Northern Spark

You may want to take a catnap before embarking on a lively night of art activities and creative disruptions at the MIA, MCAD, and throughout Minneapolis. Northern Spark is an all-night arts festival that lights up Minneapolis this year on June 13–14.

The MIA is excited to present a special surprise #BDayMIA artist project in celebration of the museum’s 100th Birthday Year and debut a new accession to the collection for Northern Spark 2015!

HB2U: A Northern Spark Birthday Surprise
by Alyssa Baguss (9 p.m.–2 a.m., Target Wing, first floor)

Indulging in special things is at the heart of what makes birthdays so happy: tearing open beautiful wrapping paper, eating the corner piece of cake, and partying for the sake of your existence on this planet. In honor of the MIA’s 100th year, we’ve extracted the essence of birthday and trapped it inside a balloon for an experience like none other at Northern Spark 2015. Party hats, horns, and confetti provided. Sssssh: It’s a surprise!

Artist Alyssa Baguss’s practice explores mediated natural environments through drawing processes, interactive installation, and playful public programming.

Absolut Revolution: La Isla
by Liudmila & Nelson (9 p.m. – 2 a.m., Target Wing, first floor)

Join the revolution! And see the U.S. premiere of the haunting video installation Absolut Revolution: La Isla, by the Cuban artist team Liudmila Velasco and Nelson Ramirez. Drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol’s famous silent film of the Empire State Building, Empire, the artists focus their camera on an obelisk honoring Jose Marti, a writer and revolutionary who became a symbol of Cuban independence from Spain in the 19th century. Surrounded by water, the obelisk soars in isolation as a symbol of Cuba’s more recent political history, with the title and visual imagery a play on the Western advertising campaign for Absolut vodka.

Nelson Ramirez and Luidmila Velasco are a husband-and-wife artistic collaborative whose work has been featured at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Ramirez is also the director of the Fototeca de Cuba.