"The moment when art and politics made each other more clever."

This quote describes what artist Margit Czenki set out to capture in a 1998 film that was inspired by the activities of German artist collective Park Fiction, but it is also an apt summation of the work in -- and spirit of -- "Groundworks: Environmental Collaboration in Contemporary Art." The exhibition is at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University.

Artist Laurie Palmer's "Oxygen Bar," a "mobile breathing machine" with oxygen produced by green plants during photosynthesis, is part of the exhibition "Groundworks: Environmental Collaboration in Contemporary Art" at Carnegie Mellon University.

"Groundworks" is an important show, not only because its subject matter has urgency fed by current geo-socio-cultural-political realities, but also because it challenges contemporary standards for the nature of art and role of the artist. Because of its significance, I'll address it in two columns, today concentrating on some of the approximately two dozen projects displayed.

Admittedly, such an exhibition may seem problematic to those who have not followed every twist and turn the art world has taken since realism began to blur beneath the brush of the Impressionists -- whose order was savaged by the Abstract Expressionists who were in turn vanquished by the Minimalists and onward through the rapid-fire developments of 20th century art. But entry to this realm is not as difficult as it may at first seem.

The displays, of necessity, only suggest the complexity of each project. To flesh one out entirely would require devoting all available space to it. This more democratic approach also serves as an introduction to the variety of such expression. Videos, computers and supplemental brochures offer the opportunity to delve more deeply into many.

The exhibition, which is both local and international in reach and includes established and emerging artists, was curated by Grant Kester, University of California at San Diego, and organized by Miller Gallery Director Jenny Strayer. It grew out of the long-running, Pittsburgh-based "3 Rivers 2nd Nature" project steered by artists Tim Collins and Reiko Goto.

First floor projects, which were curated by UCSD graduate student Patrick Deegan, are batched under the heading "New Media," and the thinking is as forward and inventive as the technology. Among artists exhibiting are Fernando Garcia-Dory, Amy Franceschini/Free Soil and Aviva Rahmani.

Garcia-Dory's seed bank Web piece decries the trend towards corporate-controlled "transgenic monoculture" and supports "agroecological initiatives" that share information freely. "Resistance has to be as global as capital."

Franceschini designed "Gardening Silicon Valley Superfund Sites" when she learned that 29 were in Silicon Valley, most contaminated by the manufacture of computer chips. Visitors' messages to CEO's and seed packets are scattered across these desolate landscapes via biodegradable parachutes.

Rahmani opens her presentation, "Hummingbirds in Situ," with the story of a small bird flying back into a flaming forest with a drop of water in its beak being decried by fleeing larger animals. "It's all I can do" is the response the bird gives.

In 1990, Rahmani bought a town dump on a Maine fishing island and over a decade restored it to a viable estuary. The action has since expanded to 20 international locations.

"All who resist global degradation and build hope are the world's hummingbirds," Rahmani writes.

Upon leaving, take the stairs, not the elevator, and spiral upward along "The Blue Trail Line," a beautifully designed, bluegrass- accompanied installation by Yutaka Kobayashi, Suzanne Lacy and Susan Leibovitz Steinman that lifts the visitor through the planning stages of an eco-tourism project for the town of Elkhorn City, Kentucky.

Exiting on three, one comes to "The 3 Rivers 2nd Nature Sand Mandala," inspired by those created by Tibetan monks but in the form of the Allegheny County watershed. The lustrous micro-world set against deep blue, the color of healing, emanates harmony, but a reading of the color key reveals ecological dissonance.

Its patient, somewhat ritualistic grain-by-grain realization by Goto marked the opening of the exhibition, and its ceremonial dismantling Dec. 11 will mark the close. The public is invited to the 11 a.m. event, which will release the mandala to its next cycle, Goto says.

Across the gallery, Laurie Palmer's "Oxygen Bar" plays off the trend that promises to succeed bottled water, combining carnivalesque performance with education about deadly serious issues such as public health, access to basics and land use.

Nearby, Walter Hood and Alma Du Solier display postcards, in tourist location-style racks, that conflate real, imagined and historic images of Braddock. Some, overlaid with the words "Save Braddock," are stamped and pre-addressed to Gov. Rendell -- the visitor just fills in remarks and mails.

Western Pennsylvania is also the subject of artists Constance and Tom Merriman, who consider the value of preserving the Hays Woods plot that was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery; Jackie Brookner, Stephanie Flom and Ann Rosenthal, who present a visionary timeline for an economically revitalized McKeesport; and seminal eco-artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, whose "Beware of Fecal Matters" suggests a solution to Braddock's Mon River effluence problem.

The show's zinger is the German collective "Park Fiction," which describes itself as "an internationally discussed art project, that managed to organize a public planning process." The goal was to preserve a river view site that was going to be obscured by development. Tactics included undermining opposition defenses with zany humor and providing participants multiple ways of engaging, such as producing "Infotainment" and "a telephone Hotline with answering machine for people who get inspired late at night." The successful results are also pictured.

Next Week: But is it Art?

"Groundworks" continues through Dec. 11. Gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (closed today through Monday). Admission is free. A catalog is $25. For information, call 412-268-3618 or visit 3r2n.cfa.cmu.edu/groundworks.

Nine Mile Run

On Dec. 2 and 3, the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association is holding a design workshop that will address the stream's Braddock Avenue entry to Frick Park. For information or to register, visit www.ninemilerun.org.

Kurtz update

Buffalo artist and professor Steven Kurtz, according to a recent e-mailing from the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund, has been released from pretrial supervision over objections from a U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor. He awaits a ruling on motions to dismiss his case.

Kurtz was arrested 18 months ago when police found bacterial lab specimens, used in his art projects, at his home during an investigation of his wife's death of natural causes. The FBI's continuing pursuit of charges has made his a global cause celebre in art and scientific communities.