GreenBox @ Le Petit Versailles: A Vision for the Future in Present Tense

Curated by Juan Puntes

Assistant Curator Kaylie Pykkonen

New York City – For the past several Seasons, GreenBox@WBX, a program created for WhiteBox by Blanca de La Torre and Juan Puntes, has served as a platform for exploring and celebrating urban sustainability, reflecting on humanity’s environmental impact, and imagining more sustainable futures. This summer, GreenBox is partnering with Le Petit Versailles, a community garden nestled between Avenue B and C on 2nd Street, for a special exhibition, workshops, lectures, and screenings on May 23, 24th-25th.

Inspired by Blanca de La Torre’s original curatorial text and premises for GreenBox@WBX/ISLA, the exhibition will explore speculative future imaginings, featuring some previous key participants, with the addition of four new faces including Daniel Rothbart showcasing immersive sculptures that challenge our relationship with the natural world, alongside Yohanna Roa presenting her singular culinary native american foraging workshop, where she will prepare “Huexopantalxcali, the large tortilla of the green time”, using locally sourced herbs and edible grasses from the Lower East Side parks, riverside banks and gardens. Additionally, Noah Fischer will present his thought-provoking publications on urban sustainability and affordable housing, sparking conversation about the future of New York City. Borinquen Gallo participates with variations of her succinct workshop-performance “Knit In”, recycling various plastic detritus materials culled from our damaged urban environment.

Set in the open-air sanctuary of Le Petit Versailles, the exhibition will provide a vibrant space for connection, dialogue, and immersion in both art and urban nature. Visitors will engage with cutting-edge works while reflecting on the urgent challenges of climate change-today under attack and urbanization.

As we usher in the summer season, GreenBox @ LPV will celebrate community resilience and the power of imagination in addressing the climate crisis in our precarious urban midst. The exhibition aims to offer a hopeful vision of the future, inspiring both radical thinking and active solutions in an era of global environmental and spiritual uncertainty.

Join us at Le Petit Versailles for an immersive experience of creativity, conversation, and collaboration.

Amid installations, screenings, performances, and a hands-on workshop, artists explore the urgencies of the Anthropocene, urban ecologies in flux, and speculative futures still within reach.

Saturday, 5/24 Sound performance by Jesse Gelaznik, obsessed with Urban Environment sound in all of its forms, and address by artist talk with Daniel Rothbart with live poetry reading by Richard Milazzo, screenings start at dusk.

Sunday, 5/25, at 1PM / Performance and Workshop Brunch: Workshop with Yohanna M. Roa, add title garden brunch, and conversation with artists Daniel Rothbart, Noah Fisher, Borinquen Gallo, and Yohanna M. Roa, moderated by Juan Puntes, curator.

Live music by Jesse Gelaznick of Dirty Churches.

The garden is more than a backdrop—it’s a living participant, inviting you to gather, imagine, and act.

Participating artists:  sTo Len, Daniel Rothbart, Pato Hebert, Zackery Yao, Borinquen Gallo, Jaakko Heikkilä, Yohanna M. Roa, Stefano Cagol, Noah Fischer, Juan Zamora, Jorge Quevedo, Eugenio Ampudia, Dirty Churches, Jesse Gelaznik.

RUN OF SHOW: 

Friday, May 23rd: 

11:30 am starts Artwork installation by Borinquen Gallo, Noah Fischer, Juan Zamora, and others.

• Daniel Rothbart will set up a sculpture in a temporary pond by the wooden benches. 

Saturday, May 24th: 

         2 PM Zackery Yao will install 5-6 six-inch wood pieces throughout the garden

• Screenings on television and an artist talk with Daniel Rothbart
• Daniel Rothbart will project videos on the WBX provided flat screen, and will conduct an artist talk on his work

Dusk — screenings on the projector.

• Start with projecting slide show images: 
• Pato Hebert’s series In, If Not Always Of – on loop, can run for 10+ minutes (or adjusted to desired length)
• Jaakko Heikkilä’s variety of images from around the world — he has provided 100 photos — can be adapted for the desired runtime
• sTo Len’s film I Have Seen (10-15 minutes) 
• Eugenio Ampudis: Concert for The Biocene
• Dirty Churches screening 
• Stefano Cagol screening 

Sunday, May 25th

• Brunch: host a potluck starting around 11 (WBX can provide drinks and some food)
• Yohanna M. Roa will conduct a workshop (around noon) 
• Noah Fischer artist talk
• Borinquen Gallo workshop