28 November 2013–12 January 2014
Flat Time House
210 Bellenden Road
London UK SE15 4BW
Flat Time House (FTHo) is a gallery, archive and artist’s residency space in the former home and studio of the British visual artist John Latham. Today, FTHo is a dynamic and autonomous institution with an emphasis on research-based art.
NOIT journal
FTHo and Camberwell Press are launching the new creative journal, NOIT. Comprised of new writing, artists’ contributions and original research, NOIT will explore the theoretical concerns and artwork of John Latham and their continued relevance. The first issue, NOIT–1 JL: Time-based Portraits is guest edited by curator and researcher Antony Hudek. For the introductory issue, Hudek invited 43 contributors who knew John Latham or are familiar with his work to remember an episode or incident involving the artist, his art or ideas. Contributors include Patrick Keiller, Lucy Lippard, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Barbara Steveni, Penelope Curtis, John Stezaker and many more.
Published biannually, NOIT will invite a guest editor to propose a theme for each issue and together with FTHo, invite writers, academics and artists to contribute new work. Like the programming of FTHo, content will be focused on subject areas that deal with the role of the artist; time and temporality; art and science; language; and value and belief systems—all enduring themes of particular concern to Latham. Available to buy online here.
NOIT–2, to be published in May 2014, will be guest edited by Lisa Le Feuvre.
ANTIKNOW—A pedagogical theatre of unlearning and the limits of knowledge
Directed by Jakob Jakobsen
Friday, 29 November 2013–Sunday, 12 January 2014
Script and performance by the Antiknow Research Group: María Berríos, Howard Slater, Marina Vishmidt, John Hill, Mary Vettise, John Cunningham, Paul Abbott, Henrik Heinonen, Claire Louise Staunton, Katriona Beales, Mohammad Namazi, Danny Hayward, Anthony Iles, Eve Lear, Gabriel Humberstone, Emma Hedditch, Leon Redler, Jakob Jakobsen et al.
The exhibition, Antiknow, is a collective effort of unlearning and non-knowledge as critical strategies. This in a time where institutional and frozen forms of knowledge and learning shaped by economic forces increasingly characterizes education and society in general. The term ‘antiknow’ was originally introduced by John Latham as a course title for the Antiuniversity of London in 1968. It is doubtful whether this course ever took place.
During his six-month residency at Flat Time House, visual artist Jakob Jakobsen engaged in elaborating possible meanings and consequences of the term ‘antiknow’ in the current context of so-called knowledge economy. Jakobsen set up the Antiknow Research Group involving young artists as well as a number of writers, and therapists with whom Jakob has collaborated for many years.
This exhibition is one of the consequences of ‘antiknow’ and involves experiments into drama for non-actors, unskilled music and free drawing. The exhibition uses FTHo as a readymade stage. Its point of departure is the anthropomorphic scheme that John Latham proposed for the building where each room is dedicated to a specific part of the body: the mind, the brain, the body event (plumbing), and the hand. In the space, a mechanical theatre has been developed. The various themes investigated by the Antiknow Research Group are presented as a drama (or anti-drama) between sets of loud speakers and synchronized lighting.
Jakob Jakobsen is a visual artist, educator and activist. He was co-founder of the Copenhagen Free University, active from 2001 to 2007; the trade union Young Artworkers (UKK) in 2002; the artist-run television station tv-tv in 2004; and Nebula Publishers in 2010. He was professor at the Funen Art Academy from 2006 to 2012. Recent exhibitions include Image Politics/Billed Politik at Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen and This World We Must Leave at Kunsthalle Aarhus in 2010. He was part of And And And/Documenta 13 with The Antiuniversity Research Project initiated by Mayday Rooms, London in 2012.
The exhibition and journal have been supported by the Arts Council for England, The Barry Flanagan Foundation and the Danish Arts Council.
