Open Corridor & Drive Thru Symphony: Culture to the NAFTA Highway
Canada’s busiest international border corridor was transformed into a drive-thru art gallery this summer by the University of Windsor’s Green Corridor. From June 18 to September 23, 2009, the Open Corridor Festival featured outdoor public art exhibitions, events and performances along the area identified as “the Green Corridor,” on Huron Church Road between College Avenue and Assumption High School.
The Drive Thru Symphony, which premiered on September 23, 2009, was a site-specific, real time installation and performance work that incorporated sight and sound while integrating vehicle traffic and drivers into a collaborative event. The stream of live sound from the musicians and the traffic was also broadcast over CJAM 99.1fm’s airwaves as it happened, encouraging contributions from those driving through the performance. Pictured above, students power instruments, lighting, and sound equipment by riding bicycles.
Featuring the work of ten artists with connections to Windsor and Essex County, the Open Corridor Exhibition, which opened on June 18, 2009, found public art installations, performances, and interventions at the edge of the NAFTA highway. Images from the exhibition are featured below, while a catalogue of the entire festival is currently in the works.
Auto Light by Kim Adams.
Ecology by Iain Baxter&.
Talking Trees by David Blatherwick.
Galileo by Noel Harding.
Wilt by Lucy Howe.
You Are Worth It by Justin Langlois.
Cooler Columns by Zeke Moores.
Border Bookmobile by Lee Rodney.
Corn Car by Rod Strickland.
Ear by Robert Weins.
Inside Outside Ecologies by Jennifer Willet.
The Open Corridor Festival was made possible by the generous support from the University of Windsor, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, Festival Tents, Tom Gray Building Centres, UB Welding, and CJAM 99.1fm.
