Join the De-Tourism Center and rework the circuits of bucolic tourism!

Join the De-Tourism Center and rework the circuits of bucolic tourism!

Organized by Nato Thompson

Calling all miscreant mailers, drunk walking tour guides, peripatetic
monster truckers, wayward window displayers, hand-me-down postcard makers,
failed theme park conceivers, bad news bumper sticker makers, and all ye who
just have their doubts about the tourist economy….

Cultural tourism has been heralded as the saving grace of post-manufacturing
towns, but what exactly are people touring? What is worth seeing and what
isn't? Why would one travel three hours to feast ones eyes? What role do
artists have in these efforts and what roles are boring? "What," asks the
Detourism Center, "is interesting about touring?" And maybe even more
importantly, who wins, who loses, who is worth looking at and who isn't? The
Detourism Center is unorthodox in that it isn't interested in booming
economies or pragmatic functionality. It won't get you from here to there
and it won't necessarily find you the best vacation package. From field
guides for divining water to alternative maps for finding love in North
Adams, the Detourism Center is almost mystical in its anti-intuitive,
pro-meander methodologies.

The Contemporary Artists Center is a small humble non-profit located in the
foothills of the Northern Berkshire Valley in Western, Massachusetts. Just a
stones throw from MASS MoCA, this benevolent art space and artist residency
consistently produces great low budget exhibitions that at this point are
contributing to the expansion of radical and formal history. Be a part!

Send proposals to:

The Contemporary Artists Center
189 Beaver Street
North Adams, MA 01247