Friday 13 May 2011
Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA)
2pm to 7pm

Programme

2:00 - 2:15	Introduction Katarzyna Kosmala, Jon Oldfield and CCA staff
2:15 - 5:15	Symposium Ryszard Kluszczynski, “Curating Art@ Science; curating Mediations: Reflections on the working in-between” Brendan Jackson, “Small world, isn’t it?”
5:15 – 5:45	Question and Answers Session
6:00	Drinks reception

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About the participants

Ryszard Kluszczynski is the Professor of Cultural and Media Studies at Lodz University, Poland and Head of the Department of Media and Audiovisual Culture. He is also a Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz.

He writes about the challenges of media and multimedia arts, cyber-culture, theory of media and communication, information and network society. He critically investigates the issues of contemporary art theory and alternative art. Until 2001, Kluszczynski was a Chief Curator of Film, Video and Multimedia Arts in the Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. He has curated numerous international art exhibitions. In 2010, Kluszczynski co-curated, Beyond Mediations, the main exhibition of The Second International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Poznan, Poland (mediations.pl). He is editor of Art Inquiry, a yearbook on contemporary art, and Cultural Studies Review.

Curating Mediations, curating Art@Science”, Reflections on the working in-between.

Ryszard’s talk will focus on two recent curatorial projects, discussing complex aspects of collaboration, exchange and the idea of transfers. He begins with the initial concept of the Biennale and ‘cultural exchange between Europe and Asia’, via collaboration with Tsutomu Mizusawa. He will explain how the concept of ‘cultural exchange’ has expanded, leading towards a sort of ‘controlled chaos’.

His most recent curatorial project deals with the question of relations between art and science. The project is expected to end in 2016. Ryszard will distinguish three different types of exhibition conceptualisation, dealing with art & science problems.

1. Placing art@science into the context of a general art exhibition.
2. Curating an exhibition purely devoted to art@science.
3. Curating exhibitions dealing with the history of art@science.

Brendan Jackson is an independent writer, producer and artist. Trained in visual communication, receiving a Fellowship in Photography at the Photographic Gallery,  Southampton University, under the stewardship of Leo Stable, and was part of the development team for the John Hansard Gallery.

For some 20 years he worked as an artist and developer of community arts programmes with Jubilee Arts, partnering with a range of statutory and non-statutory organisations to develop a wide range of projects where community engagement was paramount. Brendan produced the CD Lifting the Weight with Geese Theatre, which won the IBM Community Connections Award and a BAFTA. His interests encompass collaborative projects using photography and film, visual arts, oral history, writing and digital media. The aim of his work has always been to build a sense of community, using creative activities in everyday life. Brendan works internationally, with specific trans-national projects over the past decade with the Institute of Polish Culture at Warsaw University and the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, Poland.

Small world, isn’t it ?

Brendan’s talk will focus on community arts practice, which others might describe as socially-engaged practice or as cultural animation, based on exploring synergies between institutions, ideas and disciplines and - most of all – people. He will reflect on working across boundaries and borders, in multiple Europe’s, drawing on his experience of working with diverse groups of artists in a range of community contexts – exploring participation, collaboration, inspiration and serendipity. On the one hand, there is an ever diversifying and fragmenting ‘community of interests’ and on the other a drawing together and merging of interests that are cross-border and permeable. There is a role for the community artist in navigating these shifting cross-cultural tides, in re-imagining and sharing our practice. Brendan will draw on a recent programme, which was part of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. The project consisted of exchanges between three partners (based in Birmingham & Black Country in England, Bela Rečhka in Bulgaria, Sejny in Poland) and the development of wandering/travelling workshops, engaging with local particularities and peculiarities. The project culminated in the UK with an international symposium in April 2010, followed by the publication of a book We No Longer Talk in the summer.

For further information contact: Dr Jonathan Oldfield

First published: 1 May 2011