From the 1960s through the 1990s, the East Village was home to punks, poets, and artists. Figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Jenny Holzer, David Wojnarowicz, and Jean-Michel Basquait were central to a vibrant cultural scene that rejected the established art markets and its institutions. Rather than seeking validation from traditional systems, East Village artists built their own infrastructure within a then-unloved and overlooked part of the city. Independent galleries, curators, and publications emerged, operating autonomously and redefining artistic production on their own terms.
The conceptual framework of this project began with the question: what does it mean to live close together? Investigations into making and dwelling, solitude and collectivity, ultimately materialized as two distinct spatial conditions: towers as machines for living and making, and a field as an open range where residents’ artistic practices expand, intersect, and evolve.
