7 pm
Centre for Possible Studies
64 Seymour Street
W1H 5BW
Co-founder of ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum), Egypt and co-curator of Manifesta 8 in Murcia Spain, Bassam el Baroni will present ongoing work related to the question of where we as cultural practitioners position ourselves. Through an open conversation he will pose questions such as: How do we reckon with political agendas for culture on our own terms? How do we take the ideas of recent socially and politically engaged art practices onto a stage where they can become more than antagonistic struggles resolved by market and governments? How can we develop our own language around the goals of our practices? If we want to change the political system of art economies, how do we create forms of slow but generative refusal?
Centre for Possible Studies current artists-in-residence, no.w.here, Rania Stephan and Hiwa K will respond.
The event is free of charge.
All are welcome but spaces are limited so please pre-register by sending an email to amalk@serpentinegallery.org.
Presented in collaboration with the Falmouth Convention.
Bassam el Baroni is a curator and art critic from Alexandria, Egypt. He is the co-founder and director of Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), a collectively run, non-profit art space which has been in operation since December 2005. Baroni’s recent curatorial projects include You, Me and the Trajectories of a Post-Everything Era at PROGR Bern, Switzerland and ACAF 2005-2006; Cleotronica 08, Alexandria’s first international media art festival, 2008; Trapped in Amber: Angst for a Re-enacted Decade, co-curated with Helga-Marie Nordby at UKS, Oslo, Norway in 2009; and A.K.A. Education, which took place in Alexandria in 2009. Baroni is the curator of ACAF’s contribution to Manifesta 8 along with Associate Curator Jeremy Beaudry. Manifesta 8 will be collaboratively curated by ACAF together with the Chamber of Public Secrets and Tranzit.org, and will open in Murcia, Spain in October this year.
