Version>07

Last year, the NFO EXPO at Bridgeport’s Iron Studios was a superfun science fair–meets–art show part of Version. This year, the expo takes place in the vast basement of the nearby Zhou B. Art Center. “So it is literally an underground art fair,” says organizer Edmar Marszewski. The expo, which runs Saturday 28 and Sunday 29, will bring together a host of art-activist groups and small art spaces like Green Lantern, Polvo, ThreeWalls and Will Work for Food. They’ll show their stuff and entice viewers into some participatory action. 

But the Version folks have grown up this year, going as far as becoming a proper nonprofit organization and working out of a permanent space at 3219 South Morgan Street that Marszewski called the Co-Prosperity Sphere. It sounds like something the Unity Church would come up with, though no less goofy than ARTropolis. “The thing is, we have been calling our space by a different name every month,” Marszewski says. The Sphere will be home to a promising group show, “We’re Rollin’, They’re Hatin’,” while the expo will share space with a photo show curated by Jon Gitelson and Brian Ulrich chronologically mislabeled “The 43rd Annual Versionfest Photographic Invitational.”

Having a space of one’s own to luxuriate in rebellion is only thrilling when it’s a spot to retire to after creating some sort of ruckus. Naturally, targeting the fairs proved irresistible. Version’s Friday 27 free event, “Art War” (also called the “Carnival of Art on the River”), will take place outside the Mart at 6pm and includes all sorts of public-art action, including a mock “navy” (with a modest flotilla of three to six boats), a “Roman phalanx with catapults” and a mass pillow fight involving at least 100 people.

Wounded art soldiers will retire to Sonotheque (1444 W Chicago Ave) at 9pm for the Art War After-Party.—Ruth Lopez

NFO EXPO burrows in this weekend at Zhou B. Art Center (1029 W 35th St at Morgan St). For more information, see lumpen.com/VERSION7.