KRÍSIS

October 16, 2016

2173

(Featured image credit: Sama Alshaibi, Al-Tariqah (The path), 2014, Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery)

KRÍSIS

28 OCTOBER – 9 DECEMBER 2016, NOTTINGHAM, UK

In what seems like an intensifying atmosphere of global, media-driven expressions of shock, horror, fear and anxiety – how can we use states of crisis as ways to re-think the future?
Can we harness these acutely painful conditions as opportunities to recuperate alternative modes of creativity?

Curated by Something Human and presented in partnership with the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham Contemporary, Krísis presents an exhibition and events programme with international visual and performance artists to engage you with ultifaceted perspectives on the meaning of ‘crisis’, and its understanding within the current sociopolitical climate.

Through multidisciplinary artworks, live performance and conversations, the project focuses on crisis as a creative and curatorial opportunity in accordance to artist Charles Gaines’ claim that ‘criticality is a strategy for the production of knowledge’. Krísis explores how these critical conditions can be reclaimed and reconfigured to drive change through artistic practice.

With reference to its Greek etymology, the exhibition addresses the notion of ‘crisis’ as a power of distinguishing, a decision, a choice, a dispute, and it walks the public into a journey that touches different public and intimate spheres.

From the crisis of arts institutions (Raju Rage), the blind spots into urban landscapes (John Clang) and connected migrants’ displacement and traces left on their passages (Boedi Widjaja), the audience is invited to engage with stories of women affected by FGM practice (Aida Silvestri), Syrian and Cambodian refugees personal stories of travels and stops (Dictaphone Group, Srey Bandaul, Aida Silvestri); conflicts, memories of passages and healing processes (Tuan Mami, Lynn Lu).

Moreover, Krísis presents investigations on the contemporary vocabulary of war (Maryam Monalisa Gharavi), ecological crises resulting from manmade disasters (Sama Alshaibi), economic downturns and financial heavens (Núria Güell and Levi Orta), and personal and common ways to overcome difficult life challenges, implement change and build future sharable knowledge (Marija Milosevska, Nicola Anthony, Post-Museum).

Krísis is the culmination of the three-year travelling exhibition project MOVE W I T H (OUT), which connected artists with site-specific performances and dialogues in Berlin, London, Rome, Venice, Belgrade, Singapore, Budapest, Skopje and Lisbon.

MOVE W I T H (OUT) trunk and screening programme artists:

Curators’ quotes:

‘It feels that for years it has been impossible to avoid the term ‘crisis’. It forcefully entered the public vocabulary as well as my personal one with a strength and a constant presence that it was about time to deal with.
What better than co-curating a show and public programme about it?

What better than involving artists to help interpreting it?

And if asked: why art? I would borrow Boris Groys’s definition of what the avant-garde’s role could be today: with their works Krísis artists do not and cannot predict the future for us but rather demonstrate the transitory character of the present and thus – hopefully – open a way for the new’.

Alessandra Cianetti

“Over the last few years, we have been traveling around Europe with our portable exhibition and performance project and it had allowed us to connect with artists and people in different city centres.

It was an amazing experience and we heard so many stories of how cities are changing, why people leave or move – and of course, this all happened against a backdrop of escalating critical changes across Europe.

We are privileged to work with the artists we have from all corners of the world – the US, UK, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Japan – all with their own reflections on trauma, the powerful creative engine of change and art’s role in re-making society and the future, which will be shared here in Nottingham.”

Annie Jael Kwan

The full programme includes an exhibition; Cross-Cultural Live Art Project (CCLAP) performances;
a conference; a workshop and film screenings – see website for details.

Location: Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University, Dryden St, Nottingham, NG1 4GG

For more information visit something-human.org – krisis.live or contact Alessandra Cianetti and
Annie Jael Kwan at somethinghuman.info@gmail.com