Helene Kazan

Spaces of Reckoning | Westminster University | Dec 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Interdisciplinary approaches to conflict and memory. A symposium at the University of Westminster – 3rd December, 2011.

Both Conflict Studies and Memory Studies have, in recent years, become of increasing interest across the Humanities and Social Sciences, as they generate compelling dialogues between fields of study and build on the interdisciplinary turn in contemporary academe. This event will create a space that will allow for two things: the development of opportunities for discussion across academic and cultural spheres and the inclusion of voices from outside academia that can provide new insight and potential empirical challenges to theoretical discussion. The event will gather together new researchers, and is especially designed to bring together individuals from disciplines that do not traditionally intersect. We are seeking interested participants from across and outside the academic spectrum to contribute to the creation of new and productive dialogues.

Schedule of events on 03 December 2011.

9:00 - 9:25: Arrival and Registration

9:25 - 9:30: Welcome and safety information

9:30 - 11:00: Law, Justice and Memory

With Chairperson: Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos  Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Audio-documentary : ‘The Language Gulf in the Shouting Valley’  Cristina Golomoz: ‘Transitional Justice at the Romanian Constitutional Court’  Peter Manning: ‘“Moving forward through justice”: Human rights, memory politics and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’

11:00 - 11:15: 15 Minutes Break

11:15 - 12:45: Spaces and Memorialisation

With Chairperson: Danilo Mandic

Aikaterini Gegisian: ‘Mother Armenia is distant: Memorialisation, National identity and Collective Memory in post-Soviet Yerevan’

Eray Cayli: “Architectural Memorialization as Narrativization of the Past in Sites of Post-coup Reckoning: the case of the Madımak Hotel"

Professor. Paul Miller: ‘Reckoning with the Great War: Remembering the Sarajevo Assassination’

12:45 - 13:25: 40 minutes - Lunch

13:25 - 14:25: Keynote Address

Professor Sue Vice : ‘False Memoir Syndrome’

With Chairperson: Tallyn Gray

14:25 - 14:35: 10 minute mini-break

14:35 - 16:05: Personal Subjectivity, Intergenerationality and Memory

With Chairperson: Marija Katalinic

Steve Smith: ‘Between Cultural Memory and Anecdote, Remembrance and Forgetting. An Artist's re-interpretation of a personal history of conflict.’

Merilyn Moos: ‘Learning to Remember’

Hannah Proctor: ‘ Virtual Iraq: War, Technology and the Post-Traumatic Subject’

16:05 - 16:20: 15 Minute Break

16:20 - 17:50: Contextualizing Representations of Memory

With Chairperson: Isac Petruzzi

Dr. Caroline Perret: ‘Confronting History: Jean Dubuffet’s Illustration of Eugène Guillevic’s poems "Les Murs" (1944-45)

Jette Gindner,‘Cross-mappings of the Holocaust, Colonial Genocide and Patriarchal Violencein Ingeborg Bachmann’s Unfinished Novel The Book of Franza’

Helene Kazan: Film: 'Masking Tape Intervention: Lebanon 1989' - Followed by discussion

http://www.spacesofreckoning.co.uk/

Open Shop: Artist Residency | Istanbul Biennial | Sept 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:38:00 +0000

Open Shop is an invitation to engage with a process of open discourse, exchange and research to make visible a very specific emotive relationship with the architecture of the home and the reasons that lead to a decision to migrate. The residency will explore a cross section of personal experience of contemporary human migration in Istanbul.

Drawing on her own encounter of moving from Lebanon to England, Helene Kazan’s practice uses developed film making techniques that investigate spatialised experience. ‘Masking Tape / Light Intervention: Lebanon 1989’, is generated from an archive photograph taken of her family kitchen in Lebanon before their migration to England. Involving a combination of model making, oral history and stop motion animation, the work presents the viewer with an emotive relationship with the architecture of the home. Defined by a conversation between her parents outlining the specific situation leading to migration.

The animation will be exhibited at The Architectural Research Studio Mars, near the ‘Open Shop’ in Cihangir, as part of Architectural Research Exhibitions Series 1: Crystal City. Opening on the of 18th September during the opening weekend of the 12th Istanbul Biennial. The film enables a theoretical framework and point of reference for the research undertaken during the residency.

The ‘Open Shop’ will function in two ways:

Firstly it is an open informal space, where visitors are invited to drop in to share and discuss stories or archive photographs of a departed home. Evoking a discourse and exchange with local and international communities in Istanbul.

Secondly using two purpose built screens in the large windows that create the ‘Open Shop’ space, it will function as an informal exhibition and public screening platform relaying the visual and oral research that will be collected throughout the residency.

Parts of the accumulated research will eventually have the same process applied as was cultivated for ‘Masking Tape / Light Intervention: Lebanon 1989’, to recreate and describe other homes and personal histories.

This residency is a collaboration with openvizor, a non-profit international arts and cultural platform and organization that brings together different people and skills from around the world to combine practical knowledge and research.

www.openvizor.com www.helenekazan.co.uk

Architectural Research Studio MARS. Architectural Research Exhibitions Series 1: Crystal City

Opening: 18.09.2011 18.00-20.30 Dates: 18.09.2011 - 18.11.2011 Tues - Sat 11.00-19.00

Address: No:10 Bostanbasi Cad. Galatasaray-Taksim.

Crystal City | Istanbul Biennial | Sept 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:31:00 +0000

Architectural Research Exhibitions Series 1 - Crystal City

Parallel exhibition to Istanbul Biennial

Opening Date: 18.09.2011 18.00-20.30

Dates: 18.09.2011 - 18.11.2011

Tuesday-Saturday 11.00-19.00

Concept and Organization by: Pınar Öğrenci

Artists: Şahinaz Emine Akalın, Luk Berghe, Uli Fischer, Claudia von Funcke, Behrouz Hescmat, Evrim Kavcar, Helene Kazan, Pınar Öğrenci, Mustafa Pancar, Erich Pick, Kemal Seyhan

Address: No:10 Bostanbasi Cad. Galatasaray-Taksim.

Contact: pinarogrenci@yahoo.com facebook.com/marsistanbul

The Architectural Research Studio Mars is hosting the Crystal City exhibition from the 18th of September to the 18th of November 2011. Inspired by Italio Calvino's book, 'Invisible Cities', the participating artists set out to discover the secret reasons why people choose to live in urban environments. At a time trying to deal with a vagrant utopia and his longing for urban humanism, Calvino embarks on a journey outside the barriers of time and space; revolting against the modern cities of our time, he investigates the future of modern, metropolitan cities. This exhibition, organized by Pınar Öğrenci, explores through the means of imagery, the artists' relationship with architecture, and therefore cities, as well as concepts such as memory, desire, symbolism, remembrance and barter.

LOW&HIGH programme: Folkstone Triennial | 16 Spaces | July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 09:09:00 +0000

THE VISITORS - TALK 1:

Structure and Site Search.

SATURDAY, 16TH JULY, 4PM.

With: Louise Ashcroft and Helene Kazan (16 Spaces, London), Julia Crabtree

and William Evans (James Taylor Gallery, London), Pierre D’Alancaisez

(Waterside Project Space, London), Toby Huddlestone (Crate, Margate), Dimitri Launder (Area 10, London).

A discussion on art activities in the contexts of relocating, development, destruction, obstruction, (re)organising and functioning within existing structures as well as creating new platforms and networks. We will also look at nomadic curators-artists/artists-curators and reclaimed (art)spaces. Panelists will share experiences of their work as art workers/art organisers, which will be followed by a Q&A session. The event

is open to everybody.

Free. To book your place email: lowandhigh.platform@gmail.com

Location LOW&HIGH 15 Tontine Street, Folkestone, CT20 1JT

www.16spaces.com

lowandhighplatform.wordpress.com

Ever Remote | Site Gallery/Crescent Arts | July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:44:00 +0000

Selected from invitation and open call, Ever Remote presents a selection of contemporary video works that engage or question the meaning of home, elsewhere and all the distances in-between. Each work explores a different aspect of the distances between ourselves and everything else: physical, temporal, cultural, emotional, imagined. Home and elsewhere come across as alien concepts that are constantly being both re- and de-constructed.

There will be an opportunity to discuss the work with some of the artists after the screening.

DATES & LOCATION

12th July at 6pm at Site Gallery (Sheffield), hosted by occursus. Event is free but please book at events@sitegallery.org

More info at www.sitegallery.org

15th July at 6.30pm at Crescent Arts (Scarborough). Event is free but please book at info@crescentarts.co.uk

More info at www.crescentarts.co.uk

The Great Alonso | Gallery Primo Alonso | June 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:45:00 +0000

Primo Alonso presents:

The Great Alonso 18th June-10th July

Private View Friday 17th June 6pm-late

This summer Primo Alonso will close it's doors for good but before we go we'd like to say thank you to everyone we have worked with so far. Our final exhibition will showcase some of the brilliant artists we have had the pleasure to meet over the past five years so please come along and say your goodbyes.

The last adventure of the Great Alonso

Text by Matt Clark

Ah yes... when all else is done, when performing is in the dream of the child and the last rabbit has been pulled, only now can I dream of the last great adventure. Of the place where all men meet and talk of times spent living... that is the only adventure I have now. My last trick is that which they used to say of the devil, to prove my existence. 'Great Alonso' they used to say, 'where did that rabbit come from?' 'My hat is deep', is all I used to reply. But they could not know, how they would laugh at me if they knew the truth. I have never found the strength to reach deep enough to find the ark by which all beasts come. Never have I found the lion and the giraffe, nor has the monkey or bear reached for my hand as I reach for theirs. I only ever find a rabbit, and his meagre form is no longer adequate for their amusement. Now you know my failure and I can no longer search for that strength. I will accept a fate dealt to me here and relinquish to the foundry of the heavens any cast made from my soul, and look not for the crown and beast but to the brim and acceptance.

As I sit in this dressing room the sickly sight of this lead paint veneer chokes my nostrils, this humble stool creeks and groans with history, as if a thousand clowns had asked the reflection in the mirror for approval of their craft, and now a fog enters my eyes. The thought occurred to me that if the lights around the mirror had been put out, this scene would be less cheerless, that the gas lamps made ones heart sadder because it lighted it all up. My coat tails look tattered and worn, my face looks grey and my eyes look deep set as if into cavernous holes in my head. What is a magician with only old tricks? The children no longer applaud my successes but instead arrive like grey and purple clouds on my day of sun, obscuring my view of a once glistening horizon. A poet once told me, 'great artists have no country' and now that line sticks in my ears as justice to my secret, for there is something I have neglected to say.

I used to know a magic, a magic I was taught by a long line of marvellous magicians who took their knowledge with them when they died. This was a magic that could not be bought by means of this world, not plastic apparitions but real magic. These wonders would provide them with a place in the sky as one of the stars in the black velvet shroud you see at night. You see a magician is not a man like any other, as before he comes onto this world he makes a pact with the sun never to out shine him in they eyes of man and in return when he passes the sun grants him a place in the sky to watch over all the magic of all the universe and to learn all the tricks of man, so that they may shine on for eternity but only in his shadow.

This was the oath I took many years ago. But in my time I forgot that pact, and I broke the promise to the sun when I reached for the lion instead of the rabbit and now the broken man who writes this will not find a place in heaven but will remain in this place as a clown, one to be jeered at and taunted, one to be called 'the joke'. To me being called a mad man would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as before. But now I do not resent this fate, this audience, they are all dear to me, even when they laugh at me and indeed it is just then that they are particularly dear to me. I can join in their laughter not exactly at myself but through my affection for them, if I did not feel so sad as to look at them. Sad because they do not know the truth and I do know it. Oh! How hard it is to be the only one who knows the truth. But they would not understand it; no they would not understand it at all. This is my end and this painted face is all that remains of the Great Alonso.

For press enquiries please contact

Angelica Sule: email: a.sule@primoalonso.com

Gallery Primo Alonso, 397 Hackney Road, London, E2 8PP

Open Friday-Sunday 11am - 6pm or by appointment

Tube: Bethnal Green/Old Street

Bus 26, 48, 55

Tel: 020 7033 3678

Email: info@primoalonso.com

Web: www.primoalonso.com

Invasive Alien Species | Venice | June 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:32:00 +0000

Invasive Alien Species

An exhibition coinciding with the 54th Venice Biennale

1335 Via Garibaldi, Castello, Venezia

1st - 5th and 9th - 12th June 2011 (12pm - 5pm)

Opening reception: Saturday 4th June 6- 9 pm

Artists' talk Thursday 2nd June 3pm

Biological invasions by non-native or 'alien' species are one of the greatest threats to the ecological and economic wellbeing of the planet. (Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventories for Europe)

10961 species of plants and animals are currently classified by the EU as alien species, a significant minority of which are dangerously invasive. Without the usual constraints of their native ecosystems to keep them in check they have become established and spread out from their point of introduction, frequently out-competing the local species, sometimes to the point of threatening their extinction. And once established eradication is virtually impossible. Venice, too, is invaded every two years by a tide of artists, curators, connoisseurs and culture vultures. Are they welcome? Are they invited? Do they make a useful contribution to the life of the city? Do they leave a lasting effect? The Venice Biennale has for over a century been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world.

Established in 1895, the Art Biennale has an attendance today of over 300,000 visitors and the opening weekend is the most important event in the year's international art calender. The Biennale takes place in two official sites in Venice: the Arsenale, which hosts the international exhibition, and the Giardini di Castello in the east of the city, which houses the national pavilions including the British Pavilion.

Liz Sheridan, guest curator for London-based TangentProjects, has brought together 12 artists from the UK and mainland Europe in a group exhibition, in a prominent location close to the Giardini site, in response to the idea of the invasive aliens. And like the alien species in the natural world, the artists compete to find their place in the compressed space of a small empty shop.

The artists - Karen Ay, Vanya Balogh, Tracey Bush, Cedric Christie, Forge & Cutter, Helene Kazan, Manuel Kämpfer, Toni Parpan, Danny Pockets, Liz Sheridan, Steve Smith and Karen Winzer - have in common that their practices are highly responsive to the contexts and situations in which the work is developed.

The exhibition is a collateral event which coincides with the opening of the Venice Art Biennale.

For further inquiries contact Liz Sheridan +44 7812 104 126 or e_a_sheridan@yahoo.co.uk.

More details, including information on visiting the exhibition are available on: www.invasivealienspecies.wordpress.com

TangentProjects

J J & J HQ Studios

191-205 Cambridge Heath Rd, London, E2 0EL UK

www.tangentprojects.org

info@tangentprojects.org

With thanks to the British Council

Chicago Boys | Nottingham Contemporary

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:32:00 +0000

Chicago Boys, while we were singing, they were dreaming..

14 May 2011 at Nottingham Contemporary

Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming... is an ongoing project initiated and conceived as a 1970s cover band and neo-liberalism study group by the Kurdish Iraqi artist Hiwa K. Drawing from the You tube videos, a team of global lay researchers accessed via Skype, and band members' personal experiences, the group has played songs from the 1970s and performs comparative studies of neoliberalism around the world. Pop songs from Holland, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Poland are interspersed with discussions and stories about the processes through which free market values such as those espoused by their namesake - the Chicago Boys - a group of Chilean students who studied under economist Milton Friedman - are experienced in specific locations around the world. Chicago Boys sessions respond to the location they are in and have focused on topics such as migration, education and privatisation of public space.

Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming… was originally commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery’s Edgware Road Project at the Centre for Possible Studies, where Hiwa K was artist-in-residence. It has since developed in relation to the sites of Alternativa (Wyspa, Gdansk, Poland), Casco Projects and if I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution (Holland) and The Arts Against Cuts Direct Weekend (London) among others.

The Space, 4pm, free.

Nottingham Contemporary’s public programme is jointly funded by Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham.

Ever Remote | South Square Gallery | May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:45:00 +0000

A screening of artists’ films that explore and challenge ideas of home, loss, travel, distance and belonging.

Märit Aronsson

Marc Atkinson

Michael Day

Hondartza Fraga

Maud Haya-Baviera

Esther Johnson

Helene Kazan

Sybella Perry

Miguel Santos

Christiane Thalmann

Andrew and Caitlin Webb-Ellis Julia Willms

Curated by Hondartza Fraga

One night only

Friday 06 May 6.30pm

South Square Gallery is a grass-roots exhibition space committed to providing a professional and supportive resource for artists and emerging curators. As a testbed for new ideas, the gallery hosts and ever-evolving dialogue between artists and their audience.

Free entry

Opening times

Tuesday - Sunday | 12 - 3pm

And by appointment

Image: Michael Day, 2011

South Square Gallery

South Square

Bradford

BD13 3LD

Telephone +44 (0) 1274 834 747

Email. info@southsquarecentre.co.uk

Website: www.southsquarecentre.co.uk

Alt MFA | at Coalition Cuts Protest & Margate

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:32:00 +0000

Saturday 26th March some members of AltMFA will be marching to support the protest against the coalitions cuts to public services.   At 2.11pm we will make a collective sound to mark the signal for actions away from the march. At this time various groups – such as Arts Against Cuts, ukuncut, resist 26 – will be staging sit-ins, occupations and other awareness raising tactics. See http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/ for some useful information about the protest, the cuts and other useful theoretical links.   During the march and after in Hyde Park we will be situated near to Arts Against Cuts group where we will be holding various collective activities throughout – look out for their banners, a giant wooden Trojan horse.   Some Hackney members will be cycling with the bike bloc from Hackney town hall at 10am, the march starts at 11am from Victoria embankment.

Throughout the day and evening we will stage collective speakings through home made plaster megaphones (or mega-plasterphones – this term has not been endorsed by the group!).  One of these actions will be to make connection with exhibition goers at the Pavilion Projects Circuit event in Margate:

http://www.pavilionprojects.org/pavilion/upcoming_show.html http://margatearchitecture.blogspot.com/2011/03/event-circuit-drive-thru-cinema-at.html

Via mobile phone we will be offering a connection for people at the exhibition to either listen to the march or have their comments collectively voiced via the AltMFA megaphones.

A banner situated next to one of our megaohones in Margate will read:

'call 07588631674, alt-megaphone live link to the London protest - speak or listen. Altmfa'

Once in Hyde Park where we will use improvised materials such as dustsheets and old placards to make shelters and will possibly camp out.

We hope everyone has a great day.

Chicago Boys | March tour of the Netherlands

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming, tour the Netherlands March 19-25, 2011.

Casco and If I Can't Dance would like to invite you to join the touring performances by 'Chicago Boys, While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming':

Utrecht:

19 March, 19.00-22.00 

Casco – Office for Art,

Design and Theory 

Nieuwekade 213-215 3511RW

Utrecht T/F: +31 (0)30 231 9995 

www.cascoprojects.org

Enschede:

20 March, 19.00-21.00 

Stichting Enschede’s Odd-Fellowhuis

 Nicolaas Beetsstraat 44 7514 CW

Enschede T: 053 435 4481 ‎ 

www.oddfellows.nl

Arnhem:

23 March, 20.00-22.00 

Dutch Art Institute – MFA/ArtEZ 

Kortestraat 27 6811EP Arnhem

 www.dutchartinstitute.nl

Amsterdam:

25 March, 18.00-21.00

 If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution

 Westerdok 606-608 1013 BV

Amsterdam

www.ificantdance.org

This tour is co-organised by Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory and If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution in collaboration with Dutch Art Institute / ArtEZ

See more information here:

http://www.cascoprojects.org/?show&entryid=420

http://www.ificantdance.org/#chicago

Chicago Boys | at Art Against Cuts Direct Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:41:00 +0000

Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming...

Open rehearsal and study session on the neoliberalisation of Education

at Arts Against Cuts Direct Weekend.

Saturday 15 January 3-5 pm

Sunday 16 January 3-5 pm

Camberwell College of Art, Wilson Road Building (off Peckham Rd)

Free, all are welcome.

Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming is a 1970s cover band and neo-liberalism study group.

Drawing from the analyses of Naomi Klein, David Harvey, global lay researchers (on skype), youtube videos and band members' personal experiences, the group explores the 1970s as a stage set for the introduction of neoliberal policies around the world. The band's performances and discussions have been situated in cafes on London's Edgware Road and more recently on the Gdansk Shipyard in Poland. At the Arts Against Cuts Direct Weekend, Chicago Boys host two open rehearsals playing music from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Poland in the 1970s and inviting students, artists and activists to contribute to a global analysis of the neoliberalisation of education.

ARTS AGAINST CUTS // DIRECT WEEKEND THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

[Jan 15th and 16th]

Camberwell College of Art, Wilson Road Building (off Peckham Rd)

Following on from the fantastic Long Weekend at Goldsmiths in December, the Turner Prize and National Gallery teach-ins, the Book Block and the many occupations at arts schools and universities across London, this Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th Arts Against Cuts has organised another weekend of action, planning, imagining, working and thinking together.

The event is open to all and free of charge.

Don't worry if you have not been involved before, over the two days we will get informed and prepare for upcoming demonstrations and occupations.

The schedule below has been drawn from proposals sent in.

There will be free space for anyone who wishes to put forward ideas on the days, organised spontaneity.

SATURDAY

Saturday Creche all day

10 – 11 Breakfast (BYO)

11 – 12 Open Meeting

12 – 5 Parallel Spaces and Open Spaces Including…

The Art of Direct Action, John Jordan talk and Workshop.

*Posters and Graffitti in 1968 Atelier populaire oui, Aterlier bougeois non, talk and print making workshop, Warren Carter Jess Baines, Jo Robinson

*Making a Radical Education Workbook: Radical Education Forum and Ultra-red

What shall we do with our cultural institutions? Precarious Workers Brigade

Paid Not Played Choir & Political Music Collective music and lyric workshop

*Chicago Boys: While we were singing, they were dreaming.

1970s cover band and neoliberalism study group: live music and interactive workshop on globalisation and education

* Alter/ate Mobile Slogan Factory/ Counterproductions and CGTV

* Screen printing and Banner Making all day

5.00 CLOSING MEETING

SUNDAY

10 – 11 Breakfast (BYO)

11 – 12 Open Meeting

12 – 5 Parallel Spaces and Open Spaces Including…

* Object Sabotage with Evan Calder Williams, & Mute

* Mapping and Connecting with Trade Unions

* Video Box – 1-minute videos and Communist Gallery

* Book Block workshop

*Chicago Boys: While we were singing, they were dreaming.

1970s cover band and neoliberalism study group: live music and interactive workshop on globalisation and education

* Debt and Slavery, David Graeber

* Theatre of the Dead/ Dual Power – Planning for the 29th

* Fact Sheet Workshop and Free School

* EMA working group – Planning for 18th and 19th

* International Student Discussion/ Chelsea Project

5.00 CLOSING MEETING

After party. Location TBC

Arts Against Cuts was initiated across London Art Schools last Autumn. We want to reclaim the public, critical space that universities and art schools should be, transforming those buildings into art schools for the future, bringing together art students, artists, cultural workers and those fighting the cuts from across the UK to share in defiance against the relentless marketization of our education and our lives. We will share knowledge and skills; we will collaborate across disciplines, ages and backgrounds; we will turn our imagination and desires into tools of disobedience. We will make sure that all the knowledge, ideas,tools and projects which emerge from the event will be disseminated and put into action in streets and public spaces across the country and be shared by all those in the anti-cuts movements. The Direct Weekend will be a feast of non stop workshops and presentations, slide shows and films, how-to sessions and skill shares, and a free space for spontaneous creation of events, actions and expressions. Its not important what art is but what it does, and right now it has the potential to turn the crisis of cuts into an opportunity for change.

artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com

Chicago Boys | Performance at Alternativa, Gdansk

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:53:00 +0000

It is dark. It is cold. And it is late. In the critical space of the Gdansk Shipyard, Alternativa Contemporary Visual Arts Festival 2010-2012—a new project by Wyspa Institute of Art—commences its two year journey.

Alternativa Housewarming, planned for December 3-5, is a three-day pilot that publicly unveils Hall 90B, an industrial building across the street from Wyspa which will be a key location for Alternativa exhibitions and events in 2011-12.

4 December: Chicago Boys: while we were singing they were dreaming... An evening of music played by a 70s revival band and neo-liberalism study group assembled by Hiwa K. The band plays popular music from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, England, Bangladesh, Poland and Lebanon in the 1970s, followed by presentations from archives relating to personal memories and neo-liberal policies. Cihat Arinc | Janna Graham | Hiwa K | Helene Kazan | Amal Khalaf | Roshi Nasehi | Abbas Nokhasteh | Shimon Sakakibara | Lawrence Abu Hamdan will be joined by local musicians, presenters and enthusiasts.

Find out more info: http://www.alternativa.org.pl/title,lang,2.html

RHIZOMATIC | Departure Gallery | Oct 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 09:39:00 +0000

Private View Friday 8th October, 6 - 9.30pm. 1st October – 12th November 2010 by appointment. Departure Gallery, 5 - 6 Boeing Way, The International Trading Estate, Brent Road, Southall, London UB2 5LF.

Rhizome, as explored in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical masterpiece. This is Departure Gallery’s largest and most ambitious show so far and includes work by over two hundred artists exhibiting in 100,000 sq ft of warehouse space.

Selected artists associated with Departure Gallery were each invited to choose up to six artists to exhibit alongside them. In turn, this second generation were encouraged to invite a further six participants, making a third generation, who could then invite six more. This six-link structure was inspired by the idea that all humans are connected by ‘six degrees of separation’.

A rhizome is a sprawling, unhierarchical system of connections that are constantly in flux and can spring up at any moment in space and time. This exhibition does not seek to fix the rhizome by presenting it in a finished form, but, rather, it represents an attempt to freeze a moment of this rhizomatic process in the interests of examining its structure more closely. Furthermore, the show aims to catch a glimpse of the creative networks within which Departure Gallery’s artists operate, in order to locate ourselves within the wider art world.

“Principles of connection and heterogeneity: at any point a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be…A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains, organisations of power, and circumstances relevant to the arts, sciences and social struggles.” Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus

This rhizomatic structure has particular resonance in the context of The International Trading Estate, which is a hub of haulage and distribution companies sorting and transporting goods in flux between producer and consumer.

The exhibition will not constitute the end of the rhizome, because a true rhizome has no beginning or end, but is ongoing and unlimited. Each artist involved will continue to make connections during and after the exhibition through the contacts and ideas that emerge as a result of the show. This opens up the possibility of creating a larger sequel exhibition at some point in the future. Who knows where this will go and what might result?

Louise Ashcroft, Curator.
----------------------------------------
Getting There: Take national rail from Paddington to Southall (14 minutes) then buses 105, h32, 105 or 482 to Brent Road. On the private view night there will be a free taxi shuttle from Southall Station between 6pm and 9.30pm- turn left out of the station and follow the signs to the shuttle stop.

For more information or to make an appointment please contact

louiseashcroft@departuregallery.com

...Delicate Conceptual Material... | Jerwood Project Space | Sept 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:52:00 +0000

…delicate conceptual material…
A site specific installation I am making at Jerwood Project Space, opening on 28th September 2010.

Project Space at Café 171, Jerwood Space
Exhibition: 27 September – 8 November
Open: Monday – Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm

Download: Press Release
Jerwood Space: What's On

‘As a genius of construction man raises himself far above the bee in the following way, whereas the bee builds with wax that she gathers from nature, man builds with far more delicate conceptual material which he first has to manufacture from himself.’ 1 Friedrich Nietzsche

...delicate conceptual material…is a site specific installation of new work by Helene Kazan: a three dimensional drawing within the space. This installation combines materials, which seek to connect conceptual and physical materiality. Polystyrene columns appear to spring from wall to wall as if they were a feature of the building’s architecture, while the natural light changes throughout the day affect the installation in a way which resonates with some of Kazan’s previous work.

Kazan’s practice is, on the one hand, an elegant exploration of the parameters of drawing and sculpture and on the other, is an investigation into notions of territory, occupancy, space and cultural growth. Developing creative methods that are a bastardisation of processes used within architecture, her work can be termed ‘territorialisation and deterritorialisation’; an apparent contradiction between the her instinctive desire to possess space by imposing large sculptural interventions and then deliberately erasing or making them fragile.

Helene Kazan was recently commissioned for 2010 London Festival of Architecture by Metropolitan Workshop, and has exhibited extensively in the UK as well as internationally, including 2010 Mardin Biennial, Turkey. She also recently exhibited as part of Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Kazan studied her BA Hons at Wimbledon School of Art. Further information: www.helenekazan.co.uk

1: Friedrich Nietzsche, F, Twilight of the Idols and the Antichrist, trans. R J Hollingdale, Penguin,London, 1968

'All Systems Go' | Departure Gallery | June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Site specific installation created for All Systems Go: Departure Gallery, Southall.
http://www.departuregallery.com/html/exhibitions.html

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition | June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:14:00 +0000

A Limited Edition C-Type Print of this piece 'Drawn Territory - Part 2' has been selected for this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, opening June 15th.
www.royalacademy.org.uk

'Off Cut' | Commissioned by Metwork for LFA 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:41:00 +0000

Metropolitan Workshop presents ‘Off Cut’A solo exhibition by Helene Kazan

Private View: 25th June, 6.30 - 9.30pm Exhibition: 26th June - 7th August

This exhibition is part of the 2010 London Festival of Architecture, to find out more information please follow this event on the LFA website: www.lfa2010.org/event

The 2010 Ideal Home Show saw the launch of The Cub, UK’s first carbon neutral Code 5 modular home, an answer for a more sustainable, malleable, and adaptable future. In a year of recovery from deep recession, a general election, leaps in ecological and technological developments, Metropolitan Workshop has started a programme of investigation into new and different forms of creative practice by inviting artist Helene Kazan to create an intervention into their street facing window space.

In 1963, London based experimental architecture group Archigram exhibited their utopian vision ‘Living City’ at the ICA. Coming at a time of radical change, with new developments in technology linked to an increase in mass production and mass consumption, Archigram believed there’s was a ‘message of abstract communication’. Infatuated by nomadic fantasies, Archigram argued that ‘an architecture based on mobility and malleability could set people free’.

In 1967, Amsterdam artist turned experimental architect Constant published ‘New Babylon’. His utopian vision for a situationist city, it comprised of a society of total automation in which the need to work was replaced with a nomadic life of creative play. This derived of a vast network of interconnecting enormous multi level, interior spaces, floating over the planet.

Inspired by these utopian visions of the past, the situation sensitive installation Kazan has conceived for Metwork will comprise of a suspended three tiered, intersloting, three-dimensional drawing. Operating as a focal part of this installation ‘Marmoleum’, traditionally a flooring product is sourced as a building material off cut. With obvious economic and social benefits to the its use, the real decision comes from the idea that excess of this material has only occurred through a desensitization of it by mass production and mass consumption. Shifting the materials context and augmentng its value. Reflecting a projected change in attitude and concern for the production of such materials in the coming future.

'Abbarakadabra' Mardin Bienali | Turkey | June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:35:00 +0000

ABBARAKADABRA
Mardin Biennial
Private View: 4th June
Exhibition will be on till 5th July 2010

I have been invited to take part in the first Mardin Biennial in Turkey, this opens on the 4th June, for more information please follow this link: http://www.mardinbienali.org/bienal/artists.asp

Miniscule | OBLONG Gallery | June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:28:00 +0000

Press Release OBLONG
3-27 JUNE 2010
PRIVATE VIEW 2 JUNE 6-9PM

Miniscule could be regarded as a bijou sociological experiment. It is a Fine Arts exhibition in the sumptuously grandiose Oblong gallery, where up to 200 Object d’Art can be shown simultaneously. Artists across London, Britain and the world have been invited to submit a diminutive object of any genre or media with but one simple proviso: max. size is of the common matchbox - 2” by 1.5”.

Thinking small is a unique challenge, and although there many artists who specialize in the miniature, or consider it part of their normal output, most invitees will find this an intriguing change from normal practice. We can expect a very diverse show with an interesting selection of artists; a toy box destruction derby of high concept in abject competition, a kaleidoscopic cross-cut of current making and thinking, but set in an arena of equality.

Is an object to be judged by its size? Can we say that the London Eye has had more impact on the world than a bicycle wheel? This show will be going against the grain by championing the miniature, so it will be up to the audience to decide whether less really is more…

69A SOUTHGATE RD
LONDON N1 3JS
0044 0207 354 8330
MAIL@OBLONGGALLERY.COM
WWW.OBLONGGALLERY.COM

TangentProjects | Interviews &&& Creative for 'Market of Ideas'

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Sunday, 23 May 2010, saw the Parade courtyard at Chelsea College of Art occupied by a large structure made entirely out of milk crates to house Market of Ideas, as part of the weekend long Parade event organised by Critical Practice. TangentProjects, one of the 'stalls holders', invited &&& Creative to join there day long discussion on notions of creative collaboration, the urban landscape and ideas of publicness. Helene Kazan interviewed Simon Brown, Shawn Davey and Lucas Krull individually about their own practices and collectively as &&& Creative.

TangentProjects | Take part in 'Market of Ideas'

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:37:00 +0000

TangentProjects the collaborative group I work with have been invited to take part in 'Market of Ideas', as part of Parade organised by Critical Practice. Come and find us and take part in our discussion...

PARADE – public modes of assembly & forms of address

Critical Practice would like to invite you to Parade. This landmark event will explore the diverse, contested and vital conceptions of being in public. Set in a bespoke, temporary structure with a host of international contributors, Parade will challenge the lazy, institutionalised model of knowledge transfer. Our modes of assembly, our forms of address and the knowledge we share will be intimately bound.

Location: The Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground, Chelsea College of Art and Design (beside Tate Britain) 16 John Islip St., London, SW1P 4JU (travel info below)

Friday 21st May, 5pm - 7pm: Launch
Potluck snacks (bring and share) while Open Music Archive plays music from the commons

Saturday 22nd May, 10am - 6pm: A Day of Consecutive BarCamps
These open, participatory workshop-events will explore publicness, past, present and future. Come and contribute.

Sunday 23rd May, 2pm - 6pm: The Market of Ideas
Markets are good at distributing resources. Based on the model of the ancient bazaar, Parade will convene a Market of Ideas in which 'stalls' staffed by artists, academics, urbanists, geographers, environmentalists, health workers, anthropologists, economists and others exchange their knowledge with the milling public.The Market of Ideas will explore the distribution of public knowledge, embody peer-2-peer exchange, and build communal resources.

Stall holders include: Abundant Amelia (designers: Dallas Pierce Quintero), Larisa Blazic and startx, Małgorzata Bocheńska / Salon 101, Chelsea iSD MA + Musashino Art University (Tokyo), Geoff Cox and Rui Guerra, Ian Drysdale and ThinkPublic, Roman Dziadkiewicz, Joanna Erbel, Małgorzata Bocheńska, FLAG, Angela Hodgson Teall, The KNOT Team, Owen Hatherley, Brandon Labelle, Wojtek Kosma and Dwayne Browne, Michał Kozłowski, 25 MA students, Ewa Majewska, Lidka Makowska, microsillons, Krzysztof Nawratek, The People Speak, Satelite Project of Politicised Practice Research Group, Dr Malcolm Quinn, Mike Rickets, Anatomy of the Street (Levente Polyak and Eszter Steierhoffer), Eileen Simpson & Ben White of the Open Music Archive, George Shire, Dr Dan Smith, Bogna Świątkowska / Bec Zmiana, TangentProjects, Textile Environment Design (TED), Wojtek Kosma and Dwayne Browne, Chris Wainwright  and Cape Farwell, Joanna Warsza and Nuno Sacramento and many more besides

Documentation of the Event: The hashtag for Parade on flickr, Twitter, Delicious and beyond is #parade10. Please make your online content locatable by including this tag.

Critical Practice is a cluster of artists, researchers and academics hosted by Chelsea College of Art and Design, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. We have a longstanding interest in art, public goods, spaces, services and knowledge, and a track record of producing original, participatory events.

By Tube: 5 minutes from Pimlico tube (Victoria Line) 10 minutes from Vauxhall tube (Victoria Line)

Parade is part of POLSKA! YEAR, which comprises over 200 projects presenting the most interesting achievements of Polish culture to UK audiences. The project takes place under the patronage of HM The Queen and HE The President of the Republic of Poland. POLSKA! YEAR is co-ordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw. To find out more visit. www.polskayear.pl/en

www.tangentprojects.org

Stuart Brisley | Next Door (the missing subject)

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:07:00 +0000

I'm assistant to Stuart Brisley, come & see Next Door (the missing subject) his exhibition at PEER.

In anticipation of PEER's expansion in the adjoining property, the curator of the Museum of Ordure, RY Sirb, will be present at 97/99 Hoxton Street from:Wednesday to Sunday, May 12 to 16 and also form May 19 to 23.
Open to the public on these days form 2.30 to 6.30pm.

Stuart Brisley has made performances, installations, public interventions, films, videos, drawings, photographs and paintings for over 50 years.

To mark PEER's acquisition of the lease on 97 Hoxton Street, which will enable the organisation to expand into next door, Brisley will take up temporary residence amongst the trash and pandemonium of the former shop. Adopting the persona of RY Sirb, Brisley's Curator of the Museum of Ordure, he will investigate and interrogate this transitional space before its transformation as a place of social order and cultural endeavour.

... Time passes, autumn comes before winter, summer precedes autumn, spring comes before summer and before that the first winter when it all began. Next door the shutters were down, the doors were locked, the windows were boarded up. Nobody has been there for months on end ... progress continues at a snail?s pace... It leaves a trace of slime marking its path and there it all is, the letters and emails and the memories of phone calls and mushrooming conversations where the word hopefully recurs, rings out as a sad punctuation among the exhortations, the pleading and the official explanations of procedures ... There is the ironic recollection of letters and emails recording the euphoria when it was first agreed that a lease could be forthcoming that first winter ... To replicate, to double the available space this side of the wall with an exact mirroring of the space that side of the wall with the acquisition of an architectural doppelganger. The prospect of doubling up gave a sense of impending achievement ... However a new problem has arisen, it appears that the keys have been misplaced. Where are they? Somewhere in the Department of Small and Missing Items of course, where else? However, a person from a Department of something somewhere has promised to come with or without keys...

Excerpts from the artist's preparatory notes for Next Door (the missing subject).

Details about Stuart Brisley's work can be found on his website, www.stuartbrisley.com

www.PEERUK.ORG

Chicago Boys | Performance at The Showroom

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:53:00 +0000

THE SHOWROOM
CHICAGO BOYS:WHILE WE WERE SINGING, THEY WERE DREAMING
Thursday 13 May
7PM

An informal evening of music and discussion by Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming, a 1970s revival band and neo-liberalism study group assembled by artist Hiwa K. Following from performances at a café on the Edgware Road in April, the band will play popular music from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon in the 1970s, followed by conversations about personal memories and the shaping of the region by neo-liberal policies.

For this performance, Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming, band members include: Nabil Ahmed, Janna Graham, Hiwa K, Helene Kazan, Amal Khalaf, Roshi Nasehi, Abbas Nokhasteh, Noura Sanatian, Shimon Sakakibara and Nicolas Vass.

Hiwa K is an artist and musician interested in informal knowledge, performativity and the figure of the artist as amateur. Born in Iraq, he is now based on his feet. His residency in London has been organised in collaboration between The Showroom and the Serpentine Gallery’s Edgware Road Project on the occasion of Estrangement. Co-curated by Hiwa K and Aneta Szylak Estrangement is a curatorial and educational enterprise that is situated outside of one’s familiar context or within the context to which one does not belong. Involving artists from both Europe and the Middle East through international residencies, research and projects, Estrangement rethinks cultures of representation, creating spaces for intimate and individual encounters. It is on view at Showroom until 5 June, 2010. For more information: The Showroom

The Edgware Road Project, links local and international artists to people living and working in this London neighbourhood. The project base is the Centre for Possible Studies, opening 30 May, 2010.

For more information: Serpentine Gallery

'Trident Way' | Departure Gallery | Oct 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Helene Kazan) — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Helene Kazan, ‘Drawn Territory’ - Part 2, Polystyrene columns,

‘Trident Way’ Departure Gallery October 2009