News
From
Liverpool to Barcelona, Cultural Research by Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Photographs Artist and References Sources.
22 February 2008
I
travelled to Barcelona (Spain) on 17 February 2008 to
explore the cultural sites, network and more. Love Easyjet
for the low cost fares, but the only negative point
was a late flight, so by the time I arrived I was dishevelled
and exhausted. I jumped a taxi from the airport to the
district of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera.
An
old part of the city and each originally named from
the monasteries which the medieval population settlements
gathered. Santa Caterina does not exist anymore, but
has a market in its location. The church of Sant Pere
de les Puelles at the end of the street Sant Pere Mes
Alt. Sant Pere's quarter has been for 1000 years the
centre of the rag trade and industry in Barcelona, where
at the street Sant Pere Mes Alt, is the Palau de la
Música Catalana, a splendid modernist building
by Domènech i Montaner profusely decorated with
tiles, ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron, sculptures
and more. The area architecturally is a fusion of artistic
styles going back centuries and laid with iconic buildings
14th-century basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, a Catalan
Gothic church, to the beacon of the city's Moderniste
architecture, the extraordinary Palau de la Música
Catalana. Past and present collide at the Museu Picasso,
where works of the great 20th-century master are displayed
in three adjoining Renaissance palaces.
My
first port of call was the Black Horse. Strangely, an
English public house set in the medieval Ribera district.
It is in a 16th century building complex and set between
the Cuidadela Parc and Vía Laietana in a commercial
pedestrian area not far from the Picasso Museum. The
medieval heritage of the building is generally retained,
but the interior literally set in the style and atmosphere
of a typical English pub since 1997. The current proprietor
is from the Merseyside area in the UK with staff on
hand from New Zealand, Scandinavian countries and UK.
The clientele are as equally varied from Spanish, English
and other cultural origins. As I sat at a table, I studied
the brick-a-brack, which is synonymous with most English
pubs that adorned the walls of plates, memorabilia,
collectibles and more. I then noticed a hand written
sign ‘Pies available’ and smiled and thought,
‘Yes, English!’ It was a relaxing and friendly
atmosphere.
The
following night I went to the more contemporary climates
of the Razzmatazz situated on Carrer dels Almogàvers
to see a Danish duo called the Raveonettes. Sune Rose
Wagner (on guitar, instruments, vocals) and Sharin Foo
(on bass and vocals). Their music inspired by fifties
and sixties rock with intense electric instrumentation
and harmonised dark lyrics, although on the night only
the lead vocalist, Foo, was singing. It was an excellent
atmosphere, but it crossed my mind how civilised the
mixed cultural audience were and compared it to the
mania of night clubs in Liverpool.
Wednesday
20 February 2008, I passed across the CCCB (Centre de
Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) and CASM
(Centre d’Art Santa Monica), both on the La Rambla.
They were installing a new exhibition of Peter Liversidge
to open in the CASM that Friday, so there was no show
open to the public, but the Curators running around
frantic carrying large pieces of art for the upcoming
private view. The CASM is a place with more an invested
interest to the promotion of international contemporary
arts.
The
CCCB is a public consortium created by the Diputació
de Barcelona (Provincial Council) and the Ajuntament
de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council). It organises
and produces exhibitions, debates, festivals and concerts,
programmes film cycles, courses and lectures, and encourages
creation using new technologies and languages. I suppose
the equivalent in part is the Fact Centre on Wood Street
in Liverpool, UK, with an equally diverse and intriguing
programme that ties very much into the cities international
programme, while the MACBA is on par to Tate Liverpool
in some respects to the genre of art exhibited. I think
the CASM would equal in some ways the Bluecoats, but
we are soon to see the new Bluecoats unveiled, so I
think I will hang fire on this until I make my mind
up.
The
exhibitions running at the CCCB included In Transition,
a framework of activities, exhibitions and screenings,
Las mujeres que no conocemos (Women we don't know),
Mined Lives 10 Years, an exhibition of photographs by
Gervasio Sánchez.
In
Transition is an exhibition of issues surrounding dictatorship,
torture and more under extreme political regimes. It
does not intend to be a chronological, narrative description
of a historical period but rather a way of understanding
a dense, complex process that acted as a bridge between
dictatorship and democracy and which affected, and developed
through, the people who experienced it. Torture was
a key theme of state violence running through Francoism
and the transition. Absent from historical research,
it has only crept into social debate after a difficult
process of recognising its practice, with consequences
that affect society and the individuals who were victim
to it, but also public policies of reparation and memory.
It looks at Spanish history under Franco and other similar
case studies and those residues inherited in contemporary
society’s perceptions. This was a very enlightening
and moving exhibition. Particularly in one section where
there was an array of photographs of individuals who
had been taken, tortured and killed.
Together
with Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia (Photos in the
City of Sylvia) and En la ciudad de Sylvia (In the City
of Sylvia), Las mujeres que no conocemos goes to make
up the latest creative project by José Luis Guerín.
Three different formats around a single discourse and
theme: the director's reflection on the female portrait,
fugitive time and cinematographic creation. In Las mujeres
que no conocemos, an expository installation produced
for the Spanish Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial
in 2007, Guerin employs the narrative photo-installation,
a format midway between film and photography. The result
is a step nearer the meeting between filmmaker and museum,
and explores a trail in which the CCCB is a pioneer,
film exposé.
Gervasio
Sánchez set out to pick up the stories of the
protagonists of the Mined Lives project he began in
1995. His images show the progress of those affected
and the problems they have had to overcome in countries
such as Afghanistan, Cambodia and Angola, and those
with the most land mines in the world: Bosnia, Mozambique,
El Salvador and Nicaragua. Some of those featured were
children when they were first photographed and are now
adults. The show will also include portraits of countries
such as Colombia, Sudan and Iraq that have been hard-hit
by mines in recent years. The main section in this exhibition
I found incredible and more confronting to the senses
was the array of images of individuals from all nationalities
and creeds, photographed in portraiture and lined regimental
in several rows across the full perimeter of the exhibition
space. Albeit cultural attire and skin colour, each
unified by having a limb lost, due these mines. It put
into sharp perspective how internationally all cultures
have been affected by warfare and the impact on the
civilians affecting all ages from the young to the young.
Other images covered personal narratives to some of
the victims of mines.
On
Thursday 21 February 2008, I ventured to the MACBA (Museu
d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona). I viewed four
exhibitions. Lothar Baumgarten - utofocus retina, ...for
the Osmotic Compensation Of The Pressure Of Wealth,
Alice Creischer: Works and Collaborations, Asier Mendizabal
and Joan Jonas Timelines: Transparencies in a Dark Room.
This
monographic exhibition by Lothar Baumgarten (who lives
and works in Berlin and New York) brings together a
series of photographic works, with single images as
well as sequences forming part of this complex presentation.
While not considering itself to be a retrospective,
the show includes sculpture, projection, wall drawings,
books and film from the late sixties to the present
day, some of which is adapted in situ to the architectural
conditions of the MACBA.
The
work of Alice Creischer (Berlin, 1960) is intensely
narrative. It is structured around a search to find
instruments to visualise the forms, moments and situations
in which the history of capitalism and its operating
principles become stories of exploitation, exclusion
and distortion of the basic principles of democracy.
Creischer's interest in exploring the relationships
between official policy (as represented by the actions
of governments), business (the huge finance and banking
corporations) and culture (in which certain figures
and new types of alienation and manipulation have their
origin) is reflected through installations, drawings
and collages, as well as articles and texts. Her ethical
position rails against the predicament of contemporary
liberal governments and the supposed misfortune of financial,
political and social crises.
Asier
Mendizabal (Ordizia, Guipuzkoa, 1973) is one of the
Basque artists of the new generation who pays most attention
to the relations between form, discourse and ideology.
His oeuvre could be described as a critique of ideology
based on the mise en scène of the structures
that shape it. Through the expanded fields of art, rock
music, cinema, politics and theory his view on social
structures leads him to sketch out a map of the totality
of production relations. Asier Mendizabal's transversal,
multidisciplinary approach focuses sharply on the difficulties
of representation inherent in the political, as well
as on the gaps between artistic activity and the ‘political
unconscious’ present in cultural productions,
manifestations of the collective and mass movements.
This
is the first retrospective exhibition in Spain of the
work of Joan Jonas (New York, 1936), one of the pioneering
artists in performance art, experimental film and video
installation. The exhibition consists essentially of
four installations that are representative of her career,
together with a series of films, single-channel videos,
drawings and photographs, that between them present
a reading of her work that draws a connection between
her practice of performance art and the origins of video
installation as a genre. Jonas’ innovative explorations
using ‘new media’ and the works she made
in the late sixties and early seventies played an essential
part in the development of performance as an artistic
genre. Her influence has been crucial to the emergence
of numerous art forms today associated with video, conceptual
art and theatre, and younger generations of artists,
such as Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney, are indebted
to her. This collection was eclectic and inspiring,
I suppose from my own proclivities for live art, as
we reference performance art in the 21st century. Her
contributions apparent in the history of contemporary
performance art and new media.
Chris
Boyd, Digital Study, 2007.
During
the week, I fraternised, researched, networked and more
until fit to drop, particularly on the upcoming exhibition
proposed for later this year to be launched at the View
Two Gallery (Liverpool, UK), Transvoyeur Aesthetic Innovations.
Chris Boyd and I are independently researching and developing
new work for this to be unveiled in December 2008.
My
other interests in Biomedicine led me to the IRB (Institute
for Research in Barcelona). It is an independent, non-profit
research institution engaged in basic and applied biomedical
science that aims to improve quality of life by applying
advances in this field. It is relatively a new establishment,
which was founded in 2005 by the Government of Catalonia
(Generalitat de Catalunya), the University of Barcelona
(UB) and the Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic
de Barcelona). For the past four years I have been researching
genetic culture from different perspectives on contemporary
society. Some earlier pieces, Darwinian Donations DIY,
exhibited at the View Two Gallery (Liverpool, UK) during
the Liverpool Biennial 2006. This topical subject has
recently been explored by international artists at the
Fact Centre in Liverpool Sk-interfaces exhibition. The
exhibition brought together by the Curator, Jens Hausser,
with work by the likes of Stelarc, Orlan and many other
established names. It runs 01 February 2008 to 30 March
2008.
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney, Darwinian Donations DIY, Performance
Stills, 2006.
On
the Thursday evening, my night closed with the universal
passion on football, although I am green around the
gills on this one. Two of the rooms in the Black Horse
were set aside to screen two different football matches.
In one area of the pub was shown Everton versus SK Bann
for the UEFA Cup and Everton won 6-1 on their home turf
at Goodison Park in Liverpool. However, in the neighbouring
room was screened Tottenham Hotspur playing against
Slavia Prague and drew 1-1. It was quite surreal as
conflicting echoes of victorious cheers exploded from
the Everton supporters and in contrast to the cries
of despair from the Tottenham Hotspur fans. Other than
the separation to allow different football supporters
to view their team, it was as avid environment for the
game of football as in any pub that could be in Liverpool.
Towards
the weekend I arrived home and collapsed with a mountain
of work to catch up with ... As they say, nose to the
grind …
Research
sources and further information:
Barcelona, Spain.
Black Horse, www.pubblackhorse.com.
CASM (Centre d’Art Santa Monica), www.centredartsantamonica.net.
CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona),
www.cccb.org.
IRB (Institute for Research in Barcelona), www.irbbarcelona.org.
MACBA (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona),
www.macba.es.
Liverpool, UK.
Bluecoat, www.thebluecoat.org.uk.
Fact Centre, www.fact.co.uk.
Tate Liverpool, www.tate.org.uk/liverpool.
View Two Gallery, www.viewtwogallery.co.uk.
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
and www.transvoyeur.com
Chris
Boyd, www.myspace.com/boydism
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Transvoyeur
Programme 2008 Announced
Written
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
24 January 2008.
Transvoyeur
Programme 2008
Cyber Society Series, Live Art and Cyber Space
by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
January 2008 – April 2008
Cyber Society Series is a live art exploration of the
human form, genderisation and the parameters of cyberspace
in post-modern 21st society and culture. It explores
the modes of expression and communication, particularly
how human interaction is re-defined by digital technology
and new media. This will be researched and developed
by an on-line exchange with other artists and members
from the global web community.
Artist: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
e: transvoyeuruk@hotmail.co.uk / ges1967@hotmail.com
w: www.transvoyeur.com / www.gaynorevelynsweeney.co.uk
Transvoyur International DV Programme (Digital
Video Platform), ‘Laissez-Faire, Creative Destruction,
Disruptive Technology’.
April 2008 – May 2008.
The Transvoyeur International DV Programme is an international
digital video platform was researched and compiled by
international submissions from the UK, US, Italy, China
and more in August 2007 – December 2007. . In
2008, the final edit, which has evolved from the source
contributions and the constructs of the assigned theme
'Laissez-Faire, Creative Destruction, Disruptive Technology'.
This will debut in Liverpool (UK) on BBC Big Screen
and toured with further screenings in Manchester (UK),
London (UK), New York (US), Cologne (Germany) and BBC
Big Screen (UK).?Screening dates and venues to be announced.
Co-Curators: Chris Boyd and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Biography,
An International Exchange Initiative on People, Places
and Art.
January 2008 – August 2008.
An international exchange project of combined arts and
creative writing with Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney (UK), Andrew
Taylor (UK) and Kofi Fosu Forson (US). To explore the
experiences of each practitioner in the various modes
of expression against the historical constructs and
transitions of urban spaces we encounter. This will
be formulated by an on-line exchange and creative process
to culminate in a publication to be released in August
2008. Each artist/writer will combine additional research
with members from the community in their respective
cities 9i.e., Liverpool and New York), as well as professional
associations and institutions.
Artists/Writers: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney (Visual Artist,
UK), Andrew Taylor (Writer, UK) and Kofi Fosu Forson
(Writer/Philosopher/Artist, US).
Projects Co-ordinator: Lucia Andrew Sweeney and Victoria
Samantha Smith.
Transvoyeur
Arts, Culture and Genetics 2008: Live Art, Technology
and the Human Body.
January 2008 – November 2008.
On-line creative research, critical discourse and exhibition
on the subjects of genetics through the cultural and
artistic expression of live art and various combine
new media and digital technology, significantly on how
the human body re-defined in temporal and spatial parameters
of theory, society, science and cyber space. This includes
collaborations with professionals in other disciplines
of art, science, philosophy and more between Liverpool,
London, Paris, Barcelona and New York. Other artists
will be invited to contribute in the research and development
of this creative exchange.
Chief Artist:/Projects Co-ordinator Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Transvoeur
Catalogue Preview/Launch.
February 2008.
The history of Transvoyeur, founded 2003, and the events
in the Independents Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool
European Capital of Culture 2008 will be presented in
a catalogue. It contains the information on the events,
projects and exhibitions and artists from the different
international cities who have contributed.
Curator/Projects Co-ordinator: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Transvoyeur
and SOS Chidlrens Village: ‘Childhood’ Transdigital
On-line Exhibition.
February 2008.
Transvoyeur and SOS Children’s Village is an transdigital
on-line exhibition established in 2007 by local, national
and international submissions on the subject of ‘childhood’.
This will culminate in February 2008 with release of
a catalogue showing the diversity of the art contributed
from professional artists and members of the public.
On-line Curator: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
Transvoyeur:
UK and Mexico, International Exchange.
February 2008 – December 2008.
Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney, founding Artist of Transvoyeur,
and Jeimy Marisol Martinez Galaviz, Artist and Activist
from Mexico are joining forces to research and develop
an international exchange of arts, culture and the urban
space in either country. The objectives is to enable
a diversity and hybridity of creativity for new modes
of expression and a shared insight to each others cultures.
UK Projects Co-ordinator: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney
Transvoyeur: Gender, Space, Art and Architecture
(Pilot Scheme), Liverpool and New York Exchange Programme,
Liverpool Screening.
April 2008 – May 2008.
A project conceived and curated by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Two artists from Liverpool (UK), Daiva Guaryte, and
New York (US), Kofi Fosu Forson, have been selected
to participate in the following pilot scheme of an online
collaborative and curatorial research project of culture
and creativity in the context of art and urban environment.
The first theme set is titled 'Gender, Space, Art and
Architecture' and forms the pilot scheme of specific
tailored projects set. This has been screened in late
2007 at MediaNoche Gallery (PRDreams) in New York (US)
by the associate Curator to the programme, Judith Escalona.
This is due to be screened in Liverpool (UK) between
April 2008 – May 2008 with the BBC Big Screen.
Curator/Projects Co-ordinator: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Artists: Daiva Guaryte (Liverpool, UK) and Kofi Fosu
Forson (New York, US).
Associate Curator to Programme: Judith Escalona, MediaNoche
of PRDreams.
Transvoyur
International DV Programme (Digital Video Platform),
‘Laissez-Faire, Creative Destruction, Disruptive
Technology’.
April 2008 – May 2008.
The Transvoyeur International DV Programme is an international
digital video platform was researched and compiled by
international submissions from the UK, US, Italy, China
and more in August 2007 – December 2007. . In
2008, the final edit, which has evolved from the source
contributions and the constructs of the assigned theme
'Laissez-Faire, Creative Destruction, Disruptive Technology'.
This will debut in Liverpool (UK) on BBC Big Screen
and toured with further screenings in Manchester (UK),
London (UK), New York (US), Cologne (Germany) and BBC
Big Screen (UK).?Screening dates and venues to be announced.
Co-Curators: Chris Boyd and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
Transvoyeur: Aesthetic Innovation Exhibition.
December 2008 – June 2009.
Chris Boyd and Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney will form the main
artists to the ‘Aesthetic Innovation’ exhibition
with other artists to be announced. Two to four artists
will research new modes of creative expression set on
the subjects of High Culture, Innovation and Aesthetic
Theory in the framework of contemporary arts, culture
and society. The art to be developed will be formed
from a collaborative dialogue with innovators in a range
of fields, whether theoreticians, scientists, artists
and more. This will explore models of creation and dissemination
of knowledge, diffusion of innovation theory in the
emergence of new art to new technologies and scientific
discoveries. Through the art which evolves this will
contextualise the communication of new ideas on par
with sociologists to understand social structures or
the academic markets on movements of information in
a social network. To explore whether contemporary art
work fits the characteristics of an aesthetic innovation.
The outcome will be an exhibition to be toured in the
UK, Europe and US. The artists to this programme are
to be announced along with their selected collaborations.
The culminating art will be launched in an extraordinary
exhibition at the View Two Gallery (Liverpool, UK) in
December 2008 and tour to London (UK), Paris (France),
Barcelona (Spain) and New York (US).
Co-Curators/Chief Artists: Chris Boyd and Gaynor Evelyn
Sweeney.
Transvoyur
International DV = VJ = Live Art (Combined Arts Platform).
December 2008 – February 2009.
A combined arts event researched and developed by open
international submissions by artists to form a fusion
of visuals and sounds with live art interventions. This
will be a unique cultural experience and process of
combining an array of creativity through new media and
digital technology and be launched in the UK and tour
to the US.
DV/VJ Curator: Chris Boyd.
Live Art Curator: Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
For
further information on the Transvoyeur Programme 2008
contact:
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney (Founding Artist.UK Projects Co-ordinator)
e: transvoyeuruk@hotmail.co.uk
w: www.transvoyeur.com
N.B.: Other artists names from Liverpool, national and
international to be updated by submission to each project.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New
Logo and Website Launched for Transvoyeur 2008
Written by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney.
20 January 2008.
A
new logo and website is launched for Transvoyeur 2008
to lead into year of innovation, new media and digital
techology and alternative art forms, such as live art
and more.
For
further information on the Transvoyeur Programme 2008
contact:
Gaynor
Evelyn Sweeney (Founding Artist.UK Projects Co-ordinator)
e: transvoyeuruk@hotmail.co.uk
w: www.transvoyeur.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
More
New Art by Gaynor Evelyn Sweeney for Flora and Fornication
Series 2007.
Photographs of Art and Written by Gaynor Evelyn
Sweeney.
19 December 2007.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
