BRIC partners with the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and the Fulton Area Business (FAB) Alliance to bring artist’s work outdoors, as part of BRIC’s Art Into Music exhibition

The "music of the city is free" was a poster project by visual artist Audra Wolowiec who translated this phrase into the dominant languages spoken in the different communities of Brooklyn. The statement was meant to draw attention to the fact that the city is filled with different sounds that together make a sort of “music” and soundtrack that is free to all. Translating the statement into different languages demonstrates that people’s definition of music and the idea of free are very different. Wolowiec worked with native speakers to translate the phrase  and there were often several options for translations (for example, the word free - in English there is just one word that encapsulates many meanings, other languages are more specific - free as in free of charge, free as in without boundary, free as in liberated, free as in a bird). There are a total of 15 different languages—English, Spanish, German, Romanian, French, Hindi, Korean, Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Italian, Bosnian, Polish, and American Sign Language.

Wolowiec’s project can be seen as part of the "Art Into Music" exhibition, on view through April 27, 2014 in the gallery at BRIC House.  There, Wolowiec has created posters placed two stacks with the statement “the music of the city is free” hand-written in English and Spanish and available for passersby to take. In addition to this exhibited work, BRIC has partnered with two neighborhood organizations, the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and the Fulton Area Business (FAB) Alliance to install these posters on the exterior walls of businesses in the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill areas. For these installations, the posters will be hung with the dominant language spoken in each community. The handwritten sentences will be screen printed on 18 x 24 inch sheets of white paper and posted as a single poster or in a series, as works best. The size of the installation can vary based on the location. The installation can stay up for as long as the partner desires, at a minimum, through April 2014.

Audra Wolowiec’s the music of the city is free posters were installed in the following locations:

• Dollar Deal - 635 Fulton Street at Rockwell Place, in the Ft Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn.

• John's Donut & Coffee Shop - 481 Myrtle Avenue at Hall Street, in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn

• Ruthie's - 560 Myrtle Avenue at Emerson Place, in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn

• Der Schwarze Kölner - 710 Fulton Street and Hanson Place, in the Ft. Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn

• Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center, Inc. - 650 Fulton St. at Fulton Place, in Ft. Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn

For more information on Audra Wolowiec and her work, visit the artist's website. 

For more information on the "Art Into Music" exhibition, click here. 

Special thanks to the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and the Fulton Area Business (FAB) Alliance for helping to make this project possible.