press kit page 1

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Swimming Cities announces our 2010 project: Ocean of Blood. We will host events throughout the fall and winter to raise funds and support beginning with a September 20th Sunset Cocktail Night aboard the Waterpod.

Website: www.weareswimmingcities.org
Press Contact: Alita Edgar, reversibleskirt@gmail.com, 917-306-1187
Blog: www.theoceanofblood.blogspot.com/

Mission Statement:

Ocean of Blood is an upcoming project by the New York City-based art group Swimming Cities. We will embark on a voyage through India in Spring 2010. We begin the journey with the Kumbha Mela festival in Haridwar, and travel on the Ganges River through Uttar Pradesh to our destination city, Varanasi. Our team of artists, mechanics, and performers will collaborate with South Asian artists, musicians and tradesmen to create a fleet of sculptural rivercraft. Once in Varanasi, the separate crafts will link together to form a single vessel and floating stage where we will present a series of performances inspired by the experience of our immersion into Indian culture. The Swimming Cities project and its past incarnation, the Miss Rockaway Armada, have each year explored our historical and societal connection to the rivers and waterways, traveling with handmade rafts, gleaning inspiration, friendship and knowledge. This year's project is the most ambitious and far-reaching yet, as we travel farther from home, and expand to include larger-scale collaborations.

About Us:

Originally founded by visual artist Swoon, the crew of about 30 collaborators has developed over the past five years. Drawn from many arts groups such as the Toyshop Collective, the Madagascar Institute, Cyclecide, the Floating Neutrinos, LEMUR, and from the Bay Area, Minneapolis and New York, the crew includes circus performers, carpenters, artists, mechanics, and musicians. The Miss Rockaway Armada, a flotilla of handbuilt rafts, traveled the Mississippi River in 2006 and 2007. Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea floated down the Hudson River to New York City in 2008, and as Swimming Cities of Serenissima, from Slovenia to Venice in 2009.