Rules of Engagement:
Art, Conflict and Gallery Education
engage International Conference
5 - 7 November 2008
Sallis Benney Theatre
University of Brighton
This year's engage International Conference examines the role of art, artists and gallery educators in sites or situations of conflict. It takes place alongside and makes connections with the Brighton Photo Biennial, Memory of Fire: Images of War and the War of Images (3.10.08 - 16.11.08). Brighton Photo Biennial curator, Julian Stallabrass, will contribute to the conference programme.
Artists, educators, theorists and curators from the UK and beyond will explore:
- artists and art institutions in divided societies/territories
- the formative power of historical imagery
- the display and mediation of problematic content
- making space for dissent and critique
- conflict resolution and community relations
- the aesthetic, philosophical and ethical dimensions of collaborative/participatory projects
- instrumentalism and "socially engaged" practice
The notion of rules and protocols will feature strongly in the format of the conference through highly structured presentation techniques, such as "pecha kucha", and specially commissioned artists' interventions. The aim is to create a space where participants can experience discussion as practice rather than discussion on practice.
Plus...
An experimental CrowdVine web discussion project; practical case studies and workshop activities; visits to Brighton Photo Biennial venues and a reception organised by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Through Design.
Wednesday 5th November
Optional pre-conference visit to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea and (tbc) tour of the new Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne.
Registration
Evening reception at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Thursday 6th November
Morning
Memory of Fire: The War of Images and Images of War
The opening session considers the ideas that have shaped this year's Brighton Photo Biennial (BPB) and the issues its organisers have confronted in dealing with the controversial subject of war. Sheila McGregor, writer and visual arts consultant, will explain the rationale for the programming. Contributors include Julian Stallabrass, the curator of this year's BPB and a well-known art historian and writer; and Helen Cadwallader, the Director of BPB. Other speakers will be confirmed soon.
The Biennial's various exhibitions encompass film and photographic images made by photojournalists, artists and non-professionals from the Vietnam era to the present day, including the world première at Fabrica of Thomas Hirschhorn's The Incommensurable Banner, a horrific photographic frieze depicting human bodies blown apart by weapons in Iraq.
As a whole, the BPB raises important questions about the causes and consequences of conflict and the ways in which it is recorded, mediated and remembered.
After this session, delegates will be able to take part in a break-out discussion on one of a number of different topics (see below).
Afternoon
Hostage of the past?
Culture and the legacy of conflict
Speaking from their own experience, cultural leaders from the Middle East and Northern Ireland (both tbc) explore how artists and institutions operate 'on the ground' in the aftermath of conflict. In societies or regions where the fault lines of division run deep, what conditions and processes can bring about long-term reconciliation? Is this a realistic aspiration? Or are we forever prisoners of our past? And what role can art, artists and cultural institutions play in dealing with the legacy of conflict?
After this session delegates will have the opportunity to visit exhibitions in the Brighton Photo Biennial, followed by the AGM, conference dinner and a special screening of Polish artist Artur Zmijewski's film "Them", one of the most powerful and talked-about exhibits in Documenta 12. Drawing on the 'atelier' model of his own art school education, Zmijewski invites four different social, political and religious groups to come together in a workshop situation. His disturbing film documents the gradual breakdown that occurs as the members of each group make a banner expressing allegiance to their cause.
Between the end of the afternoon's proceedings and the AGM, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD) at the University of Brighton will host a special reception for anyone with an interest in the links between museums and galleries, design archives and Higher Education.
Friday 7th November
Morning
What's in it for me?
The politics of participation
Participatory and collaborative projects are a mainstream element of many gallery programmes and a staple ingredient of biennial culture. This session attempts to dissect the discourse that has emerged alongside this increasingly dominant strand of practice, highlighting important questions about how such work is commissioned, who claims authorship, where its aesthetic value lies and how its social, political and educational impact can be assessed. There will be a particular focus on how participatory projects seek to resolve or open up areas of disagreement, conflict and dissent.
Contributors include the writer and curator Claire Doherty, a Senior Research Fellow at Bristol UWE who has published widely on this subject; and artist Dave Beech, who teaches at Chelsea College of Art, writes regularly for Art Monthly and is a member of Freee Art Collective. Other speakers will be confirmed soon.
After this session, delegates will be able to take part in a break-out discussion on one of a number of different topics (see below).
Afternoon
Who calls the tune?
Art, politics and funding policy
In an uncertain political climate, as politicians and funders reappraise their positions and priorities, debates about the familiar issue of instrumentalism have come sharply into focus. At the same time, the traditional battle lines between left and right have become increasingly blurred. Can art indeed make a difference where political action has failed? Or is it largely an irrelevance in combating the real social and economic causes of exclusion and disaffection? Does a preoccupation with 'audience led' programming and social impact pre-dispose organisations against experimentation and (in the words of Sir Brian McMaster) lead to measurement rather than judgement? Or does it compel us to think more rigorously about what we do and why we do it?
Four contributors debate the issues, each from a different perspective. Speakers include Andrew Nairne, the new Executive Director of Arts Strategy at Arts Council England; (tbc) Munira Mirza, Director of Policy for Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries for the new Mayoral administration in London; and Bernadette Lynch, a museum writer and consultant who, as the former Deputy Director of Manchester Museum, instigated the pioneering 'Alchemy' programme of artists' residencies.
Breakout sessions on both days will involve a range of organisations and projects, including:
- Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven
('Be[com]ing Dutch': a two year programme of exhibitions, commissions and debate about identity, nationality, citizenship and social cohesion)
- Ffotogallery in Cardiff
(A comparison of two cross-disciplinary projects with schools, one of which commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day)
- Wolverhampton Art Gallery
(Exploration of the gallery's unique Northern Ireland Collection and the art education resource recently published alongside it)
- Fabrica, Brighton
(Artist Susan Diab discusses her residency alongside Thomas Hirschhorn's 'The Incommensurable Banner')
- Imperial War Museum
('Their Past, Your Future': an innovative learning programme for young people that uses historical sources, sites, museums, veterans and eyewitnesses of war)
- Brighton Photo Biennial
(Exploration of a workshop programme for A Level students, facilitated by artist Annis Joslin and involving undergraduates from the University of Brighton's School of Arts and Communication)
- Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
(Participatory exhibition with families of service-people, led by photographer Julian Germain and utilising various photographic technologies)
- Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
(Presentation about the development and impact of the gallery's distinctive Social Justice Programmes)
- Brighton Photo Biennial
(Intergenerational project, led by photographer Anthony Lam, in collaboration with the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex)
Plus...
Some enjoyable practical activities that have nothing whatsoever to do with the theme of the conference!
Additional information
Brighton Photo Biennial 2008
For Brighton Photo Biennial 2008 the provocative writer and critic Julian Stallabrass has curated ten exhibitions presenting photography, film and online material produced and circulated in time of war. Exhibitions on show during the engage conference include:
- Designs for Solidarity, Design Archives, University of Brighton
- Iraq Through the Lens of Vietnam, University of Brighton Gallery
- The Incommensurable Banner (Thomas Hirschhorn), Fabrica, Brighton
- The Sublime Image of Destruction, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
- Unveiled: Voices of Women in Afghanistan, Independent Photographers Gallery, Battle
- New photographic commission by Julian Germain with families of service people, Aspex, Portsmouth
- Why, Mister, Why? And Baghdad Calling, Lighthouse, Brighton
Accommodation
Click here
to download a list of hotels in Brighton.
Booking information
Click here to download booking form.