Date: Saturday, 26 July 2008
From: David Medalla – Director of London Biennale
To: Mary Sherman – Director of TransCultural Exchange, Boston
Subject: Here is a true story of three small strokes of good luck

Dear Mary Sherman,Warm greetings!
Here is a true story of three small strokes of good luck.
The three small strokes of good luck are:
1. Yesterday morning (Friday, the 25th of July 2008), from my home in Bracknell, Berkshire, England, I went in search of materials for my coming exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in November 2008. During my morning explorations, I met a handsome young man from Goa, India, who helped me find the art materials I need. He will oversee the making of the sign for my art project. The sign will read simply: ‘MUSEE DU LOUVRE’.
2. In the early afternoon at the public library in the town of Slough (so unfortunately named, and so maliciously insulted albeit ironically in a witty poem by John Betjeman, a former poet laureate of England, nevertheless a town, Slough, which today is truly multi-cultural with inhabitants of diverse ethnic roots), I opened my inbox in the computer there, and, by a happy chance, I read your E mail about the Trans-Cultural Event at Saint Pancras station in London. I decided that there will just enough time for me to go from Slough to London to attend the event, and so, after a short phone call to Marko Stepanov (the grand facilitator of the LONDON BIENNALE), I took the Green Line bus to London.
3. I arrived at Saint Pancras station at 6 p.m. I reconnoitred the entire interior of that vast re-modernised train station. Towards 7 p.m., I went to the Champagne Bar. I waited there untill a quarter past seven. Then I went down the escalator to the ground floor of the train station and waited there for another quarter of an hour. There was no sign of the artists from Trans-Cultural Exchange. I decided to reconoitre once more the other side of the train station, towards the main entrance, and there, at the foot of the stairs I observed two gentlewomen, one holding a camera and the other holding horizontally a bamboo stick about a meter long unto which several small transparent plastic bags were tied like festive buntings. I asked the two gentlewomen if they were from Trans-Cultural Exchange. They replied, “Yes”, and introduced themselves: Lesley Strange and Nancy Waters. They brought with them the bracelets (inside the transparent plastic bags) created by the Trans-Cultural artists you mentioned in your E-mail. I was glad that I found them, for I already had the vague feeling that my trip to London might end up like an episode from the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about Evangeline and Gabriel, the Accadian young lovers who were driven from their home, were separated, and missed each other several times before finally reunited, after so many years, when they had grown old. So, finding the pair of Trans-Cultural Exchange artists was my third small stroke of good luck last night. The “bracelet-giving project” is a wonderful project: beautiful and mysterious, a joyful way of ‘joining’ strangers across many divides. From the bracelets on offer, gratis, I selected a bracelet made by Thomas Matsuda of the USA. I also selected for Adam Nankervis, London Biennale’s international coordinator and the founder/director of MUSEUM MAN, a bracelet made by Victoria Hanks of the USA. All the bracelets were unique and all were beautiful works of art. Thank you, Mary, and please thank for me all the Trans-Cultural Exchange artists who made the bracelets. Thank especially Lesley Strange and Nancy Waters. I invited them and their friends (and, bien sur, all the Trans-Cultural artists) to the Finale of LONDON BIENNALE 2008 next Saturday, the 2nd of August 2008, from noon to sunset, during “Long Shore Drift” curated by Katie Sollohub, on the beach below Concorde 2, at Brighton, Sussex, England. Kindly forward this message to Lesley and Nancy and to all Trans-Cultural Exhange artists.
I look forward to seeing you in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, next year during the Trans-Cultural Exchange conference.
All the best from David Medalla

Date: Thurday, 24 July 2008
From: Mary Sherman | TransCultural_Exchange
To: David Medalla
Subject: TransCultural Exchange Participates in the London Biennale 2008

TransCultural Exchange Participates in the London Biennale 2008 The international, artists-run TransCultural Exchange is pleased to announce their inclusion in the 2008 London Biennale.
Reviving the off-the-wall exhibition format of their initial participation in 2000, TransCultural Exchange is staging a show in which none of the works are on the wall and all of the works will be given away for free. For this year’s Biennale – in honor of the London Biennale’s opening in Paris – the group’s exhibition will be found on their audiences’ wrists. Each participating TransCultural artist has made a unique bracelet that will be given to those who come to St Pancras Railway Station at the foot of the Champagne Bar at 7:00 pm on July 25, 2008 to pick one up and ‘exhibit’ it whenever they wear it thereafter.
These one-of-a-kind artist-made bracelets will be given away (for free) on a first-come, first-serve basis. No strings attached. The give-away is coordinated in London by Lesley Strange and Nancy Waters. The bracelets have been made by the following artists Gulay Alpay, Mikki Ansin, Caroline Anderson, Ilona Anderson, Ruby Barnes, Theodore Cantrell, Chien Yin-Ju, Bonnie Clark, Dorothea Fleiss, Audrey Goldstein, Victoria Hanks, Ho Ming-Kuei, Terry Jenoure, Doris Kloster, Peter Lindenmuth, Thomas Matsuda, Naveed Nour, Pan, Ping-Yu, Klaus Postler, Amy Sanford, Anne LaPrade Seuthe, Mary Sherman and Mirjana Ugrinov. Come early to avoid the crush.

Images and a description of each bracelet is available here.
http://transculturalexchange.org/expo_london_08_fr.htm

For more London Biennale 2008 information..
http://www.londonbiennale.org/

About TransCultural Exchange
TransCultural Exchange is an artists-run, international organization dedicated to bridging divides through cross-cultural, interdisciplinary art projects, forums and exchanges in order to address the needs of today’s increasingly interdependent, global society. For two decades TransCultural Exchange has been working directly with artists, arts organizations, foundations, museums and cultural centers in more than 60 countries staging award winning, critically acclaimed projects.
For more information please visit: www.transculturalexchange.org

STAY TUNED: TransCultural Exchange’s 2009 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts will take place at the Boston Omni Parker House Hotel, April 3-5, 2009. Be there.
http://www.transculturalexchange.org/conference_2009/overview.htm

TransCultural Exchange
Mary Sherman
Director of TransCultural Exchange

TransCultural Exchange
516 East Second Street, #30
Boston, Massachusetts 02127

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