In 1917, Marcel Duchamp submitted a piece of artwork to the Society of Independent Artists in New York City, to which any artist paying six dollars was meant to be accepted.

The piece was a urinal with the signature R. Mutt inscribed on it in bold heavily gestured black handwriting.

As expected, the piece was never exhibited.

Duchamp then wrote an open letter and had it published in the journal The Blind Man, denouncing the exclusion of the piece. By doing so, he paved the way for an art practice that focuses more on ideas and less on commerce; more on dialogue and less on didacticism; more on voice and less on object.

He created a conversation that involved the viewers and the energy that is intricately tied into the creation and dissemination of a work of art.

It can be argued that the conversation became more important than the artwork itself, challenging the existing paradigm and shifting consciousness about the role of the artist, the patron, the observer, the curator, the reporter, the recorder and everyone in between.

It is in Duchamp’s spirit that we open this forum of conversation about the role of creative practice in shifting the world’s consciousness.

Welcome!