Philip
Curated by Mai Abu ElDahab with Heman Chong and Leif Magne Tangen
Opening November 10 at 6pm, and runs until January 13, 2007
Workshop: November 2 to 9, 2006
Public Talks: November 7 and 9 at 4pm. Book Launch: January 13 at 6pm.
Project Arts Centre
39 East Essex Street
Temple Bar, D2.
“The disintegration of the social and economic system had been slow, gradual, and profound. It went so deep that people lost faith in natural law itself. Nothing seemed stable or fixed; the universe was a sliding flux () all that remained was probable sequence: good odds in a universe of random chance.” Solar Lottery, 1955.
For PHILIP a group of international artists, curators, designers and writers have been invited to partake in a writing workshop, public talks and film screenings which will conclude with the publication of a limited edition sci-fi novel. Technology, ideology, architecture, political construction and the prospects of global ruin are at the heart of sci-fi narratives and at the heart of Philip. The invitees share a fascination for alternative realities, postulating the impossible and creating new worldviews.
The science fiction writing workshop led by Heman Chong (SG) and Leif Magne Tangen (NO) is developed out of their joint online project “Untitled (Excerpts #01)”, a collection of 103 submissions of dialogues taken from sci-fi writings expressing an authoritarian gesture available at www.philipville.com . The workshop participants – Mark Aerial Waller (UK), Cosmin Costinas (RO), Rosemary Heather (CA/DE), Francis McKee (IR), David Reinfurt (USA) and Steve Rushton (UK/NL) along with Chong and Magne Tangen, will endeavour to collectively write a new novel envisioning the last week of the year 2019 in the life of a character that is desperately fighting for time to save his world.
Public talks by the workshop participants (organized in cooperation with Critical Voices) will consider being wrong about the present, mushrooms and virtual reality, a science fiction library, Benjamin Franklin and the Network Effect, the emergence of a new society of humans as the results of animal experiments, the recurring dream of the destruction of our cities, and other phenomena.
November 7, @ 4pm in the Gallery: Steve Rushton, Rosemary Heather and David Reinfurt
November 9, @ 4pm in the Gallery: Mark Aerial Waller, Francis McKee and Cosmin Costinas
Philip will also involve an exhibition consisting of an ongoing program of sci-fi shorts by, Dara Birnbaum, Iman Issa, Juha van Ingen, Tina Keane, George Melies, Jasper Morello, Otolith Group and Semiconductor, as well as a screenings of Samuel Becketts Film every Saturday 4.00pm.
November 10: Opening and introduction by Heman Chong and Leif Magne Tangen
Philip concludes with the publishing of a new limited edition novel, produced at the Just-in-Time workshop by Dexter Sinister, New York.
Mai Abu ElDahab is an independent curator. Heman Chong is an artist based in Singapore and Berlin. Leif Magne Tangen is a critic based in Liepzig.
For more information, please contact Aisling McGrane T | 353 1 8819608 or E | aisling@project.ie