Sans Papiers? Video screening and Tanja Ostojić in conversation with Katarzyna Kosmala on the other side of migration and politics of representation

Saturday 16 March 2013

5:30pm - 7:00pm: FREE (ticketed)

Venue: CCA 4 (cinema)

Ages: all

Call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900

Sans Papiers (2004), a 14 min video by Serbian artist Tanja Ostojić (collaboration with David Rych), addresses the questions of the restrictive asylum laws and comments on detention spaces in a deportation center in Berlin-Kopenick, Germany, through the conversations with ethnic African, Middle Eastern, former Yugoslavian and Turkish men. ‘Otherness’ refers to a migration status, an access to citizen rights across the border of ‘no origin’.

Prof Katarzyna Kosmala critically engages with Ostojić’ practice in her new book Imagining Masculinities (Routledge, 2013), addressing politics of representation, migration and gender. By marking the parallels between national borders and the boundaries of gendered bodies, Ostojić’s work opens up spaces for rethinking of the ‘other’ through mobility and resistance. After the video screening, Prof Kosmala will discuss with Ostojić her approaches to art activism, drawing on the video Sans Papiers and her most recent work Misplaced Women? The event is presented by the University of the West of Scotland.

Tanja Ostojić is a Serbian-born, Berlin-based artist working predominantly from a migrant woman’s perspective, combining political engagement and art activism with performance and humour. She holds an interdisciplinary fellowship at the Graduate School of UDK, Berlin University of Arts. Ostojić presented her work internationally, including the Venice Biennale 2001 and 2011, Škuc Gallery Ljubljana, 2012, KUMU Art Museum Tallinn, 2011, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest  2011, ASAB, Bogotá, Colombia, 2010, MUMOK, Vienna, and Zacheta gallery Warsaw, 2010,Kusrpavillon Innsbruck 2008, ICA London 1999, Manifesta 2 Luxembourg 1998. Her videos have been screened at a number of festivals such as IFFF Dortmund /Kölon  2010, Globale Berlin 2008, Oberhausen Kurzfilm und Video Festival 2000. Ostojić participates in the Economy show at CCA  http://www.van.at/see/tanja/

Katarzyna Kosmala, PhD is Professor of Culture, Media and Visual Practice at the University of the West of Scotland, and freelance curator and art writer.

To book tickets, visit the CCA website. 

Irish Women of our Past @ Film City Glasgow

Rachael Flynn writes: 

An event/gathering on Tuesday 4th of December at 6:30pm at Film City (Old Govan Town Hall), Glasgow - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Film+City+Glasgow,+Govan+Road,+Glasgow&hl=en&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=9.676196,28.103027&oq=film+city+g&hq=Film+City+Glasgow,+Govan+Road,+Glasgow&t=m&z=15

As you are aware I have been advertising and asking people around the world to submit names of women in their past who have made the trip from Ireland. These names have been growing as word has spread and are continuing to build a collection of names and memories (see www.irishwomenofourpast.co.uk ).

I have recently returned from a trip around Ireland visiting the ports which they would have departed from and lit candles at each site in their memory. The aim of this trip was to allow both herself and the relatives of these women to commemorate the migrant women’s departures from these sites.

On Tuesday 'a sea' of candles will be lit in memory of those Irish women who journeyed to other lands. As mentioned above this will take place at Film City (Old Govan Town Hall), Glasgow, close to the Broomielaw where some of the boats arriving from Ireland would moor, with Govan itself a site of considerable Irish migration. The collection of names of Irish women of our past has continued to grow with more women remembered and represented by their descendants across the Diaspora, and more and more of their stories being remembered, recognized and shared. Each of the women’s names sent to me will be represented by a small candle which will be lit within this temporary devotional space while the names of the women and the places they left are commemorated in a subtle video work close-by.

I will be filming the sea of candles and streaming online for those who have submitted the names to access with a password being able to see the event from any location, allowing them to witness the event on behalf of their relation. The original candle which I lit for my own grandmother in Donegal, and then lit at the various ports on my recent visit will sit amongst these other candles, adding to the “sea” of light - a simple but effective act of remembrance.

I will be continuing to collect names up to and post event so please continue to tell those who you feel may be intetrested.

Names can be submitted via my email address – Rachael.flynn@uws.ac.uk

through the website - irishwomenofourpast.co.uk

The Eskdalemuir Harmonium

Tuesday 11 December 2012, CCA Cinema

5:30pm : FREE (ticketed)

Ages: all
Commercial Music Research Group: Seminar 3

Call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900

The Eskdalemuir Harmonium is a site-specific album orientated around a dying American harmonium - currently disintegrating in a farmhouse near Lockerbie.

In this landscape, home to a vast Tibetan Buddhist temple and megalithic stone circles, artist and musician Chris Dooks has been making pilgrimages to the site, and collaborating virtually with Rotterdam based Machinefabriek(Rutger Zuyderveldt). The resulting album and supplementary digital package is a fusion of ‘folktronica-concrète’ replete with field recordings and a radio documentary. The package forms part of an ongoing investigation of how chronically ill individuals may benefit from working with equally collapsing instruments.

This is an essential presentation for vinyl enthusiasts. The album, made over a twelve-month period, includes an essay and photographs of the year-long process and each vinyl bought comes with an expanded sister EP entitledNon-Linear Responses of Self-Excited Harmoniums. The record itself is lovingly pressed on bright red vinyl and is released by Toronto’s Komino Records, and copies should be available on the night.

Much as one visits a sick relative in a care home, The Eskdalemuir Harmonium is a form of ‘sonic palliative care’ forming a third of Chris Dooks’ ongoing PhD. Hear him explain how this fits into his vision of ‘idioholism’ with excerpts from parts two and three of the trilogy. 

Tartan Noir

The second Commercial Music Research Group seminar this year will take place in the UWS space at CCA Glasgow on Tuesday 13th November, from 5.30 - 7.00pm.

Lecturer in Music/Programme Leader for MA Songwriting and Performance David Scott will present

Classic Scottish Albums: Tartan Noir

I’ve presented and researched BBC Radio Scotland’s Classic Scottish Albums for 6 years and 6 series. In that time the production team have made around 32 radio features each dedicated to one classic album. My Commercial Music Research Group seminar will focus on the critical and practical factors that can be said to influence the construction of canon and will try to identify some strands of Scottishness that feature repeatedly across the series. James Ellroy coined the phrase Tartan Noir to describe an emerging genre of Scottish crime fiction that seemed to take some of its cues from his own L.A. underworld, albeit with a more guttural, weather-beaten tone. My talk will offer some examples of the same relationships within popular music, from Tom Waits to Bill Wells & Aiden Moffat and beyond.

Please bring your Tartan Noir vinyl to the party.

World Alliance for Arts Education: cultural encounters and northern reflections

Dr Kathryn Burnett, Senior Lecturer/Subject Leader for Broadcast Production and Graham Jeffery, Reader in Music and Performance are travelling to Rovaniemi, Lapland, to participate in the World Alliance for Arts Education summit from 9th - 11th November. Both will present on aspects of pedagogy and practice in the School of Creative and Cultural Industries at UWS.

Kathryn Burnett and Tony Grace: Making a Creative Space: developing integrated approaches to creative practice teaching

Graham Jeffery: Education for cultural practice/education for cultural economy? Intersections, interdisciplinarity and issues

The full programme for the conference, and the following meeting of the University of the Arctic Sustainable Art and Design Network, of which UWS is a member, can be found here.

Recycling Mumbai: the battle for space in Dharavi’s 13th Compound

Friday November 23rd, 2012
Clubroom, CCA Glasgow, 5.30pm - 7.00pm

In 2012, as an uninvited guest, Ben Parry spent extended periods in Mumbai as researcher and artist. Based in the Dharavi slum, and working with community members, the Acorn Foundation and other NGOs, Ben has been interrogating his own outsider ‘gaze’ and that of others who come to investigate, intervene and ultimately extract knowledge about Mumbai’s informal or unofficial urban practices. Ben will be discussing Reversing the Gaze: a project which investigates the displacement of 450 families formerly living on the pipeline in Dharavi’s recycling district, known as the 13^th Compound. The pipeline is one of the most documented and recognised images of ‘slum world’, made famous through its depiction in Slumdog Millionaire and National Geographic magazine. An over-productive global interest in Dharavi has even spawned an industry in slum tours. Last year, many of the residents of the 13^th Compound disappeared without trace: they were the first residents to be evicted without entitlement to local rehousing through Dharavi’s Slum Redevelopment Schemes. The destruction of homes and livelihoods in aggressive land reclamation went largely unreported in the press.

Ben Parry is a visual artist based in London. He received his BA at Glasgow School of Art and holds a Masters in Urban Planning from University of Liverpool. He co-directs arts organisation Jump Ship Rat through which he curates and produces exhibitions, site-specific projects and unsanctioned  interventions in the public realm. He is undertaking a practice-led PhD in the School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of the West of Scotland. His work explores tactical and informal urbanism; appropriations and interim uses of voids and liminal spaces. He is co-editor of the book Cultural Hijack: rethinking intervention (2012 Liverpool University Press) an anthology of experimental approaches to situation-led urban interventions.

To book tickets, please visit the CCA website. 

Ayr Converses: Adaptation

ayr converses                       

Adaptation : invitation/outline

Monday 22 October 2012 : 6pm–8pm: University of the West of Scotland, Ayr Campus

You are warmly invited to the third presentation/conversation in which we focus on adaptation in creating spaces & places: adaptation that is driven by a vision of creating buildings and spaces that are meaningful to communities. Community empowerment and engagement is central to this vision of place making. We are delighted that the presentation will be led by award-winning architects Andy McAvoy and Ann Nisbet of Edo Architecture. Andy’s work will be familiar to many from the sustainable pods he designed for the BBC reality programme “Castaway”, which he redesigned for use at Cove Park. Ann works not only as an architect but as a designer & visual artist. This innovative Glasgow-based practice has a wealth of expertise and an unique vision to share. Their love of George Wyllie the artist led to our meeting. We dedicate the evening to George Wyllie whose ‘Paper Boat’ famously sailed into Ayr harbour.

Chris Fremantle of eco/art/scotland and co-founder of ayr converses will chair the Q&A & participate with Andy & Ann in the wrap-up session.

Andy & Ann have set out their thoughts for the presentation:

“We will set an international context for modern place making. We will show how we and our work have had to adapt and how we anticipate having to adapt further. We would show slides of two completed projects & introduce two live projects from a community empowerment perspective: Govan’s Water Row and Pollokshield’s Garden Mile.”

Andy McAvoy & Ann Nisbet, Edo Architecture + Ann Nisbet

The presentation will help us to focus on the adaptation we all need to make in our thinking and practice if our approach to regenerating Ayr town centre and key derelict land & stalled spaces in Ayr is to succeed. We will consider (in outline & more fully at a later presentation/conversation) how the Scottish Government’s commitment to community empowerment could lead to a changed landscape in public participation in Ayr, and beyond with creative civic dialogue seen as the way forward.

Andy & Ann’s collaborative way of working with communities & clients alike is a model of engagement and empowerment. Their focus is on listening, engaging, drawing, redrawing, listening and drawing again until the shared vision is realised. Their work in Govan – including ghosting lost communities – is both inspiring and empowering. Chris Fremantle will make the connection to Ayr in setting out how eco/art/scotland plans to develop work around stalled spaces, with reference to Plot 9 & the Affleck’s site by way of modelling, drawing, cultural mapping & community gardening.

The presentation follows on from the inspiring first two events in this series that were led by Malcolm Fraser, the award-winning architect who has continued to maintain an involvement in developments in Ayr.

The shape of the evening follows our 1st two sessions: the presentation opens the evening, followed by a Q&A session. There is then an opportunity to converse over a glass of wine and canapés, before returning for a wrap-up session that looks forward to actions and future presentation/conversations. A note of the evening will be made and circulated with agreed actions for the future.

ayr converses is an ideas bank + soundboard for Ayr, strengthening community ties and furthering arts and culture-led economic regeneration.

A small collection will be made towards the costs involved in the venue and refreshments. 

Translating Russian and Eastern European Cultures

Translating Russian & East European Cultures*

CCA, Glasgow, 28^-29 September, 2012

Friday 28 September 2012

Cinema Space

1100-1700 Cinema screening, Intermediality of image and politics:  Major retrospective of video work by Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid (curated by Katarzyna Kosmala)

Theatre Space

1300-1400 Marina Grzinic lecture, Micro-economies of artistic production and its politics in CEE, both under Communism and in contemporary reality of neo-liberalism and capitalist globalisation of the ‘former East’

1415-1500 Elena Isaeva & Catrin Webster, Talk to accompany the 1000 Colour Blue exhibit

15.10-1530 – 1000 Colours Blue Film – A short film of hues and voices, of the premier performance of the 1000 Blues collected from the sea-landscape of Swansea, and sung by a choir that translated the colours into sound, intertwining Classical elements with Mongolian Overtone themes. Part of the AHRC Beyond Text project Future Memory in Place

1545 - 1715 Brendan Jackson & Graham Jeffery, Approaches to community engagement through art

1745 – 1845 Welsh-Estonian music collaboration SILD

1900 drinks reception CCA foyer

Club Room

1100-1600 – BASEES Postgraduate Workshop, Intersectionality in the study of Central and East Europe 

Saturday 29 September 2012

Cinema Space

1100-1800 Cinema screening, Intermediality of image and politics:  Major retrospective of video work by Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid (curated by Katarzyna Kosmala)

1200-1300 Katarzyna Kosmala, Marina Grzinic & Ryszard Kluszczynski in conversation. Intermediality and political changes across Europe of today

All events are free but spaces are limited, if you would like to attend any of the events email your details to Prof. Katarzyna Kosmala (Katarzyna.Kosmala@uws.ac.uk) & Jon Oldfield (Jonathan.Oldfield@glasglow.ac.uk)

*Translating Russian and East European Cultures is a Research Networking initiative funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. See the following website for more details: http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/centraleasteuropeanstudies/projects/treec/