Andrea Francke and Annette Krauss
(in)visibilities
26 June–28 July 2012
Preview: 26 June, 6.30–8.30pm
The Showroom
63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ
Hours: Wed–Sat, 12–6pm
T 0044 (0)20 7724 4300
www.theshowroom.org
The Showroom presents two newly commissioned projects that address questions of (in)visibility in relation to how social structures and conditions are experienced in everyday life and made visible, or not, and why this is so. Both are produced within Communal Knowledge—an ongoing programme of artists’ commissions that involve collaborative research and knowledge-exchange within The Showroom’s locality, the Church Street neighbourhood.
Andrea Francke‘s Invisible spaces of parenthood: A collection of pragmatic propositions for a better future explores issues surrounding childcare in collaboration with local nurseries, childminders, children’s centres, and parent groups, and looks for new models and possibilities. This includes setting up a workshop in The Showroom’s gallery during the exhibition for visitors and workshop participants to test out DIY designs for furniture and play, some of which will be gathered through an open call. These ideas will feed into a manual, to be published in September.
Annette Krauss‘ Hidden Curriculum looks at unintended and unrecognised forms of knowledge that are part of learning processes and daily life within schools. Working with two groups of 15–17-year-old students from local schools in a series of workshops, videos have been produced that look at the invisible values and beliefs that accompany official learning processes, and the informal knowledge and normalisation processes that influence the way we know, see, and act in the world. The videos will be exhibited in a new installation in the exhibition.
Event: Spaces of Equality
Monday, 2 July, 7–9pm
Annette Krauss; Andrea Francke; and Dennis Atkinson, Professor of Art in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London explore ‘spaces of equality’ and notions of (in)visibility, leading from collaborative research between The Showroom, Goldsmiths’ Department of Art in Education and FLAG, Chelsea School of Art and Design.
Further workshops and discussions will be advertised on The Showroom’s website: www.theshowroom.org
Background
Annette Krauss (born in Germany, based in Utrecht) is The Showroom’s Artist Fellow during 2012/13, researching notions of unlearning and (in)visibility. Her artwork employs performance, video, research, and pedagogy to explore the possibilities of participatory practices, performativity, and investigations into institutional structures in order to work/think through the questions: How do we know what we know? What do we see? What do we not see and why?
Andrea Francke (born in Peru, based in London) is part of the collective Making Do, who publish a magazine of the same title, and is developing The Piracy Project with AND Publishing, an exploration of the philosophical, legal, and practical implications of book piracy. She was a recipient of the Red Mansion Art Prize, 2011.
The Showroom is a space for contemporary art that operates on the intersections between art, research, and participation, focusing on collaborative and process-driven approaches to production, and enabling new work by artists who have not had significant exposure for their work in London before.
Led by curator Louise Shelley, Communal Knowledge is an ongoing programme of projects by local and international artists and designers that involve collaborative research with people who live and work in The Showroom’s neighbourhood, creating playful and experimental spaces for critical reflection on local issues, and how to think about change.
(in)visibilities is produced in the framework of COHAB, a two-year project with Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht and Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, supported by a Cooperation Measures grant from the European Commission Culture Programme (2007–2013). Communal Knowledge is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, John Lyon’s Charity, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, The Showroom Supporters Scheme, and by Westminster Cultural Olympiad (Westminster City Council, BNP Paribas and Vital Regeneration), and Outset as The Showroom’s Production Partner, 2012.
For further information please contact Holly Willats: holly@theshowroom.org
