SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts has invited more than 50 artists from around the world to devise proposals for political and social monuments for the United States of America. The proposals—including drawings, diagrams, maquettes, photocollages and written descriptions—will be displayed in "Monuments for the USA," an exhibition on view from April 7 through May 14 in the CCA Wattis Institute's Logan Galleries on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts.

Information and specifications for the proposed monuments will be available in the exhibition publication. An opening reception will take place on Wednesday, April 6, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The exhibition and reception are both free and open to the public.

Freed from contextual, budgetary or practical constraints, the proposals reflect each artist's ideas about the type of monument that the people of the USA need. The proposed monuments may address particular values or ideals, group or individual histories, and institutions or places. The nature of the hypothetical monuments, meanwhile, may be material or immaterial, permanent or ephemeral, practical or whimsical.

Proposals range from Elmgreen & Dragset's "Monument to Short Term Memory" and Michael Ross's "Monument to Small Change," to Xu Zhen's huge loudspeakers that would be placed on a mountain in Afghanistan and in a U.S. metropolis, accompanied by microphones allowing reciprocal swearing to be exchanged between citizens of the two countries. Other artists strike a more hopeful note. Aleksandra Mir calls for a pair of giant ears to be erected, one on each coast, as if to encourage the United States to have more awareness of what's happening in the rest of the world.

When asked how he came up with the concept for the exhibition, CCA Wattis Institute director Ralph Rugoff said, "I began planning this show last summer, largely in response to my distress over the political situation in the USA. It seemed to me that the United States has fundamentally changed, and that proposals for monuments would be an interesting way for artists to address the country's remodeled profile, along with the current direction, character and behavior of the citizens of what is arguably the world's oldest continuing democratic state. I was definitely not interested in narrow ideas of political art, however, such as works that would protest against specific events, like the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Instead, this project asked for proposals that could illuminate the broader, and contradictory, social landscape of the contemporary United States."

Featured artists in the exhibition include Allora & Calzadilla, Tariq Alvi, Edgar Arceneaux, Artemio, Robert Beck, Michel Blazy, Monica Bonvicini, Andrea Bowers, Fernando Bryce, Paul Chan, Adam Chodzko, Enrico David, Jessica Diamond, Sam Durant, Shannon Ebner, Elmgreen & Dragset, Meschac Gaba, Anya Gallaccio, Hans Haacke, Thomas Hirschhorn, Chris Johanson & Kal Spelletich, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Brad Kahlhamer, Barbara Kruger, Gabriel Kuri, Los Carpinteros, Ken Lum, Aleksandra Mir, Liliana Moro, Mike Nelson, Paul Noble, Yoshua Okon, Jennifer Pastor, Kirsten Pieroth, Paola Pivi, Marjetica Potrc, Tobias Putrih, Rigo 23, Matthew Ronay, Michael Ross, Santiago Sierra, Gary Simmons, Yutaka Sone, Michael Stevenson, Do-Ho Suh, Shirley Tse, Jeffrey Vallance, Mark Wallinger, Olav Westphalen, Xu Zhen, Zhang Huan and others.

Established in 1998, the CCA Wattis Institute serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of leading-edge local, national and international contemporary culture. Through exhibitions, the Capp Street Project residency program, lectures, symposia, performances and publications in the fields of art, architecture and design, the Wattis Institute fosters interaction among the students and faculty of California College of the Arts; art, architecture and design professionals; and the general public.