LACE is pleased to present Mark Tribe: Port Huron Project, a series of video installations depicting reenactments of protest speeches from the New Left movement of the Vietnam era. Each reenactement took place at the site of the original speech and was delivered by an actor or performance artist to an audience of invited guests and passers-by.

Drawing upon traditions of political protest, civil rights, and public address, Port Huron Project reenactments traveled across the country and encouraged audience participation and dialogue. Employing actors and artists to restage these radical and historically monumental speeches, the project examines artists’ relationships with the roots of American democracy, and the way in which these issues are still relevant today.

“The goal was to use the speeches not just as historical ready-mades or conceptual-art explorations of context, but also as a genuine form of protest, to point out with the help of art how much has changed, yet how much remains the same.” – Mark Tribe

Last year, LACE teamed up with Creative Time and Mark Tribe to present Cesar Chavez's 1971 speech We Are Also Responsible at Exposition Park. The documentation of this performance and other Port Huron Project reenactments, including The Liberation of Our People: Angela Davis 1969/2008 and Let Another World Be Born: Stokely Carmichael 1967/2008, were later screened on campuses, in art spaces, and distributed online as an open-source media. Locations included Park Avenue Armory in New York City, the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, and MTV's oversized HD screen in Times Square.

With large-scale video projections, the upcoming installation at LACE will bring these reenactments to life within the exhibition space. This encompassing spectacle will allow viewers to step inside each scene and become a part of the reenactment audience. With evocative declarations and calls to actions, the video reenactments will allow audience members to experience the events that have undoubtedly shaped the world today.