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The first essay by Leigh Biddlecome on Art Düsseldorf magazine as part of the series related to 'Sustainability in the Art World' exhamines the economic theory of 'degrowth' and how it can be adapted to the art world thorugh its redefinition by artists. In her essay Leight mentions different case studies, among them Decentralising Political Economies and the Asociación de Arte Útil. Full text HERE  I am delighted to be spending two weeks in residency as part of thankyouforcoming in the French Riviera!  I am deligted to be invited as curator in residency in Nice, France, by thankyouforcoming a platform to devise, produce and mediate art projects, connecting contemporary art, society and citizens. The first event organised by the director Claire Migraine is a one-to-one meeting involving the other curators that are in residency in December, Juliana Caffé and Agne Kolontaite.  The programme of this year 'Gathering on Rehearsing Hospitalities' (Oct 5>8 2022) focuses on practices that deal with the redistribution of power, wealth, and resources within the art field and society at large. Together with Gemma Medina, we will introduce the evolution of the Asociación de Arte Útil, its archive, and the selection of case studies on display. We will present examples focused on the redistribution of power, resources, and knowledge within and outside the artistic institutional sphere. The full programme is available here --- Co-curators of the Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities autumn 2022 programme include artist, curator and storyteller Farbod Fakharzadeh, LAPS – Live Art and Performance Studies at the Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki, artist Iida Nissinen and art educator Kaura Raudaskoski, and Steve Maher, producer of Pixelache (2019–2021) together with Mary Conlon, Artistic Director of Ormston House in Ireland. Contributors include Marwa Arsanios, Anastasia Artemeva & Arlene Tucker (Prison Outside / Free Translation), Federica Bueti, Birgit Ærenlund Bundesen, Florian Carl, Dahlia El Broul, Ida Enegren, Johanna Hedva, Sigrid Holmwood, Isa Hukka, K-oh-llective (Nada Elkalaawy, Engy Mohsen, Mohamed Al Bakeri, Soukaina Joual, Rania Atef), Pilvi Kalhama, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Kaisa Karvinen, William Keohane, Raija Koli, Eva Koťátková, Jenni Laiti, Anissa R. Lewis, Jemina Lindholm, Gemma Medina Estupiñán & Alessandra Saviotti (Arte Útil Archive), Massimiliano Mollona, Eoin O’Dowd, Paul O’Neill, Farid Rakun (ruangrupa), El Reid-Buckley, Anna Rieder, Sandra Ruiz, Ailie Rutherford, Station of Commons (Grégoire Rousseau, Minerva Juolahti & Eddie Choo Wen Yi), Anna Talasniemi, Minna Tarkka, Meenakshi Thirukode, Hypatia Vourloumis and Mike Watson.  The Arte Útil archive. Photo: Sheung Yiu, 2022
The Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt (INSTAR) in collaboration with the Asociación de Arte Útil, proposes two roundtables aiming at unpacking urgent questions gravitating around the notion of Arte Útil. Escaping any attempt to be framed as just an art project, Arte Útil could be understood as a movement, a praxis, a meta-artwork, a method to look at how art has been used as a tool in society to instigate change starting from the XX Century. The principles of Arte Útil have been extensively analysed and used by the Asociación de Arte Útil in collaboration with art & educational institutions around the world. Ultimately the goal of the Asociación is to research and put into practice ways for art to work effectively in ordinary life and to support new initiatives that might arise from practising its principles.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A “USOLOGICAL TURN”? lumbung member Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt (INSTAR) asks Is there such a thing as a “Usological Turn”? The panel will look at the concept of usership in art practices that potentially oppose the realm of spectatorship. The Usological turn seems to capture the dissatisfaction of artists whose works are not created just to be looked at in awe but situate themselves as part of a broader usership. INSTAR and their guests will look at how these practices welcome use, misuse, transformation, and repurposing, challenging old categories such as ownership, authorship, spectatorship, and intellectual property rights. GUESTS: Nick Aikens, research curator Van Abbemuseum Muhannad Al Ulaby, film maker and visual artist Trampoline House Tania Bruguera, artist and activist director of INSTAR Fernando Garcia Dory, artist INLAND Annie Fletcher, director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Stephen Wright, writer and co-director of the research programme document and contemporary art at the European School of Visual Arts.
TOWARDS AN ARCHEOLOGY OF ARTE ÚTIL Since its conception in 2013, the Arte Útil archive has become a steadily expanding collective tool for research and a resource for those interested in how art intersects with societal issues. Consisting of a growing database of around three hundred case studies that use art as a tool for change, it provides tactics, a historical perspective, and a nexus between theory and practice. Moreover, it functions as a platform to connect art projects and “users” from different geographies and disciplines. This event by lumbung memberInstituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt (INSTAR) explores paths Towards an archaeology of Arte Útil. GUESTS: Tania Bruguera, artist and activist director of INSTAR John Byrne, head of the Institute of Art and Technology at the Liverpool John Moores University Alistair Hudson, director Manchester art Gallery and The Whitworth Alessandra Saviotti, curator art educator and researcher Liverpool John Moores University I am really looking forward to be in Kassel in August 20 and 21 with friends and colleagues celebrating almost a decade of working on Arte Útil with Tania Bruguera and INSTAR. More info: Documenta15 INSTAR Asociación de Arte Útil   In the past months I have been invited for a chat about Arte Útil by Dania Shahkhan and Maha Minhaj who run Poiesis Social Art platform and by Stephanie Drawdy for her Warfare of Art & Law podcast series. Episodes are available here, enjoy!
 The city, the island. ATRII/Berlin is a project by Alice Pedroletti developed in line with the research undertaken at ZK/U – Zentrum Fur Kunst und Urbanistik in Berlin in 2021 with ATRII / Berlin.
I've contributed to the Zine as part of Alice's project with a Glossary of terms and an Epistolary. The Zine is divided into multiple parts and written in English, Italian, and German - the three languages used during her research.  Art Workers Italia - AWI I was invited as member of Art Workers Italia to the Masterclass Series on Fair Practiced and Fair Pay organised by Curatorial Studies at Kask, Ghent. The programme consisted in a series of sessions with cultural professionals from different backgrounds to share their experience in good practices, financial sustainability and fair treatment. The aim of these meetings was to observe and reflect on the labour conditions of art workers on both national and international level. This masterclass was intended as an opportunity to bring art workers together to examine the financial, legal and ethical conditions of the cultural ecosystem. Lecturers and workshops with: Alessandra Saviotti (AWI - Art Workers Italia), Margarita Osipian, Jesse van Winden (Caveat and Jubilee), Kunstenpunt. Full programme here  The Asociación de Arte Útil calls for the reverse of The University of Manchester’s decision to remove Alistair Hudson from his position as Director of The Whitworth. As an organisation that seeks to advance the principle of art to foster social change, we stand behind Hudson’s and the museum staff’s decision to welcome the statement of support to the Palestinian liberation struggle that Forensic Architecture added to their exhibition ‘Cloud Studies’ in the summer of 2021, and we condemn The University of Manchester’s capitulation to pressure from pro-Israeli government lobbying groups demanding disciplinary action against Hudson.
Hudson and the museum staff have been bringing together art, discourse, public engagement and civic action in innovative ways. Hudson’s career, which includes past directorships at Grizedale Arts and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, speaks for itself, and has been praised by peers and audiences alike. As he once put it, “I propose the institution as a testing ground for new cultural methodologies, responding to the specific urgencies of its context and positioning itself away from the uniform, globalised narratives of art history. This repurposing of the institution is carried out under the rubric and provocations of Arte Útil, offering a working, real-time model that applies the emerging principles of the decolonised and the post-artistic.” The University of Manchester’s intention sets a worrisome precedent for freedom of expression, and thus we join the other declarations in solidarity with Hudson that have been put forward around the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Museums, universities and, more broadly, institutions operating in the cultural field are spaces for debate and dialogue about the questions of our times, and while this does not often come without friction, it is imperative that it still takes place in the name of freedom of expression – whether artistic, academic or other – so that all voices can be heard. It is appalling that The University of Manchester is proposing to halt the continuation of Hudson’s work at The Whitworth. This would not only prevent the communities of Manchester and beyond to benefit from the museum’s useful practice, but would also be a massive loss for the entire cultural sector. Nihil Pulchrum Nisi Utile [nothing beautiful unless useful] - Nick Aikens, Curator, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Miguel Amado, Director, Sirius Arts Arts Centre, Cobh, County Cork, Ireland Tania Bruguera, Artist and activist, Director of Arte Útil Project, Harvard University John Byrne, Reader in the Uses of Art, Liverpool John Moores University Sebastian Cichocki, Chief curator, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw Charles Esche, Director, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Annie Fletcher, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin Owen Griffiths, Artist and Founder & Director, Ways of Working, Wales Jo Marsh, Artist and Creative Director, Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham, Wales Gemma Medina, Art historian and researcher, Eindhoven Meriç Öner, Researcher and exhibition maker, Istanbul November Paynter, Curator, Toronto Lucía Sanromán, Curator, Mexico City Alessandra Saviotti, Art educator and researcher, Liverpool John Moores University Alec Steadman, Curator and organiser, Struggles for Sovereignty, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Kuba Szreder, Lecturer and curator, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw Stephen Wright, Professor, European School of Visual Art, France Onur Yildiz, Researcher, Ankara Peter Zuiderwijk, Designer, Den Haag. |
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