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Arts & Entertainment

Local, International Artists Party, Prepare for a Trip Down the Ganges River

Over 300 people partied until sunrise in a Bed-Stuy loft to support the art project, "Swimming Cities"

Swimming Cities, a yearly collaboration of both local and international artists, is preparing for its latest adventure: floating down the Ganges River in India on a fleet of entirely homemade rafts.

But the project, called “The Swimming Cities of Ocean Blood,” first needs money.

Saturday night, they hosted a fundraising event called “Big Rock Candy Mountain: A Hobo’s Paradise” at the Chicken Hut, which perhaps is Bed-Stuy’s most notorious DIY space.

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It is an ad hoc event space that also doubles as a home and work space to some members of Black Label New York, a club known for its aggressive promotion of inventive bicycling.

The party's intent was to generate money to send a group of “artists, builders, and visionaries” to the foothills of the Himalayas. There, they plan to build a flotilla of moving art in the form of hand-crafted boats that "will traverse the Ganges river from Haridwar to the holy city of Varanasi," according to the group’s official website

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Swimming Cities’ vessels are made entirely of recycled parts, garbage, found objects, and just a general assortment of castaway oddities. On at least one ship, they plan to use a motorcycle to drive the paddle wheels. 

Being ecologically conscious is one of the project's main themes. “I looked around, asked myself, 'Am I really going to clear cut half of a forest to make an installation, is that really conscionable? And of course the answer is no,'” Swoon, the project's founder, told The New York Times.

The project smashes together Huckleberry Finn’s bare-knuckled adventurousness with ideas of urban reclamation and recycling. Sound crazy? They’ve done it before.

Swoon, a Florida-born artist now living in the city, first imagined the project in 2006.  That same year they floated down the Mississippi River. In 2008, she collaborated with Manhattan gallery Deitch Studios and sailed down the Hudson River and up the East River.

Soon after, they found themselves drifting along the Adriatic Sea at the invite of the Vienna Biennial, a major contemporary art exhibition held annually in Venice.

Conrad Carlson, aka resident DJ Dirtyfinger, collaborated with Swimming Cities to make the night truly memorable. Over 300 hundred youthful revelers partied the night away. Some could be found rocking out to local bands The Woes and Apocalypse Five & Dime.

While others could be found snaking their way through the “boxcar” lounge, in the stairwell filled with bright grafitti or on the roof, drinking to stay warm. By the early morning, the party had become one sweaty mass of movement.

“This party is just ridiculous,” Daniel Wilner, 27, said between sipping liquor from his flask, taking swigs of beer, and kissing a blonde-haired girl next to him.

The fundraiser didn’t end until after the sun had risen.

“7:30 am…. Chicken hut party is finally done. AMAZING AGAIN!” Carlson posted on his Facebook page. 

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