Rob Bliss wants to fill the skies of downtown Grand Rapids with paper planes and music.
The young Facebook impresario - who has lured thousands to downtown GR for pillow fights, zombie walks and electronic music - is announcing his next free event at a press conference this morning. It's on a larger scale than his previous events and will also be an entry for the ArtPrize contest, he told REVUE in an exclusive interview.
For 30 minutes on Sunday, Sept. 27, Bliss plans to launch 100,000 brightly colored paper airplanes from the rooftops of downtown GR buildings, while people on the street below sing, play, hum and whistle the melody from an obscure song by the Icelandic post-rock band, Sigur Ros.
Bliss says he is working with the City of Grand Rapids to shut down Monroe Avenue between Fulton and Michigan for 90 minutes beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 27. He’s also received permission from many of the building owners along Monroe to launch paper planes from their rooftops. He's reached out to the GR Symphony and other local musicians to perform, but really wants average folks to come downtown and sing or play an instrument.
“Basically, I just want to create this massive event of color and music and this joyous celebration of life and strangers coming together and accomplishing this together,” Bliss told REVUE. “It’s just going to be a beautiful moment in our history that I think is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
The event won’t be the first time that Bliss, a music student at GR Community College, has brought people together downtown for an artsy event. In April, his “Chalk Flood” event attracted thousands of local residents who drew on the streets and sidewalks of downtown Grand Rapids.
Bliss says he dreamed up the Artprize event five months ago while sitting in his living room, listening to the song "Olsen, Olsen" by Sigur Ros, whose music is dreamy and ethereal.
“I’ve always wanted to do an event where I rain something down on people from above, and I knew I wanted to do something with [paper] planes, but didn’t know how I was going to do it,” he says. “Last April, I was sitting in my living room, playing that song. I heard the melody, and it just clicked. It was just like a very euphoric moment…and I thought, I must do this by any means possible.”
For the past five months, Bliss has been meeting with the City, building owners and other downtown groups to pull together the logistics of the event. He says he's taking great precautions to make sure it comes off safely.
The only people launching planes, for example, will be close friends and family members. Bliss says he’s devised a safe way to launch the planes that will keep people away from the edges of the rooftops. When asked about the potential danger of people, particularly children, being struck in the eye by a plane as they look up at the soaring exhibit, Bliss paused thoughtfully, and then said: “Yeah, I mean that would suck. Maybe I can fold the planes in a way that makes them not so pointy.”
The decision to enter in Artprize was driven by his respect for the contest and all it’s doing for downtown Grand Rapids, rather than the money, he says.
“I was inspired,” he says. “These guys are really pushing the envelope and limit as to what’s happening in Grand Rapids. If it’s their best, what’s my best? What can I do to take myself to the next level?”
Because he's entering the event as an Artprize entry, Bliss couldn't tap some of the resources that he's worked with in the past. So he's been handling details by himself and financing it out of his own pocket. Bliss says he's been putting in 30-40 hours a week lately on this project, and by the time it's done, he'll have spent six months working on it.
"It's crazy to work for half a year on something that will be over in half an hour,"he says. "It's like climbing a mountain and the 30 minutes you get to stand on the top and take it all in. It's very breathtaking and that's what it's going to feel like when I get to stand on Monroe and see thousands of people playing my favorite melody as this beautiful thing is happening all around me. It's going to be crazy."
For more information on the event, check out The Rob Bliss Events on Facebook. And be sure to read the September issue of REVUE for the real story on Rob Bliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment