Institute of Cultural Inquiry
| non-profit organization | |
| Headquarters | California, Los Angeles, United States |
|
Key people
|
Lise Patt (Director) |
| Services | ICI sponsors art projects, performances, exhibitions and publications |
The Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICI) is a non-profit organization located in Los Angeles, California. The ICI states that its mission is "to educate the public about the visual methods used in society to describe and discuss cultural phenomena." The ICI sponsors art projects, performances, exhibitions, symposia, and publications related to its major areas of interest, which include the AIDS pandemic, obsolete technologies, and marginal cultural figures.
The Institute of Cultural Inquiry has two long-running projects that address the global AIDS/HIV pandemic. For the AIDS Bottle Project, which began in the 1980s, the ICI creates unique glass bottles memorializing Americans in the arts and art-related fields who have died from complications due to HIV/AIDS. Each bottle has an individual's name and year of death etched on the glass and a short biography printed under the lid; the interior may be left empty or serve as a receptacle for personal memorabilia. The bottles have been publicly displayed at or outside such venues as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the New Museum (New York), and the New York Public Library. Afterwards, the bottles are given away free to members of the public.
The ICI's second long-running AIDS-related project is the AIDS Chronicles. For this project, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2003, the front pages of the New York Times are collected. Then these pages are painted over in dark red, leaving visible only information pertaining to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. On World AIDS Day, the ICI displays the prior year's pages, creating a visual record of the ebb and flow of attention to the subject on the part of one of the most influential newspapers in the United States.
In addition to sponsoring such projects, the ICI houses some permanent exhibits as well as an archive and a library that are open to the public by appointment. Among the permanent exhibits are:
In 2011, the LA Weekly, in its annual "best of Los Angeles" issue, listed the Institute of Cultural Inquiry as "best place to figure some shit out".
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