Putting On A Protest (You Pick The Topic)

· An installation called "America's Grave," a symbolic burial site for the nation, by artists John James Anderson and Randall Packer. According to the artists, the United States died on Jan. 20, 2005, the day of President Bush's second inauguration. Packer will deliver a eulogy on Saturday night.

Packer, an assistant professor of multimedia art at American University, helped organize the event; before Van Tomme moved to Washington from Brussels, Packer connected him with the Washington art community. Van Tomme had read Packer's 2001 book, "Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality," in film school. He moved to Washington last summer to be with his wife, a research assistant at the National Gallery of Art.

"The link with Randall was very important for me when I was moving to Washington," Van Tomme says. "I knew there was somebody who was like-minded."

Van Tomme has elaborate reasoning behind Multimediale besides filling what he sees as a void of political art in Washington. He wrote a three-page treatise on the theory behind his curatorial decisions and how they fit into the landscape of contemporary art, titling it, "THIS EXHIBITION IS MORE THAN JUST A SHOW!"

"At this specific time in history at this specific geopolitical place, it's time for something more relevant than the fetish of technology," he wrote. "Which way to go with the 'new media' that we have been exploring?"

Van Tomme discovered art when he was 14 and a fan of the seminal noise-rock band Sonic Youth. He also remembers a radical contemporary art exhibition in Brussels that opened his eyes to the avant-garde.

"He has a tendency of intellectualizing everything, even stuff that is popular entertainment," said his wife, Sonja Simonyi. "He's always looking for quality. We religiously watch 'The Wire' and 'The Sopranos,' but he would never watch something that he considers bad."

As for the protests on demand, there's still time to submit ideas at http://www.floatinglabcollective.org. But don't bother raging over antibacterial soap; protest organizer Edgar Endress said that someone from Maryland already submitted a request for a protest to "stop this hyper-hygienic madness."

Multimediale runs at various locations through Sunday, including Provisions Library, 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. 202-299-0460. See http://www.multimedialedc.org for a complete schedule of events.