ISCP Talk
May 16, 2014

Open Engagement at ISCP: The Curatorialization of Activism in Art as a Neo-Avant-Garde

Since 2008 demonstrations have taken place across North America, Europe and the Middle East. Although these protests occurred for different reasons, they are a resistance to neo-liberalism. Artists have responded by participating in actions and embracing calls for change – are they implicit in this process of Institutionalisation, how does this relate to the neo-avant-garde? Organized by Michael Birchall and Megan Johnston, with presentations from Gregory Sholette, Elissa Blount Moorhead and Arthur Jafa on the theoretical idea of the neo-avant-garde and the practical nature of social practice and the political exhibition.

Open Engagement is an international conference that sets out to explore various perspectives on art and social practice, and expand the dialogue around socially engaged art making. In addition to the panel, ISCP’s gallery and selected resident studios will be open to visitors.

Advance registration required. More information here.

ISCP Talk
May 6, 2014

Panel Discussion: Minding the Law: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Art

With Elaine Byrne and Soda_Jerk, moderated by Alex Villar.

Artists Elaine Byrne and Soda_Jerk, are participating concurrently in ISCP and the Art & Law Program and for Minding the Law: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Art, they will speak about how their work engages the doctrines and structures of law on both practical and symbolic registers.

The Art & Law Program is a semester-long seminar series with a theoretical and philosophical focus on the effects of law and jurisprudence on cultural production and reception. An examination of how artistic practices challenge, rupture, and change the apparatus of law completes The Program. 

Elaine Byrne’s work questions how we should live, which has led to socio-historical, site-related projects made over several years. Her methodology is grounded in research and conversations as a mode to action, demanding a building of trust. Elaine Byrne graduated from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin in 2010.  Recent solo exhibitions include Raum, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin; Feralis, The Belltable, Limerick; Irish King of Mexico, Atrio Cultural Space, Mexico City; Message to Salinas, Oonagh Young Gallery, Dublin and They Have Eyes, Leinster Gallery, Dublin.

Soda_Jerk is a two-person art collective that works with sampled material to trouble formulations of cultural history. Taking the form of video installations, cut-up texts and live video essays, their archival image practice is situated at the interzone of research, documentary and speculative fiction. Formed in Sydney in 2002, Soda_Jerk relocated to Berlin in 2010 to participate in the International Studio Program at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. More recently they have been based in the US, undertaking residencies at Flux Factory in New York, and LoBot in West Oakland.

Alex Villar was born in Brazil, and is based in New York. He holds an MFA from Hunter College, and was a Whitney Independent Study Program fellow. His work draws from interdisciplinary theoretical sources (Foucault, de Certeau, etc) and employs video-based, performative actions, installation and photography. His practice concentrates on matters of social space and consists in engaging situations where the codes that regulate everyday activity can be made explicit. Selected exhibitions include the New Museum, Mass MoCA, Drawing Center, The Menil Collection, Art in General, Apexart in the U.S.; and many others abroad.

Participating Residents

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