Jaume Plensa’s “Echo” is a prime example of the innovative public art program in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
One Madison Ave. at 23rd St., twelfth floor
Monday, May 18, free with advance RSVP, 9:00 am
www.madisonsquarepark.org
One of our favorite places to experience public art is in Madison Square Park, where the Mad. Sq. Art program has featured site-specific works by Antony Gormley, Alison Saar, Roxy Paine, Rachel Feinstein, Leo Villareal, Shannon Plumb, Jim Campbell, and so many others over the years. On May 18, the park will host a morning symposium, “Explaining Public Art,” in the One Madison Ave. building, starting with a welcome from Madison Square Park Conservancy board chairman David Berliner, executive director Keats Myer, and Parks Department director of art & antiquities Jonathan Kuhn, followed by an introduction by senior curator Brooke Kamin Rappaport. Beginning at 9:15, eight Mad. Sq. Art participants will make presentations: Richard Deacon, Orly Genger, Paula Hayes, Mel Kendrick, Jaume Plensa, Jessica Stockholder, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Teresita Fernández, whose new installation, “Fata Morgana,” is being installed right now for a June 1 opening. At 10:30, there will be three panel discussions, one on “Site” with Bill Fontana and Charles Long, moderated by Ariella Budick; a second on “Medium,” with Sandra Gibson, Luis Recoder, and Villareal, moderated by Phong Bui; and a third on “Public,” with Feinstein, Plumb, Bill Beirne, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Jacco Olivier, moderated by Robin Cembalest. The symposium concludes with a keynote conversation between Bloomberg Philanthropies arts program head Kate D. Levin and Ford Foundation president Darren Walker. Admission is free, but advance RSVP, is required. New York City just wouldn’t be the same with public art, so this should be a fascinating way to gain insight into its creation and development.
In 1979, Iranian protestors took fifty-four American embassy personnel hostage. However, six diplomats managed to escape, secretly protected by Canadian embassy official John Sheardown and Ambassador Ken Taylor. Producer-directors Drew Taylor (no relation to Ken) and Larry Weinstein take viewers behind the scenes of what became known as the Canadian Caper in Our Man in Tehran, the real tale that lay behind Ben Affleck’s Oscar-winning thriller, 
At the beginning of Know How, graffiti-style words announce, over shots of the Manhattan skyline at night, “We are a group of foster care youth. We came together to change our lives and communities. We wrote and performed a musical based on our lives. We adapted our musical into this film.” Now, before you stop reading this because you figure this will be a self-serving, melodramatic vanity project made by a bunch of kids extolling a social cause, you need to understand something: Know How is a gripping little gem, a smart portrayal of the based-on-fact real-life problems experienced by underserved minority youth in New York’s foster-care system. The film, written (with the five main actors) and directed by Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza (Second Skin), follows Addie (Niquana Clark), Marie (Ebonee Simpson), Megan (Claribelle Pagan), Eva (Gabrielle Garcia), and Austin (Gilbert Howard) as they deal with sexual abuse, crime, drugs and alcohol, bullying, death, treatment centers, education, and the Administration for Children’s Services. They have battles with parents, grandparents, teachers, administrators, police, and lovers, facing turning points that will change their futures forever, from choosing to steal to trying to get into college. Made in conjunction with 
Masako Kobayashi’s ten-hour epic, The Human Condition, based on a popular novel by Jumpei Gomikawa, is one of the most stunning achievements ever captured on film, and you can catch it all this weekend at the Museum of the Moving Image. Shot over the course of three years, the film follows one man’s harrowing struggle to never give up his humanity as he is dragged deeper and deeper into the morass of WWII. Tatsuya Nakadai is remarkable as Kaji, a man who believes in common decency, personal discipline, and, above all else, that humanity will always triumph. In the first part, No Greater Love, the steadfastly practical Kaji is hesitant to marry his sweetheart, Michiko (Michiyo Aratama), for fear that he will be called to serve in the Japanese army and might not come back to her alive. But when his detailed plan to treat workers fairly is accepted by the government, he is made labor supervisor of a mine in far-off Southern Manchuria, where hundreds of Chinese prisoners are brought in as well — and regularly starved, beaten, and, on occasion, brutally killed in cold blood. Kaji’s methods, which have close ties to communism, leading many to refer to him as a “Red,” anger both sides — the Japanese want to treat the workers like animals, and the Chinese prisoners don’t trust that he has their welfare in mind. A series of escape attempts threatens the stability of the labor camp and comes between Kaji and Michiko, whose undying love is echoed in the yearning, unfulfilled desire between a Korean prisoner and a Japanese prostitute. Broken promises, lies, and betrayal reach a tense conclusion that sets the stage for the second part of Kobayashi’s masterpiece.
