En Vitesse: Fallen Fruit

"Public Fruit" is the concept behind the Fallen Fruit, an activist art project which started as a mapping of all the public fruit in our neighborhood. We ask all of you to contribute your maps so they expand to cover the United States and then the world. We encourage everyone to harvest, plant and sample public fruit, which is what we call all fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots.

We believe fruit is a resource that should be commonly shared, like shells from the beach or mushrooms from the forest. Fallen Fruit has moved from mapping to planning fruit parks in under-utilized areas. Our goal is to get people thinking about the life and vitality of our neighborhoods and to consider how we can change the dynamic of our cities and common values.

-Fallen Fruit is David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young

The first of Fallen Fruit's many projects I heard about were the above mentioned neighborhood Fruit Maps - Delineating which trees/fruits (and seasons) are fair game to harvest in many Los Angeles neighborhoods (including Larchmont, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Claremont, Mid-Wilshire, Hancock Park, Sherman Oaks, Santa Fe...) Nocturnal Fruit Foraging tours led by Fallen Fruit guides are another way to ease into the practice of picking from people's trees, which could seem a little like, well, stealing?

"We meet a lot of residents when we stop in front of their houses with flashlights, shopping carts, bags and fruit pickers. They are usually happy to see us and offer to let us pick more fruit inside their properties. Its rare, at least in LA, to find people who actually use much or even any of the fruit growing on their properties. The mission of FallenFruit is to change that."

Fallen Fruit recently took their inquiry into the political, social and cultural significance of fruit global with a residency in Colombia, and beginning June 16 will open their first solo photography and video installation exhibit UNITED FRUIT examining the banana and its reign as the world’s most popular fruit. The exhibit will include a participatory performance “Are You Happy to See Me?” (ah hem), involving a mountain of 300 bananas which attendees are encouraged to interact with and photograph themselves "playing with this often comical or suggestive fruit."
Go bananas.LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)
6522 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028; 323.957.1777
http://www.artleak.org/
Wednesdays through Sundays : June 17 - September 27
Opening reception: Tuesday June 16, 8pm - 10pm
Photos via www.fallenfruit.org