Matthew David Rana Performing on the mound, right with Amy Balkin.

On Saturday, September 13th, artist Matthew David Rana performed a speech series on top of a grass mound. He presented five speeches ranging from; two speeches from Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander; a discourse concerning an ideal schedule, by Eric Steen; a transcript from a supreme court case dealing with free speech, public space and private space, a collaboration with the artist Amy Balkin; and a polemic on Utopia by Justin Fiset. This was the first of six events that I produced as part of A Grass Mound (With Kind Regards to Utopia). Downloads from each of these speeches are linked below followed by an interview between myself and Matthew.
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Poster image from A Grass Mound (With Kind Regards to Utopia)

A Grass Mound (With Kind Regards to Utopia) is an art project comprising a sculpture and an event series centered around discussing Utopian potential, resistance, and creative expression. The sculpture is a convex form made of natural grass, which acts as a stage or platform, for a series of lectures, readings and performances. This project was most recently produced as part of Immediate Futures an exhibition at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, from September 6-October 18, 2008.

The mound or natural-grass-knoll is based upon a ruin found at the site of a vanished California Utopian colony named Alturia (1894-96) located near Santa Rosa, California. The aim of this sculpture is that by emulating this ruin (which contains the remains of a Utopian experiment) the mound will act as a foundation from which to explore and develop the complexities of Utopian vision as it relates to both acts of resistance and creative expression. A poster placed above the mound announces the upcoming events, and a series of interview pamphlets with all participants is produced in order to further articulate the ideas.
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