Recently my father and I visited an art gallery which was exhibiting, from my perspective, some fairly safe, unchallengeable art objects. He, seeming a little lost, asked a few questions, so I tried my best to provide a little context to help him out. A quick crash course on abstraction, neo-expressionism, Bay Area figurative, “Bad Painting,” etc. and we left the gallery. I guess this all left a sour taste in his mouth, and a week later he rang me up late night while I was out having drinks. He asked me, “where were all the artists who were making work for the common person, those who don’t have degrees in art?” I replied something along the lines of, “they lived 1000 years ago and have paintings of flowers or landscapes in the museums. They are all dead.”

I was dead wrong. They are alive and in the streets. One of them, specifically, is alive and in our own streets, Kensington’s own Lee Tusman.

Tusman has created an art practice which has no limits. Whether it is creating, curating or directing, his DIY (Do It Yourself) projects always remain fresh. His work is not intended to be framed on a wall or set on a pedestal, rather it is meant to move and breathe organically in ways that directly engage with a community. Mobile tea carts, traveling arcades, and pirate radio stations are Tusman’s paint and clay.

Tusman’s projects appear to employ the same language as Nicolas Bourriaud, an influential French thinker and art critic, with terms like open-ended, DIY, social engagement. Bourriaud is credited with solidifying Relational Art a multidisciplinary art practice which asks the viewers to directly engage in the work and become the art. One can even notice similarities been Tusman’s work and artists who operate under Bourriaud’s umbrella, such as artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, known for his DIY free soup kitchens set in galleries. A recent project from Tusman, titled “HOT TEA,” was a year long mobile tea cart which travelled through the Chinatown North neighborhood providing free tea and a whole schedule of community programing, ranging from music events to yoga sessions.
Tusman’s projects are designed to bring people together. Tusman’s DIY, socially conscious practice administers a heavy dose of audience participation, highlighting human interactions rather than the self. Tusman is essentially shifting his role of the artist from alchemist to the stimulus for social interaction.

On Sun., September 21, Tusman brings us Philadelphia’s first ever “FLOW” festival at the Fairmount Water Works. According to Tusman, this unique event will emphasize “art, science, technology, and also participation, and the idea that we can build our world creatively.” Tusman’s own contribution to the festival is an organ crafted from simple technology and buckets of water, which viewers can interact with throughout the festival. Along with Tusman’s organ, various participatory events and performances are scheduled through the festival, culminating with a dramatic light show, expected to be a poetically moving homage to the power of the river.

I recently had a conversation with Tusman about his work and the upcoming “FLOW” festival:

Scott Cooper: You were born and raised in Philadelphia from what I understand.

Lee Tusman: Yeah, I’m from Philadelphia. I’ve lived in a bunch of different places. I was born in Manayunk, lived in Overbrook, I’ve lived at the main line, I live in Kensington.

SC: Do you think that living and growing up in Philadelphia has affected your practice or aesthetic?

LT: I think that for a while I have been focused on creating artwork that’s based on place and that has a social engagement component. I guess it’s artwork that’s based on specific communities. I would say that the work I have been doing the past couple years is heavily dependent on the spaces I’m working in.

SC: I was looking over your portfolio and there are all of these different things you do. It seems that you keep bouncing around from creator, programmer, curator, educator and editor. Would you say there any other hats that you wear as an artist?

LT: I primarily think of myself as an artist and curator and I do draw distinctions between the two. I enjoy both conceptualizing an art project and thinking through all the public programs that go with it, in addition to writing about it, inviting other people to participate. I usually combine all those different task sets in the projects I work on. I’m interested in using new technology and finding new forms to present things democratically. I often work outside of traditional institutions, outside of major museums. I particularly enjoy working outside because you connect to a new community that way. I’m interested in a very democratic model that wide open and participatory as possible.

SC: You have your background in sociology?

LT: Yeah, I kind of created my own study in art and social change.  I think that may be why I do things the way I do.

SC: I can’t help but notice similarities between your work and those artists that were working under Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics. Have you drawn much influence from that camp?

LT: I think his work led to Social Practice and the idea of creating socially engaged community work and that has been very influential on my practice. There’s a number of curators, thinkers and artists working in that realm. In Philadelphia, this includes the curator Nato Thompson, the works of Creative Time and the art collective Temporary Services. There have been a lot of different kinds of thinkers and artists and curators that have directly influenced my work. I feel very much connected to and influenced by the larger Philadelphia arts community, which I think is in a unique place to work on some of these concepts. I’m a member of Little Berlin which is a collective in Kensington. There is a group of people based there that are actively interested in presenting artwork and thinking through how that work should both be presented to a community and work with the community.

SC: Can you speak a little about the upcoming “FLOW” festival? You are primarily the curator? What was the curatorial process like?

LT: I’m involved in two ways: I helped curate and I’m also one of the artist in it. I worked along with other people to help figure out the right artists and what kind of projects we want to present. I have a piece called “The Splash Organ,” which is a water based organ, almost like in the movie “Big,” where you can actually perform on this organ. The sounds are created when you strike water.

SC: Some of your previous projects tend to focus on mobility. In curating a festival, were there any new challenges presented to you?

LT: I think that what’s unique about this festival is that it is trying to create almost a new framework to get people involved. It’s working with the Fairmount Waterworks, but the projects are presented outdoors so, we have a little bit of that kinda pop-up and experimental feel. There are participatory activities that involve sound, playing music, listening, creating fish, etc. It is definitely trying to get people actively involved with the Fairmount Waterworks.

SC: Is there anything specific that you are hoping the viewers will take away from this experience?

LT: I think directly we want people to be thinking about water, about the Schuylkill River, about Philadelphia’s watershed, and about the part they play in it. But we also want people to have fun, to think through the different ways that they engage with water; their past experiences and future experiences with water; that it is an environment in a space that we collectively own; that we should take care of and have fun with.

Philadelphia’s first ever “FLOW” Festival takes place on Sun., September 21st 2014, from 1pm until dusk. For more information, visit http://fairmountworks.com/event/flow/.