ISCP Talk
April 27, 2014

Everywhere and Nowhere: Curatorial and Critical Ideas in a Cosmopolitan World

ISCP residents John Barrett-Lennard and Marianna Garin will convene a conversation on strategies for curatorial and critical practice within their own work, and in a world of hyper-mobility and transience. Just what is it that makes today’s world so different, so global—and what are its effects? How can we think about art and contexts for it in a world of flows and simultaneity? Is it possible to retain a sense of both the global and the local, to be both ever on the move and deeply situated in particular contexts—and is New York really the global center?

John Barrett-Lennard is a freelance art curator and writer. He has wide experience gained over nearly three decades, curating a broad range of innovative projects in contemporary art and art museum settings as well as in non-traditional and public spaces. He has been responsible for curating major national exhibitions, including the Australian pavilion at the Biennale of Venice and the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. As a gallery director he has led a major contemporary art space and two large university art museums. He initiated ARX, Australia’s first major exchange project involving Australian and SE Asian artists. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the art history program at the University of Western Australia. He lives and was born in Perth though completed much of his education in Canada.

Marianna Garin graduated from the International Curatorial Program at Konstfack College University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm. She holds a BA in Art History and Linguistics from Lund University. Garin is currently a curator at Gävle Art Centre within the Public Art Program in Sweden. She has worked for Lund Konsthall; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; IASPIS International Artists Studio Program (IASPIS), Stockholm and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection among others. She regularly contributes to a number of magazines and journals, artist monographs and catalogue essays. Garin recently curated the exhibition Individual Order for Karst, Plymouth UK, 2013.

Participating Residents

Open Studios
April 25–April 27, 2014

Spring Open Studios 2014

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) Spring Open Studios is a three-day exhibition of international contemporary art. The 36 artists and curators from 20 countries currently in residence present work in their studios. The studio is a generative space – part production site, office, laboratory and situation – and it can be argued that it is more significant today for artistic process than ever before. Open Studios invites the public to 36 “studio visits” to experience art in its place of origin and to share conversations with artists and curators from all over the world. Visitors will have access over the three days to international contemporary art practices in a studio setting as well as through an exhibition of moving image by artists from China.

Since 2011, ISCP has also hosted an institution-in-residence as part of Open Studios. This annual residency was initiated to support cultural exchange by bringing an international perspective into a local context. This year, ISCP has invited Video Bureau, a privately run, not-for-profit organization established in 2012 in Beijing and Guangzhou that focuses on video art. Over the course of Open Studios and through May 23rd, Video Bureau will be in residence at ISCP. New York-based independent curator Howie Chen, who travelled to China to research Video Bureau’s archives, will present an exhibition project based on this research.

Saturday, April 26th, 4pm: Panel discussion: On Video Bureau’s residency at ISCP with Howie Chen and Sue Hui, moderated by Xiaofei Mo

Sunday, April 27th, 4pm: Panel discussion: Everywhere and Nowhere: Curatorial and Critical ideas in a Cosmopolitan World with Marianna Garin and John Barrett-Lennard, ISCP resident curators

Artists and curators participating in Open Studios:

Thora Dolven Balke (Norway), John Barrett-Lennard (Australia), Javier Barrios (Norway), Maura Biava (The Netherlands), Melanie Bonajo (The Netherlands), Jenny Brockmann (Germany), Michel de Broin (Canada), Olaf Brzeski (Poland), Elaine Byrne (Ireland), Radovan Čerevka (Slovakia), Teng-Yuan Chang (Taiwan), Raimundo Edwards (Chile), Marianna Garin (Sweden), Michaela Gleave (Australia), Brett Graham (New Zealand), Manor Grunewald (Belgium), Terike Haapoja (Finland), Molly Haslund (Denmark), Toulu Hassani (Germany), Filip Jovanovski (Macedonia), Jacob Kirkegaard (Denmark), Viktor Kopp (Sweden), Anouk Kruithof (The Netherlands), Andrea Mastrovito (Italy), Gabriele Picco (Italy), Tobias Pils (Austria), Maria Rapicavoli (Italy), Richard Schur (Germany), Sonia Shiel (Ireland), Soda_Jerk (Australia), Asae Soya (Japan), Constantinos Taliotis (Cyprus), Axel Töpfer (Germany), Chun-Chi Wang (Taiwan), Andy Wauman (Belgium)

ISCP thanks the following contributors for their generous support:
Austrian Cultural Forum, NY; Consulate General of Finland, NY; Consulate General of the Netherlands, NY; Consulate General of Sweden, NY; Flanders House, NY; The Greenwich Collection, NY; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, NY; National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC; New York City Council District 34; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York State Council on the Arts; Quebec Government Office, NY; Royal Danish Consulate General, NY; Royal Norwegian Consulate General, NY

Opening Reception: Apr 25, 2014, 7-9pm
Download Open Studios Newspaper

Exhibition
April 25–May 23, 2014

Video Bureau at ISCP

Since 2011, ISCP has also hosted an institution-in-residence as part of Open Studios. This annual residency was initiated to support cultural exchange by bringing an international perspective into a local context. This year, ISCP has invited Video Bureau, a privately run, not-for-profit organization established in 2012 in Beijing and Guangzhou that focuses on video art. Sue Hui, Video Bureau’s archivist will introduce Video Bureau and Libreria Borges Institute for Contemporary Art to the public. The Poplar Tree and Mirror includes artists Huang Xiaopeng, Li Ming, Ma Qiusha, Zhang Peili and Zhou Tao, curated by Howie Chen.

As part of Video Bureau’s residency at ISCP, New York-based independent curator Howie Chen travelled to China to research Video Bureau’s archives, resulting in the exhibition The Poplar Tree and Mirror. Representing a cross section of three generations of Chinese video artists, the exhibition presents work from Video Bureau’s archives by Huang Xiaopeng, Li Ming, Ma Qiusha, Zhang Peili and Zhou tao. These works concern social causality in contemporary Chinese and global culture at large. Chains of events are set in motion everyday: a decision is made, an action performed, and the contingent effects are registered on others. How does one negotiate these effects, especially when transformative political and economic forces drive them? Planted in mass as an urban planning folly, the poplar tree and its ubiquitous snowy catkins covering Beijing every spring parallel’s Zhang Peili’s 30×30 (1988).  Once the tree is planted and the mirror is broken, the effects are both uncontrollable and full of monstrous beauty.

Video Bureau was initiated by Zhu Jia, Libreria Borges Institute for Contemporary Art and Fang Lu and aims to provide a platform to exhibit, organize and archive video art. The mission of Video Bureau is to collect and organize artworks of video artists in order to build a comprehensive and searchable database for researchers, students and collectors. As an institute open to the public, every two months Video Bureau features two artists’ video works, and hosts related events, such as artist talks, discussions and symposiums.

Saturday, April 26th, 4pm: Panel Discussion: on Video Bureau’s residency at ISCP with Howie Chen and Sue Hui, moderated by Xiaofei Mo

Opening Reception: Apr 25, 2014
Download Exhibition Catalog