Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Centre Square
Middlesbrough TS1 2AZ
United Kingdom
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, part of Teesside University, is moving forward with a vision of itself as a “useful museum,” or “museum 3.0,” under the directorship of Alistair Hudson. The “useful museum” is a civic institution that promotes art as a tool for social change and is created by the sum of the actions of its users. The “museum 3.0″ establishes the gallery as a public site, beyond representation and participation and based on use value, with its meaning defined by its constituents.
June 11–September 18, 2016
If All Relations Were to Reach Equilibrium, Then This Building Would Dissolve
This project—involving research, a display, and public programs—examines the migratory condition. It explores the tension between free circulation and border control as well as the experience of exile and displacement, and focuses on human rights, governmental policies, xenophobia, identity, and trauma, among other themes. It is predicated on the fact that Middlesbrough, in the northeast of England, is a key dispersal area for asylum seekers, and it references the feelings, memories, anxieties, and aspirationsof refugee-background communities there.
The gallery features areas for learning, service provision, discussion, and collective study; documents; and works by artists, asylum seekers and refugees, activists, and scholars. Resources and activities include computers with access to the internet, a food bank, communal lunches, awareness-raising sessions, workshops, and ESOL courses. The space also houses propaganda materials such as banners, calls for action, flags, posters, and toolkits; books, essays, manifestos, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and reports; and films, installations, and paintings.
Participants
Architecture master students from Newcastle University, Babi Badalov, Khaled Barakeh, Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler, Burlesque of North America, Carolina Caycedo, Chto Delat?, Collection of Investing in People and Culture, Liam Gillick, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani, Immigrant Movement International, Ausama Khalil, Isabel Lima, Paulo Nazareth, Daniela Ortiz, Pod Collective, Right to Remain, RISE, Firas Shehadeh, Nelli Stavropoulou, Grant Watson
A conference coinciding with the opening brings together politicians, academics, activists, and cultural workers to examine issues, both local and international, related to the “migrant crisis,” from humanitarian aid to media representations and economic impacts. Speakers include Ailsa Adamson, Bini Araia Paul Catheral, Michael Collins, Suzanne Fletcher, Tom Green, Stefan Nowotny, Pod Collective, Catherine Ramos, and Nelli Stavropoulou.
June 25–October 9
Teesside World Exposition of Art and Technology
This exhibition considers the economic future of Teesside in the northeast of England—a region that in the 19th century was at the core of the industrial revolution—in the context of today’s world economy. It features works, objects, documents, and new industrial technologies sourced from and contributed by local collections, regional companies, and international artists.
The exhibition refers specifically to the closure of the last steelworks in Teesside in 2015 and more generally to the changing global economic landscape. It captures the character of Teesside’s past and present manufactures, showing how they formed around the extraction of raw materials and the export of goods. It looks at the dynamics of post-Fordist systems of production, the delocalization of businesses, financialization, and the dominance of the service sector.
Also at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
The Office of Useful Art
The Office of Useful Art, headquarters of the Asociación de Arte Útil, initiated by Tania Bruguera, presents the Arte Útil archive, a growing registry of more than 500 case studies that exemplify this movement. A series of talks and events examine Arte Útil and its aspirations for art to be recalibrated as a way of operating in everyday life. The project is a collaboration with Bruguera and the Van Abbemuseum as part of The Uses of Art – The Legacy of 1848 and 1989, a project by the European museum confederation L’Internationale.
