Open Lecture - Kuba Szreder Archaeologies of the Public: insights into the Polish public sphere
A lecture about the historical development and current shape of the public sphere in Poland; an archaeological study of the Polishpublic sphere, its specific cultural, politicaland discursive context. How does public life organize itself outside of the historical experience of core capitalist countries?
Date: Wednesday 24th February 2010, 17:15 to 19:00
Location: Lecture Theatre Chelsea College of Art & Design (Atterbury Street Entrance) Our third collaboration with TRAIN, and part of the research for Parade: Being in Public
Pawel Althamer, Micol Assaël, Stano Filko, Diango Hernández, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Július Koller, Robert Kusmirowski, Goshka Macuga, Joanna Malinowska & Christian Tomaszewski, David Maljkovic, Aleksandra Mir, Deimantas Narkevičius, Otolith Group, Tobias Putrih, Jane and Louise Wilson
How was the future imagined under Communism – and why is that vision so important to us today? These are the questions that Star City, named after the USSR’s secret cosmonaut training base, sets out to explore.
It features the work of leading artists who grew up in the former Eastern Bloc and have emerged as international artists during the last decade – Althamer, Kusmirowski, Macuga, Mir. Star City also includes leading figures of the Eastern and Central European avant-garde from the 60s and 70s – Filko, Kabakov, Koller - together with other leading contemporary Western artists who have worked behind the former Iron Curtain – Jane and Louise Wilson, Otolith Group.
The 60s Space Race was a fierce propaganda battle between communism and capitalism, as much as a technological competition. Space in all its manifestations – technological, political, imaginary - is an important part of Star City.
Pawel Althamer’s record of his “alien’ explorations, together with the golden clad fellow residents of his Soviet-style apartment block in Brodno, Poland, includes an “expedition” to Brasilia, the massive, modernist Post-War capital of Brazil. Look out for lost golden space people around the exhibition.
Downstairs in The Space you can explore the innards of Mother, Earth, Sister, Moon (2009), an enormous homage to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space and the deity of our exhibition, here fallen to earth with what looks like a thud. Futuristic fashion shows will be staged inside her. The spiritual aspect of space exploration, tapping into an older Russian religious mysticism, are further explored in Aleksandra Mir’s collages of religious icons, coupled with Cold War space ships.
The exhibition also contains real objects and propaganda of the period, including USSR Space Race posters, a life-size replica of a Sputnik, space food and a collection of Polish space toys.
We aim to embrace the disagreeable, contentious, messy, inefficient, live, improvisatory and provisional nature of Being in Public. Debt bubbles have burst, markets have seized up and states have taken control of previously private financial institutions. Energy, resources and knowledge - formerly ‘public goods’ - are increasingly subject to restrictive property claims. An exploration of the interplay between Being in Public and private interests has never been so vital.
The Vietnamese Market at the Stadion, Warsaw
Parade will be hosted in in May 2010 at the Parade Ground atChelsea College of Art and Design, opposite Tate Britain. We are collaborating with Kuba Szreder, a freelance curator from Warsaw, on an international series of events exploring the contested and increasingly relevant topic of Being in Public or Publicness.
Parade will explore different conceptions of the Being in Public - historical, cultural, political, social, architectural and digital, as they are represented through the contrasting experiences of Poland and Britain.
The Showroom hosts an artist's talk by Rainer Ganahl in association with norn projects as part of the group exhibition Scapegoat Society at Guest Projects. Ganahl's work probes freedom of speech, censorship, and the relativity of truth in media representations of current events. He explores the outcomes of cultural prejudices and stereotyping, political bias and the danger of the increasingly repressive measures that protect ‘homeland security’ in the so-called ‘war on terror’.
Ganahl is concerned with communication and educational systems, the politics of learning, the production of knowledge and the political role of the intellectual in the modern world. A major part of Ganahl’s practice since the 1990s has been the study of foreign languages, including Arabic, Russian and Chinese. His interest lies in the social and political dimensions of language and the value systems that are inscribed therein.
Ganahl was born in Austria and lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work widely in an international context: at the Shanghai Biennial (2008); Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Moscow Biennial (2007); Seville Biennial, Bucharest Biennial (2006). He currently has a solo exhibition Dadalenin at MAK Museum, Vienna.
Rainer Ganahl is exhibiting as part of ‘Scapegoat Society’ curated by norn at Guest Projects, 1 Andrews Road, E8 4QL until 21 February. Guest Projects is open Friday – Sunday 12 -6pm. See www.nornprojects.org for more information.
This exhibition is the first major UK survey of Żmijewski's work and spans his practice from 2003 to the present day.
The exhibition includes the UK premiere of his recent project Democracies (2009), which records the free, public expression of opinion, in the form of gatherings and protests throughout Europe. There will also be a chance to see a video presentation of seminal work Repetition (2005), in which Żmijewski revisits the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, where volunteers are designated either as guards or prisoners and allowed to play out the situation, and Them (2007), which documents representatives from the different factions that shape contemporary Poland and the ensuing exchanges between them.
Artist Michaela Ross will explore how in certain forms of contemporary art we become active participants rather than passive viewers, in the context of the current exhibitions. Education Notes will be available on the evening and downloadable from the website thereafter.
Modern Art Oxford 30 Pembroke Street Oxford 0X1 1BP Tel + 44 (0)1865 722733 Fax + 44 (0)1865 722573
The Noit School was set up to study the theoretical ideas of artist John Latham (1921 - 2006), in particular his concepts of Flat Time and Eventstructure. The School’s reading group, the ’Know Source’, meets for detailed examination of Latham’s writings. This meeting will focus on his 1972 work Big Breather. The meeting will be attended by members of the Noit School and all are welcome.
Event in collaboration with Flat Time House, London.
Nowy Wspanialy Świat (former Nowy Świat cafe), ul. Nowy Świat 63
PUBLIC BODY - BARCAMP
events
Abraham Bosse, illustration from the first edition of Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" (1651)
Together with a group of theorists, researchers and artists from London we will examine the human-physical dimensions of public space. The meeting was initiated by members of Critical Practice (Marscha Bradfield, Neil Cummings, Michaela Ross, Cinizia Cremona).
I am currently artist-in-residence at the Essex Police Museum http://www.essex.police.uk/museum/ , part of a project 'Beyond the Frame' which encourages links between artists and museums to produce new work.
KENNINGTON PARK, LONDON Former common, site of the 1848 Chartist meeting and birthplace of People’s Democracy
JULY 5th 2009 chair to be taken at 2 o’Clock
To take into consideration the urgent issue of BEING IN PUBLIC
Likewise, and amongst many other things we will discuss: What is Public? What are public goods, services, art and servants? How are we to balance private interests and public needs? What is a public domain?
PUBLICAMP will use a BARCAMP structure. BARCAMPS are an international network of user-generated un/conferences — open, participatory workshop-events. THEY WORK LIKE THIS: presentations are proposed in advance [sign-up at http://www.criticalpracticechelsea.org] or on the day, by attendees. We then aggregate themed ‘sessions’. Every person is encouraged to present for at least 10 minutes to share knowledge and expertise.
An ongoing project that started in July 08, our Twin Cities project will continue when our building opens. Nottingham has some fascinating “twins” that include Karlsruhe, Minsk and Harare. We aim to develop partnerships with artists and communities in all seven. Artist Michaela Ross will be working first with an enthusiastic group of Nottingham public sector workers, who have developed genuine and productive friendships with their counterparts in Karlsruhe over many years – much of the inspiration for Nottingham’s tram and widely admired public transport system came from our German “twin”, for instance. Using the internet to communicate, we will be promoting cultural exchange, particularly with our Karlsruhe counterpart (name). The project will reinterpret traditional ideas of community arts, exploring genuine participation.
WilliamsonArtGallery and Museum, Birkenhead,
Wirral
VIDA! is a group exhibition celebrating the life, work and times of
Merseyside based artist and illustrator Emma Vida Stardust Burrows. Featuring
new works in collage by over thirty artists including James Ireland, Paul
Needham, Craig Andrews, Alison Jones with original artworks by Emma Vida
Stardust Burrows.
VIDA! is an exploration of an artistic community, connected through the
impact, influence and loss of a unique individual, Emma Vida Stardust Burrows
(1976-2004).The artists featured came
into contact with Emma in a variety of ways.Some were her tutors; others her artistic peers or mentors, many were
her friends.They are connected not
simply by knowing her to a greater or lesser degree, but by having been
indelibly marked by the experience. The exhibition explores close friendships,
casual acquaintances, work-related encounters and how one chance meeting or
opportunity can connect a seemingly disparate group.It creates an insight into a community of
people brought together not just through geography but through
association.
VIDA!is one
of the names that Emma re-christened herself, along with ‘Stardust’; a gesture
that is both intentionally humorous and glamorous, characteristics personified
in this young woman who lived with illness all her life yet refused to be
suppressed by it. VIDA!
is also a word that encapsulates life itself; it is an exhortation to live life
to the fullest, as well as remember a life that has passed. The exhibition
therefore evokes the wider themes of life: friendship, love, loss, memory,
inspiration, passion and determination.
All the artists invited to take part will create a new work in the medium of
collage, a method of working that Emma used throughout her career. As in Emma’s
practice, ‘collage’ here is defined in both broad and
conventional terms; it can encompass traditional cut-out and glue methods,
sculptural assemblage or digital editing. The work of the invited artists will
be shown alongside Emma’s own; ultimately VIDA!will be a visually rich, salon hang exhibition, mixing established artists
with emerging practitioners that captures some of the creativity and dynamism
of Emma Vida Stardust Burrows.
The
exhibition will be documented in a limited
edition catalogue with proposed essays by Lewis Biggs (Artistic Director,
Liverpool Biennial), Adela Jones (artist) and Marie-Anne McQuay (curator, SpikeIsland).
During
the period of exhibition the show will also be punctuated with artists’ talks
and hands-on workshops as part of a wider education
and interpretation programme.
The
exhibition will be project managed by Naomi Horlock (formerly Tate Liverpool)
with additional curatorial support from Clarissa Corfe (Castlefield Gallery)
and Marie-Anne McQuay (SpikeIsland).
ARTISTS
The artists who have been invited to take part encountered Emma in
a number of ways; some through meeting as peers and working on the first
Liverpool Biennial 1999, others through Young Tate where Emma worked as mentor,
others through more disparate routes. The exhibition therefore brings together
Emma’s own generation, born 1976/7, with both older and younger practitioners.
It also mixes: artists who are established in the wider art world (James
Ireland, Paul Needham, Peter Blake*, Amanda Wood, Alison Jones) with those
whose practice is private rather than public; artists who are North West based
and artists based elsewhere in the UK and abroad; those whose practice is fine
art based and those who work across other disciplines (architecture, illustration,
film making, animation, writing). The ‘hang’ will therefore further blur these
boundaries and decisions will be made on an aesthetic basis rather than through
pre-determined categories. This will allow formal relationships to be made
between individual pieces and for Emma’s own work to once more be seen as art
on its own terms, rather than documents of a life lost. It is anticipated that
more than thirty artists will take part, including the following, artists that
are either based in the North West
or initiated their careers from the region:
Craig Andrews, James Ireland, Anitha Darla, Michaela Ross, Paul
Needham, Ray Carney, Vincent Lavell, Sherilyn Hughes, Alison Jones, Adela Jones, Amanda Wood, Rebecca Reid, John O’Neill, Debbie Goldsmith,
Martyn Lucas, Ross Clark.
* Peter Blake will be invited
to take part – hemet Emma when she led
workshops at Tate Liverpool and was an
important influence on her practice.
For
more information on VIDA!, please
contact Naomi Horlock: 0788 436 1846 or naomihorlock@yahoo.co.uk
What is a vocabulary? First, it´s something that everyone has. Second, it´s something that everyone works with. Third, it´s a toolbox of concepts, which we use in order to position ourselves, move, and make sense within the world. Fourth, it´s always in the language of someone, or a group of people. Also, it´s to do with the voice; it allows us to become vocal. It´s that through which we articulate what we do, how and why we do it. It´s where a concept meets a practice.
CRITICAL PRACTICE http://criticalpracticechelsea.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page is taking part in the event Disclosures at Gasworks http://www.gasworks.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.php?id=344 Disclosures is a multi-faceted project that looks at the
manifestations of Open Source methodologies in fields of cultural
production outside of the internet. Openness – or its technological
underpinning, Open Source – here refers to situations in which the
viewer, reader, listener or internet user becomes emancipated through
egalitarian participation, collaborative authorship and/or the breaking
down of hierarchical and social boundaries. DISCLOSURES Fri 27 March-Sun 18 May 2008
'Collection Connections' was a project with artists and teachers exploring the Towner Collections. The project will result in an exhibition and the development of resources.
http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/leisure/museums-galleries/towner