A Generous Act: A collaboration with music.

The Mattress Art Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. 

Digital release. 

This project brought together a remarkably talented group of musicians from various geographical locations and a broad range of musical backgrounds to collaborate over a period of 16 days. During the first half of July 2010, the Mattress Factory converted the 4th floor of the museum into a practice area and fully functioning recording studio. The residency culminated in a performance and musical release of the music the collaborators generated during this period of time.

The participants in the projects responded to series of texts chosen by the curator including a text from The Gift by Lewis Hyde where Hyde suggests that Art has to be a gifting before it becomes a form of commodity.

Communal sharing 

The curator of this project, Mark Garry, has spent the past two years visiting Pittsburgh while undertaking a curatorial residency at the Mattress Factory. In addition to becoming more aware of Pittsburgh’s broad musical history, Mark became interested in the diverse group of remarkable musicians who work at the museum. Mark has invited musicians from Berlin, Dublin, London, and Brussels to collaborate with these musicians enabling a unique situation where the staff is directly involved in generating what is presented to the public.

This exhibition contains film documentation of the A Generous Act residency. By Israel vasques . A new film entitled Music was free by two of the participants Sean Carpio and Lucinda Chua was also part of the exhibition.. An archive of music by artists from Pittsburgh and/or created in Pittsburgh covers the gallery walls and two listening stations showcase a selection of this music.

Karl Burke (aka Karl Him), Daniel Bracken, James Broder, Slim Cessna, Sean Carpio, Eileen Carpio , Lucinda Chua, Nathan Hall, Nina Hynes, Simon Jermyn, Fabien Leseure, Benoit Leseure and Karla Stauffer