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

The Thanatopolis Exhibition

The Thanatopolis Exhibition on Saturday, October 2, 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: [Note: only the under-lined links are accessible at this time.  Additional links will be activated in the coming days.]

Music Composition/Thanatopolis Prize     Visual Arts/Environmental Sculpture     Landscape/Garden Design     Theater, Choreography, Performance Art     Architecture     Landscape Architecture

FAQ, Project Constraints Why Thanatopolis? The Site Special Projects Thanatopolis Symposium The Gaudí Memorial

After reading the program FAQ (see link above), feel free to e-mail the office with any additional questions or concerns: ipark@ureach.com.  We will use these as a basis to periodically update the FAQ.

Applicants are welcome to visit I-Park for a site visit prior to the submission deadline, with a prior appointment.  Also, applicants interested in the open presentation of the Thanatopolis Symposium panel on Sunday, July 25, 2010 are invited to come out to I-Park for this event.

In the coming weeks, I-Park will be developing its Thanatopolis Symposium page on this website.  You are welcome to check in and perhaps read third party articles on Thanatopolis-related topics, see a list of the particular types of themes and issues the Symposium will be addressing and submit your own comments/questions.

This space will be periodically updated with new information.  We will date the page and send out notices to those on our Thanatopolis database when there is significant new information to share.

 
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. These are presented here in the spirit of suggesting the character of projects that might be appropriate for the Thanatopolis Exhibition.

The second image in the body of the page is by Rhode Island artist Ana Flores. Entitled, 'And they walked with the forest', this work was recently installed on the I-Park grounds during her residency. For more images of this installation, click here.   

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.