Get Dirty Like Bismarck

Filed under Game, projects

Event Information

Artist: David Felix Sutcliffe + Joe Dobkin

As a tribute to the 417th anniversary of dirt and dirty things, we will be leading guided tours of its capital, Williamsburg. Participants will get very dirty and then get semi-clean.

Curious and noble and indecent men and women and other things have willingly let sludge touch their delicate epidermises since the dawn of time. Whether it was Rousseau in his gutter quests for dirt enlightenment, or Napoleon’s historic Napoleonic swim across the Gowanus in 1432 to conquer the Aztecs, or Archimedes discovering the alchemy of filth in late night jam sessions with Joan of Arc at Union Pool, filth “ no, wait, grime “ wait, no, muck! “ has held a special place in mankind’s intertwined rabbit hearts.

On this, the 400th anniversary of muck, we invite all clean-cut, well-dressed, finely-groomed, superbly-coifed (and slightly disheveled) members of society (and the rest of us) to come jump in the mud-puddle, climb the ketchup tree, and taste the trashcan. On this eduFUNctional tour, we will not only become visibly and aromatically repulsive to our friends and loved ones, we will dig through Williamsburg’s superficially windexed history of stains, unearthing myths, rumors, mistruths and muffled whispers regarding our land’s long legacy of eww?

Adventurers will experience firsthand the interlocution of skin, scum, and soul that begs the questions such as “What happens if this gets in my eye?” and “Why are some people always dirty while others always seem to be clean?” Together, we answer these questions and more, while getting completely filthy, in the venerable tradition of Walt Whitman, Stephen Hawking, Oprah Winfrey, Jeb Bush, Paul Newman, Paul Simon, and Mobutu Sese Seko. (All participants will be cleaned with a garden hose after the tour.)