An international symposium about artistic journeys, departures and returns
11 - 12 November 2005
Arts Council England and Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Image: Keith Piper, Ghosting the Archive, 2005. Courtesy the artist.
Tickets are for sale, booking recommended. www.tate.org.uk/modern or call 44 20 7887 8888.
Ricardo Basbaum, Caryl Phillips, Harold Offeh, Jonzi D, Rene Gabri, Ayreen Anastas, Tirdad Zolghadr, Irit Rogoff, Jackie Kay, Keith Piper, susan pui san lok, Kodwo Eshun, Fernando Arias, Oreet Ashery, Dinu Li, Margareta Kern, Ralph Hoyte, Jiva Parthipan, and Trevor Woolery.
Through a series of departures and returns, artists have occasionally deployed the recurring motifs of the journey: exploration, discovery, revelation and transformation. This strategy has allowed them to critically navigate the global spaces of displacement and diaspora, and the high anxiety of belonging.
Focusing on the formation of new perspectives through an extensive range of artistic journeys, this symposium explores some of the current concerns facing artists working on and across the borders of art, moving image and time-based practice. Within this moment of extensive mobility and migration, artists come together to consider how being elsewhere might, like alchemy, transform the practice of art.
The symposium, organised in conjunction with Arts Council Englands Necessary Journeys arts initiative and the bfis Black World project, includes Ricardo Basbaum, Caryl Phillips, Harold Offeh, Jonzi D, Amelia Jones, Rene Gabri, Ayreen Anastas, Tirdad Zolghadr, Irit Rogoff, Kodwo Eshun, Jackie Kay, Keith Piper, and susan pui san lok.
Symposium tickets can be booked at www.tate.org.uk/modern or telephone 44 20 7887 8888. Admission includes tea and coffee, a drinks reception, a book launch, a complimentary copy of the Necessary Journeys guidebook and entry to the Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris exhibition.
On Friday 11 November, 16.00-18.00, there will be a presentation by recipients of the Necessary Journeys Travel Bursary Award. Artists include Fernando Arias, Oreet Ashery, Dinu Li, Margareta Kern, Ralph Hoyte, Jiva Parthipan, and Trevor Woolery. Admission is free, no booking required.
Necessary Journeys is brought to life as a fully-illustrated book, edited by Melanie Keen and Eileen Daly, published in November. New writing by Bernardine Evaristo, Kitty Hauser, Sukhdev Sandhu and Sarah Wood captures the spirit of Necessary Journeys through themes that range from adventure and exploration to archiving and storytelling. The book features pages by ten international artists and is prefaced by Caryl Phillips incisive essay Necessary Journeys. The book will be launched at the symposium. It is published by Arts Council England in association with bfi Black World, 2005; 96pp and 35 colour illustrations. ISBN 0-7287-1112-5.
Playing in the Light: Black Dance Film Tour will show work by some of the artists featured in the symposium and others including Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Jonzi D, Isaac Julien, Michele Magema, Alison Murray and Harold Offeh. This film programme brings together some of the very best black artists, choreographers, dancers and musicians working in the collaborative field of filmmaking. It will take place on Sunday 13 November 2005 at 15.00 at Tate Modern in the Starr Auditorium. Tickets are for sale, and booking is recommended. Playing in the Light is an Independent Cinema Office touring programme supported by the Arts Council England in association with bfi Black World: Necessary Journeys.
The Necessary Journeys arts initiative is produced by Arts Council England and takes its cue from the bfis Black World project. It is supported by decibel legacy.
For further information please visit www.artscouncil.org.uk/necessaryjourneys and www.bfi.org.uk/blackworld
