Port Huron Project videos on view at LACE

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In July 2008, artist Mark Tribe’s Port Huron Project -- a multi-year effort involving staged re-creations of historic protest speeches of the Vietnam era at their original locations -- came to Los Angeles with a re-enactment of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez’s 1971 speech decrying the war at a rally in Exposition Park sponsored by the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice. UC San Diego visual arts assistant professor Ricardo Dominguez portrayed Chavez. The L.A. event was co-sponsored by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

You can hear and watch that re-enactment of the Chavez speech, titled ‘We Are Also Responsible,’ in the video above (and read Christopher Knight’s review here).

Or, for a broader perspective on the Huron Project -- which since 2006 has also staged speeches originally given by Angela Davis, then a member of the Black Panther Party, and black power advocate Stokely Carmichael, among others -- you can visit LACE’s Hollywood gallery, which will launch its ‘Mark Tribe: Port Huron Project’ exhibition with a reception tonight, open to the public.

The show, which continues through Jan. 24, will provide a wide-angle view of the Chavez, Davis and Carmichael speeches with large-scale video projections and multi-channel sound in the exhibition space.

‘All along Mark Tribe has conceived the project in different phases,’ LACE Executive Director Carol Stakenas tells Culture Monster. ‘If you got a chance to see the live event, that’s amazing; the installation gives audiences a chance to experience not one, but three projects that took place around the country, an opportunity to connect with what it means to be civically engaged. ... We’ve set up the exhibition in a compelling way, to invite you into the crowd.’

-- Diane Haithman