Momentous Times
August 26–November 2, 2013
Opening: Saturday, September 7, 6pm
Forums: September 7 and November 2, noon–6pm
Centre for Contemporary Art
10-12 Artillery Street
Derry~Londonderry
BT48 6RG
Northern Ireland
info [at] cca-derry-londonderry.org
Exhibition and screenings: Sarah Browne / Colin Darke / Aideen Doran / Toril Johannessen / Harun Farocki / Marianne Flotron / Melanie Gilligan / Anja Kirschner & David Panos / Tom Flanagan & Megs Morley / Olivia Plender / Allan Sekula & Noël Burch / Raqs Media Collective / Hito Steyerl
Forums: Maria Chehonadskih / Mark Curran / Angela Dimitrakaki / Eamonn McCann / John Roberts / Precarious Workers Brigade / Kerstin Stakemeier / Anthony Iles / Marina Vishmidt / Josefine Wikström
Curated by Aileen Burns & Johan Lundh
The first two decades of the 20th century were undeniably momentous for people of Ireland on many fronts. There were major strikes for dock, tram, and factory workers from Belfast to Cork, Galway to Limerick, from 1907 to 1913, culminating in the Dublin Lockout. The centenary of the Dublin Lockout has prompted CCA to consider conditions of labour and the role of representation in shaping work and workers’ rights between three punctual moments: 1913, 2013, and 2113. Through an exhibition, public forums, screenings, and a publication, Momentous Times examines the past, explores the present, and speculates about the future of labour.
In this expansive exhibition, artists Colin Darke, Melanie Gilligan, and Raqs Media Collective look forward, imagining the future of labour and economy, and creating allegorical projections that may serve as warnings or conversely as signs of hope. Aideen Doran, Marianne Flotron, and Allan Sekula and Noël Burch work with documentation of contemporary workers, examine their physical and psychological well-being, and expose persistent hierarchies and hypocrisies. Sarah Browne, Harun Farocki, Anja Kirschner and David Panos, Tom Flanagan and Megs Morley, and Olivia Plender take longer views of history, tracing historical and revealing contemporary forces that have created abstract capital and the conditions for accumulation and private ownership. Hito Steyerl and Toril Johannessen visualise and abstract information, invoking recurrent states of crisis—financial, security, health—and reference moments of radicality, hope, fear, prosperity, recession.
Individual and collaborative contributors such as Maria Chehonadskih, Mark Curran, Angela Dimitrakaki, Eamonn McCann, John Roberts, Precarious Workers Brigade, Kerstin Stakemeier, Anthony Iles and Josefine Wikström will present their work and ideas during two public forums organised and moderated by Marina Vishmidt.
Tying the project together and linking up with other art initiatives responding to the Dublin Lockout is Working Times, a newspaper edited by Aileen Burns, Johan Lundh and Helen Carey. The publication is produced in collaboration with Belfast Exposed; Gallery of Photography, Dublin; The Hugh Lane, Dublin; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Mockingbird Arts and Temple Bar Gallery+Studios, Dublin. Pick up Working Times in one of the venues listed above or download it here.
CCA is principally funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland/The Lottery Fund, and supported by Northern Ireland Executive Supported by The Urban Regeneration Company Ilex; The Department for Social Development; Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013; Arts & Business NI; British Council NI; Caldwell & Robinson Solicitors. Momentous Times is additionally supported by The Association of Art Historians; The Goethe Institut, London; The Mondriaan Fund; and Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council.
For more information about the exhibition or high-resolution images, please contact Mel Bradley via email at press [at] cca-derry-londonderry.org, or call +44 (0) 28 7137 3538.
