Driven by What's Inside

Inspired by 10-day-long traffic jams in China, devastating oil spills in the gulf, the “end” of the Iraq war, and fatal off-road races in the Mojave desert, Driven by What’s Inside was an outdoor performance and cinema event that reconsidered the role of the automobile in contemporary society. Mann curated the event that brought together artwork by ten national and international artists.

The evening brought together recent performance and video work by Vera Brunner-Sung, Ecstatic Energy Consultants Inc. in collaboration with Elana Mann, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Alexa Gerrity, Joseph Imhauser, Noah Klersfeld, Julie Lequin, Benjamin Love, Susan Mogul, and Carlin Wing.  The event was hosted by Side Street Projects, a non-profit run out of solar-powered mobile homes.

These artworks undermine the banality and brutality of the automobile by any means possible whether through psychedelic road-tripping, FM radio talk-shows, or love songs. Mann presented Driven by What’s Inside as a way to deepen explorations in her own work related to cars, driving, and war. This event is the second in a series for Mann, in which she attempts to redress her grandfather’s involvement in the Manhattan Project by creating a “peace bomb” with other creators and thinkers.

Ecstatic Energy Consultants, Inc. performance documentation (photo credit: Jean-Paul Leonard)
documentation of video screening (photo credit: Jean-Paul Leonard)
Julie Lequin, Car Talk, 2008, HD VIDEO, 8:00 min.
Diana-Sofia Estrada L.A. Killed My Truck, 2008, 10:00 min., two channel video
Noah Klersfeld, vehicles traveling in two directions behind a chain-link fence, 2009, 3:36 min.
Alexa Gerrity, Untitled (March), 2007, 37 sec.
Benjamin Love, Bring it on home to me, 2010, 36:01 min. (2:48 min. excerpt)
Vera Brunner-Sung, Hard Stares & Broken Mirrors, 2007, digital video, 6 min.
Carlin Wing, Traffic Patterns (v.II), 2010, 6min
Driving Men, 2008, 68 min., (5 min. prologue was presented in the program)
Joseph Imhauser, First United States Postal Service Airmail Pickup, Sedalia, Missouri May 18, 1938, 2009, 2 min., 8mm transferred to DV, Silent.
Ecstatic Energy Consultants Inc. in collaboration with Elana Mann, Powering the 22nd Century: A public service announcement, 13:54 min. trt, single channel HD video