Red Crossing, a project by Nick Tobier, Professor of the Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, was held on June 19, 2023, at the Magic Land Community Center, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, involving resident artists of Nomadic Red Corner International Artist Residency, workers of the community center and children from Uilastai area.
As described by Nick, “Red Crossing is a participatory public performance centered on a red walkway that can be lifted like a life-saving net allowing pedestrians to float a few feet above the ground. Red Crossing challenges the assumptions of human movement and flow through public space. It seeks to create physically and socially intelligent structures that facilitate cooperation, emotional release and transcend the expectations of urban geography and infrastructure as fixed”.
The children, who run through the red carpet described their experience “as if it was like a running in the cloud”, while participants, who hold the carpet said, “it was not easy to hold, it required common effort and solidarity”.
Nick initiated this project with Stamps Associate Professor Roland Graf and Jennifer Low. The project has been deployed at Somerset House in London (part of Now Play This 2022) The Museum of Textile and Industry, Augsburg, Germany (2021) The Winnipeg Design Festival (2020) and Formations, an exhibition of The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2019.
