International Curator Natalie Kovacs is a one woman Art revelation - her mission is to be a perspective-expanding Art seeker and collaborative force in order to conduct a continuing, international ongoing research safari. In order to cultivate her charges and consolidate her unusually challenging Art propositions she always ensures that  everything she  chooses to do, will go a little (or sometimes a lot) beyond the norm of expectation. 

 

Inspired by interaction, obsessed with creating alternative platforms (involving audience/community participation) Kovacs offers and inspires an understanding of the sheer power of  ‘WOW’ as a catalyst for change. Her mission is to facilitate ‘encounters’ with Art whose resonances will “transcend the medium: the moment, space & time"...

 

“I live for that moment of spark when an audience experiences a work - an opportunity from which to expand / explore. I'm a marvel-initiating seeker, I live for that transformative possibility, that wow, what the %#*! factor, that sends you jumping for joy, leaping for love, or running for miles. That is my reason. I am undeniably a mind-bending perspective-24/7 party-person and I believe that art + science = magic.

I’m keen to plant digital seeds of that magic dust and sparkle the world with a fascinating burst and refraction, that sliver of a moment, that shard of hope and belief that we can do anything. I also believe that with some effort in fact we can and will invent the life that we'd like to live. I hope to inspire a sense of possibility and optimism”. Natalie Kovacs, 2010.

 

This dialogue, between Natalie Kovacs and Space Editor, Katie Baron, is the story of how she joined forces with a major corporate hotel group to instigate a piece of ‘human sculpture’ on Miami beach that has changed the ecological and social ‘brand-landscape’ forever.  This is the story of the transitory, human Artwork that keeps on giving.

 

 

PDA stands for many things: an acronym, a nom de plume, a play on words, 3 letters as a tool for interaction inspired by artist collective AVAF  (Assume Vivid Astro Focus), who use their name/ initials to mean something different at both the end of every email and title of their projects.

 

I was working on their book when I did my initial site visit for the Morgan’s hotel group in Miami and was inspired by the collective spirit of celebration, inclusion and participation – their use of art as a device for communication, performance and participation.

 

On this occasion PDA stands for a public display of art known as Peace Dance Art - a public dance art project created with the support of the local dance, art and environmental communities; Morgan’s Hotel Group, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Interview Magazine and American Apparel who supplied thousands of bikinis to participate in this “motion in the ocean.” I worked with a very generous and inspiring dream-team.

 

The idea behind PDA was to play with our perceptions of a public display of affection. This title was the brainchild Ben Pudhole from Morgan’s who commissioned the piece.

 

To mark people’s commitment to the project to PDA, I commissioned Artist Blair Chivers to create a series of temporary tattoos, as a physical reminder and metaphor... I spent each and every evening pouring champagne over people’s arms while branding them with tattoos. It was a good morning after reminder to participants... by the end of the week I’d gone through 8000 with a team of volunteers.

 

 

We sent out messages to advertise there would be a dance ‘happening’ on the beach orchestrated by a set of dance professionals interspersed throughout the gathering to coordinate the choreography, like touchstones to keep the energy moving. The finale was using the assembled people to create a peace sign in the water, made out of bodies!

 

My vision was to create a sculpture in the symbol of a peace sign made up of bodies,  to create a piece about peace in the ocean about the ocean.

 

 

I put forward a proposal to host a series of curated PDAS / Public Displays of Art the year before, but between my 24/ 7 work with Marilyn Manson and Ben Pudhole’s opening of Marcel Wanders Mondrian Hotel, it wasn’t possible.

Fast forward 6 months to Art Basel where I curated a piece called ‘Never Everland’ and ‘Audience’ by Random International. Both projects were incredibly well received, with Random’s unforgettable experiences raising attention, admiration and expectation of what this type of experience could offer. Ben from Morgan’s attended and had one of those ‘once-in-a-lifetime-epiphanies’ based on this type movement – which can suspend our disbelief, expand perceptions of interactive design and and public sculpture. He asked me if I would bring the magic over to Morgan’s during Art Basel in Miami to offer visitors something with unprecedented wow factor.

 

The opportunity was one I was inspired and driven by - and I went to begin sculpting ideas relating to space, everything I do is site specific. Architecture and or performance driven work really has to do with time/space if you are to initiate a really exciting first time hand experience. (My mission is to heighten and to inspire consciousness. It was only a matter of time before I found a hotel group willing to host a piece of give-back/Art History)

 

 

I was inspired by the Delano (hotel) - full stop. My practice shifted as a result of Shraeger and Stark’s collaboration. I was so moved by the capacity for enlightenment via good design, that I had put forward a proposal a year prior, but, as I said, the timing wasn’t right. However Basel inspired us to elevate and illuminate the conversation about Art and Design and it’s role in Miami once more which, helped bring it to fruition.

 

 

There are some obvious metaphors and parallels inherent as we explore this “body of water”, which can’t even be described, only experienced, with contact.

 

Using this opportunity to connect solely and entirely within this body of water, the “nature” of this experience creates, liberates, initiates and celebrates – requiring that we all submit, become one with the tide and co-participate. This was the reason for the project, to create a “motion in the ocean” the point from which our capacity to nurture nature would generate.

 

I believe it’s high time we consider this body of water, the reason this hotel and ‘Art Olympics’ (Art Basel) exists. I wanted to offer people the opportunity to participate and play a role in sculpture and in the act of being kind and considerate to the environment – something beyond the role of the average festival - to offer an opportunity to engage and to participate in the potential for sculpture and expand our perception of public art. In doing so we created a reason to consider ecology while enjoying unity and a sense of community...

 

 

Well firstly, the piece is about peace and giving back and yes it’s about marketeering – but marketeering mother nature, planet earth and the ocean as our extreme blessing. To me that side was a means to end - we had an opportunity to celebrate this divine planet, as so I jumped on it.

 

I was also inspired by Walt Freese, Ben & Jerry’s CEO, whose dedication to social innovation and creative enthusiasm is a key element of their corporate mission. Their support of PDA is an example of their efforts to raise awareness of Peace One Day, a non-profit organization that promotes World Peace. 

 

Everything I do involves a cause-related initiative and to have impact requires marketing, even if only with 1 person telling 1 friend who tells 1 friend and so on and so on. If each hand is holding the next, together we share something ... and that unity is divinity -- the opportunity for communities to blossom.

 

 

Well, I’m a quasi-robin hood in this department and can easily call myself a hypocrite, constantly playing devil’s advocate on this subject. It isn’t necessary to have money to create greatness, but Art gets better with time and money. Art has the capacity to elevate and illuminate and is invested with multiple possibilities to attract investment that can generate a great experience, which in turn generates more interest. It’s a necessary and symbiotic relationship.  Art Basel Miami is the prime example as it invigorated the cultural landscape and proved a lucrative draw for the local economy.

 

 

We must reconnect with the space we inhabit, such as the ocean, and this piece about peace with respect to ecology inspires accountability. We must consider the land we live in, the water that we swim in and we will share our capacity to nurture and further the potential for nature to survive.

PDA demands that we engage physically and consider this giant body of water and celebrate her - that we consider our footprint and our potential to change the way that we have neglected and abused her. The trash on the shore revolted me and it was an exercise every day, I was spending half an hour a day removing Kraft cheese slices and McDonald’s bags from the beach shore, and just simply couldn’t justify our visiting Miami annually as part of the international art patronage pilgrimage without making a contribution.

PDA will inspire others to host flash mob style groups and hopefully aquatic disco activities to raise awareness and funds for ocean cleanup. Be it ‘Ecomb’, the ‘Dolphin Foundation’ or ‘Surfrider’ it’s important that we all contribute. Together we will and can make a difference. This human public Art Sculpture became a reminder of what we can accomplish as a team, together. The piece about peace was to celebrate peace one day.

 

Great architecture looks to nature to invite reconsideration within our lifetime and space. It is the reason I adore sculpture as an urban intervention: questioning reason, our human footprints and design.

 

I have been lucky to be introduced to mentors like Rosa Delacruz who opened my mind and the role of Art with the works of Artists like Felix Gonzales Torres and - this combined with Walt Frieze only affirm to me that my ethic is my aesthetic.

 

All images courtesy of Natalie Kovacs.