It is that time of the year again – yes, it's Halloween and, if you're in search of something unusual for tonight, check out the Critical Halloween party organized by Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. The events have been going since 2011 and have so far tackled a variety of themes - Luxury, I-Relevance, Corporate-AvantGarde and Banality.
This year's theme - Holes - promises to be particularly intriguing and can be interpreted from different points of views. The event takes place at the Museum of Sex (233 Fifth Avenue, New York), but the theme can be explored from the physical point of view as well as from the architectural perspective.
Holes appear to be made of nothing, but there is a lot of activity happening around, inside, and through them, they therefore involve issues of matter and space. Architecturally speaking holes can be interpreted as the windows or the doors in a building, or as accidental perforations that may open up in different areas of a structure from the ceiling to the floor or the walls.
And while science may point us to black holes, and therefore to space and to unknown dimensions, by digging holes in the ground we may discover secret tunnels, ancient civilisations or even our own history (remember the excavation project by British designer Paul Cocksedge who literally dug holes into his studio floor and then made furniture pieces with the excavated material).
Then there are the holes we can't see, like the ones in our memories that may end up erasing the most cherish moments we stored in our minds, or less vital holes, like those ones that open up in our socks and clothes and that too often we don't know how to mend because we have lost the skills to do so or we are simply too lazy to do it.
Apart from a live set by DJ Mapquest, an open bar, and the possibility to explore the Museum of Sex's current exhibitions and installations, guests will be able to join an intellectual debate and, as usual, take part in a costume competition with judges that will vote for Best Individual Costume, Best Duo/Couple Costume, Best Group Costume and Best Overall Costume, while online voting will determine the People's Choice award.
The best thing about Storefront's Critical Halloween parties remains the inspirational bibliography accompanying all the events: apart from being useful for people who are looking for costume ideas, it also gives the chance to readers to discover inspiring texts and volumes.
This year's bibliography includes books about the presence/absence dichotomy and volumes about anthropology, philosophy and ontology, tackling themes and issues such as matter, removal, and nothingness. So there is the proverbial something for everyone going from books about golf holes to a crime, punishment and redemption children's story about a boy in a detention center where kids spend their days digging holes; from texts about voids to essays about George Bataille, volumes about Vitruvius, and an investigation on the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception.
Do holes really exist? Find your answer tonight at Storefront's Critical Halloween, but, if you can't take part in the event, go through the bibliography, pick up your book and ponder a bit about how to fill the temporary or permanent holes in your lives or simply rejoice at the liberating power of holes.
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