Living X

 
 

Living X explores the significance, ambiguity, upheaval, and uncertainty of this contemporary moment. In 2019, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative. During this same 10-year period, Detroit has undergone significant transformation. There are many positives and pieces of evidence of the resilience of this place through the everyday brilliance and determination of its people. Still, we know the recovery remains uneven and elusive for many residents. Living X is about now, our recent and distant past, and the yet-to-be-envisioned future. ‘X’ is a variable used to represent an unknown value. Every day we watch, participate, and shape the stuff of future history. We are living in times that are seemingly without precedent. And yet, artists in this city, at this very moment, are crafting unimagined futures; uplifting lives sung and unsung from our collective past; giving meaning, clarity, and activism to our present; and, more than anything, finding and feeding the joy and humanity that runs through this city. The 22 projects selected here examine what it means to live and create in these undefined times: the ‘X’.

The projects were commissioned following an an open call to the nearly 200 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award winners from the first decade of the Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative. Special consideration was given to artists who received Kresge Artist Fellowships and Gilda Awards after the last Art X festival in 2015. Artists were awarded $7,000 each to execute their projects. They also receive technical, promotional and other assistance through rootoftwo. 


AXD 2019 Advisory Panelists

  • Pradeep Dalal, Program Director, Arts Writers Grant Program, Creative Capital

  • Pat Elifritz, Curator of New Media and Technology, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

  • Rachel Harkai, writer and 2010 Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts

  • Cornelius Harris, Label Manager, Submerge Records and Founder, Alter Ego Management

  • Njia Kai, filmmaker and cultural producer

  • Sarida Scott, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and former Executive Director, Community Development Advocates of Detroit

  • Anthony D. Stepter, Assistant Director, Museum and Exhibition Studies graduate program, University of Illinois at Chicago