BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Screening of "Maintenance Artist" X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T102204Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_52710872123020 DTSTART:20260501T210000Z DTEND:20260501T220000Z DESCRIPTION:The Department of Philosophy\, University of Pittsburgh and Mi norities and Philosophy (MAP) Presents\n\n   “MAINT ENANCE ARTIST”\n\n  A film screening\n\n USA\, 95 minutes\, 2025\n\n  Free and open t o the public\n\n Doors: 5:00 pm\n\n Film Screening: 5:30 pm\n\nJoin us at the end of this semester for a movie screening at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. This event is hosted by the Philosophy Department in cooperation with its MAP (Minorities and Philosop hy) chapter. We are excited to show you a one-time only screening of Maint enance Artist\, the highly rated documentary by Toby Perl Freilich. It is a story about the life and art of feminist artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Her highly acclaimed artwork has challenged notions of care and art. In li nking care work\, cleaning\, and sanitation\, she interrogated how we valu e maintenance work and how this valuation is linked to gender\, class\, an d race. \n\nPlease join us and share the event broadly.\n\n\nSYNOPSIS\n\nA fter becoming a mother disrupted her career as an artist\, Mierle Laderman Ukeles published a daring manifesto: from now on\, all her acts of childc are and household maintenance would be performance art. The Manifesto prop elled Ukeles into the 1960’s avant-garde\, a largely male scene that pri zed the solitary creator but scorned those who “keep the dust off the pu re individual creation.”\n\nRecognizing that this devaluation of care wa s systemic\, Ukeles began scaling up her maintenance revolution to include collaborations with the often invisible cleaners and guards who care for museums — poking at the concealed hierarchies embedded in the white cube space. In 1977\, in a move that would radically reframe public art\, Ukel es was invited to establish an unprecedented artist-in-residency at the NY C Sanitation Department\, where she championed a demeaned but essential cl ass of workers within a vast urban system.\n\nSet during the impassioned s ocial and artistic upheavals of the late 20th century and using newly digi tized archival footage\, Maintenance Artist is the story of an artist who raised maintenance to an art form and became a force in contemporary art.\ n\n \n\n \n\nCRITICAL ACCLAIM\n\n“Forty-six years after she embedded wit h the Sanitation Department\, Ms. Ukeles’s populist convictions\, her be lief in the dignity of labor\, her wariness of feminist art committed narr owly to liberating women from the male gaze speak with a power to the tens ions between class and gender politics roiling the country right now.” - The New York Times\n\n“One of the most anticipated films of the 2025 Tr ibeca Festival. Riveting and long overdue.” - Filmmaker Magazine\n\n“A visually explosive portrait of a one-of-a-kind creative.” - NBC New Yor k\n\n“A fascinating look at an undeterred feminist and advocate for the working class who constantly defied such easy labels.” - Documentary Mag azine\n\n“‘Maintenance Artist’ Highlights Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Radical\, Caring Approach to Public Art.” - Colossal\n\n“Through Ukele ’s works\, the definition of art is blurred and becomes a multidimension al instrument to examine human nature. From showcasing motherhood to sanit ation workers\, Ukeles transformed what art could be and who it could high light.” - The Torch\n\n“Whether you’re a fan of experimental art\, s ocial practice\, or simply intrigued by how creativity can infiltrate the bureaucratic machinery of city life\, this documentary is a must-watch. It serves as both a tribute and a testament to how one woman’s practice co ntinues to shape conversations around care\, community\, and the creative potential of labor.” - StupidDOPE\n\n \n\n \n\nBACKGROUND\n\nUkeles pion eered the notion of care as an artistic ethic\, anticipating political and cultural questions that remain cutting-edge to this day. In linking child care\, cleaning\, and sanitation\, she interrogated how we value maintenan ce work and how this valuation is linked to gender\, class\, and race. By challenging the romanticization of the lone\, white male genius artist\, s he helped expand the boundaries of an exclusive art world to include more women and low-paid wage earners. She has been a leading artistic voice exp loring such urgent issues as unchecked consumerism’s catastrophic impact on climate change. Maintenance Artist traces art’s radical revolution i n the mid-20th century\, upending millennia of tradition. Decrying art’s over-commercialization\, artists asked whether art should even have mater iality. Should it separate itself from society at large\, enshrined in mus eums? Who controlled those museums? Why did men dominate the avant-garde a genda? How should artists use their work to resist growing environmental d evastation? What is art altogether? Ukeles was in the vanguard of this deb ate.\n\nRooted in Second Wave Feminism and the Land Art movement\, Ukeles ’ work advocates for conservation\, ritual\, cooperation\, and decelerat ion over modern valorizations of innovation\, individualism\, and speed. I t warns of impending climate disaster if western societies continue to sin gle-mindedly promote consumption and rapid disposal at the expense of pres ervation. Ukeles’ genius is her ability to get us to consider the mundan e in new ways\, to move us from thought to action. Maintenance Artist hera lds her vision for a radically more equitable society. GEO:40.441525;-79.950906 LOCATION:Frick Fine Arts Building\, 125 - Auditorium SUMMARY:Screening of "Maintenance Artist" URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.pitt.edu/event/screening-of-maintenance-arti st CATEGORIES:Screenings END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR