitting, moving memorials to individuals from all levels of society, a place where the longing to create and do something meaningful for the deceased can be satisfied • a physical place, a concept and appropriate imagery for attenuating memory • a harness/focal point for the agony and creativity unleashed by death • a natural setting for experimentation in the rituals of interment and memorialization • a new home for the ‘living memorial’ idea • an integral, dynamic aesthetic element within the I-Park environment • a source of commission opportunities for sculptors, garden designers, environmental artists • an approach to memorialization that’s relevant to our time - bringing the memorial park out of the shadows and back to its rightful place in the culture - returning high art to the cemetery - visually, environmentally reengaging the death/life cycle • a funding source for the contemporary arts programs at I-Park |
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The Thanatopolis Exhibition The Thanatopolis Exhibition on Saturday, October 9, 2010 is an inter-disciplinary art project. It is intended to showcase – visually and aurally – new and interesting ways to re-imagine our culture’s, and our personal, relationship to death, memory and memorialization. The Exhibition will foreshadow the look and feel of a future memorial park on the I-Park grounds.
To be clear, the Thanatopolis Symposium in July is a separate, mainly private, event that will investigate and challenge the underlying premises of Thanatopolis. But it will give shape to the Exhibition by sharpening the mission and identity of Thanatopolis and by bringing a measure of coherence to the many ideas and proposals from the various disciplines represented.
I-Park is soliciting proposals that will advance the Thanatopolis project, including concepts that address specific commission elements (see links below). But proposals are also welcome that respond to the spirit of the Thanatopolis project in ways perhaps as yet unforeseen.
Memorial-themed proposals will be evaluated by a distinguished Selection Panel on the basis of creativity, cultural relevance, site responsiveness, feasibility and efficacy in evoking, nurturing and attenuating memory.
For discipline-specific and other commission opportunities and information, click on the links below:

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The image in the header above is by French artist François Fréchet. Entitled ‘Le Passe-rivière,’ this piece was installed in Le Gorneton in 2007. The second image in the body of the page is also by Fréchet. Entitled, 'Stellaria viminalis', this work was installed in Velleneuve lez Avignon, France. These are presented here in the spirit of suggesting the character of projects that might be appropriate for the Thanatopolis Exhibition. The image above represents a conceptual proposal for re-imagining the existing Thanatopolis landscape by German artist Cornelia Konrads. Sincere thanks to Cornelia and François for permission to share their images on this page.
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