Panel Discussion
Artur Żmijewski
The Ethics of Collaboration
Friday, 11 March, 2–4pm
Presented by Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin, Ireland.
www.firestation.ie
Presented by Fire Station Artists’ Studios in association with the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin.
‘The ethics of collaboration within socially engaged arts practice.’
Dave Beech, (UK writer/ artist), Jesse Jones (artist) and Dr Aine O Brien (Director of the Forum on Migration and Communications FOMACS)
Chaired by Liz Burns. (Fire Station Artists’ Studios)
Venue: NCAD, 100 Thomas St, Dublin 8, Ireland.
Admission free, all welcome.
Following on from Artur Żmijewski’s recent exhibition in Dublin ( Nov–Dec 2010) which featured the video works Two Monuments (2009), and Democracies (2009), this discussion will take Artur Żmijewski’s socially engaged arts practice as a starting point, and consider the question of ethics when artists work collaboratively.
Renowned for his provocative ‘social documentary’ type films, Polish artist Artur Żmijewski’s practice seeks to connect to society, frequently exposing social conflict, human weakness and mechanisms of power and oppression. In 2008-2009, Żmijewski was commissioned by Fire Station Artists’ Studios to develop a project examining the changing nature of Polish Irish relations. Over a series of visits to Fire Station in 2008–2009 Żmijewski invited Polish and Irish unemployed men and women to take part in a series of intense workshops. The artist filmed and edited the results into Two Monuments (2009).
This discussion will consider aspects of Żmijewski’s “social studio” type methodology, such as the use of labour, authorial control, negotiation with participants etc. It will also interrogate the idea of ‘ethical representation’ often expected of artists who choose to work collaboratively.
Artur Żmijewski’s work has been included in major international exhibitions such as 11th Istanbul Biennial, Documenta 12, the 2002 Liverpool Biennial and Manifesta 4. He has had solo shows in MOMA New York; Kunstalle, Basel; BAK, Utrecht, and represented Poland at the 51st Venice Biennale. He was recently appointed curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale.
Dave Beech is a member of the art collective Freee, as well as being a writer and lecturer at Chelsea College of Art, London. He is a regular writer for Art Monthly and other magazines. www.freee.org.uk
Jesse Jones is a Dublin based artist whose practice reflects and re-presents historical moments of collective resistance and dissent. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including, Istanbul Biennial (2009), Nought to Sixty, ICA, (2008) and a solo show for RedCat, CalArts, Los Angeles 2011
Dr Áine O’Brien is Director of the Forum on Migration and Communication (FOMACS) and Co-director of the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice, in DIT, Dublin. www.fomacs.org
Liz Burns curates Fire Station’s artistic programme which focuses on site and context specific projects of a socially engaged nature.
New Publication. The Applied Social Arts: Artur Żmijewski (2010)
Edited by Fire Station: Includes essays by Dave Beech and Artur Żmijewski
To purchase: www.firestation.ie/projects/publications
For further information contact: Fire Station Artists’ Studios Tel +353 1 8069012 artadmin [at] firestation.ie
Fire Station Artists’ Studios is funded by the Arts Council, Ireland.
