Ranters' Café: Can artists deny their political references? - Camden Art Centre

Ranters’ Café: Can artists deny their political references?

Wednesday 28 January 2009
7.00 – 8.00pm

Come to debate, spectate and have a drink in the Café.
Hear speakers talk about artists who appropriate political ideologies, imageries and aesthetics within their work and what this means in terms of how the work is seen – can these things be understood in a vacuum or does this make the work part of something else?

Speakers:
Emily Pethick is the director of The Showroom, London. From 2005-2008 she was the director of Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory in Utrecht, The Netherlands. From 2003-2004 she was curator at Cubitt, London. She has contributed to numerous catalogues and magazines, including Frieze, dot dot dot, GAS, texte zur kunst, Artforum and Untitled, edited books, such as Casco Issues X: The Great Method, with Peio Aguirre, and is a member of the editorial board of Afterall journal.

Alexei Monroe is a cultural theorist and founder member and co-ordinator of Industrialised Culture Research Network (I.C.R.N.). He received a PhD from the University of Kent and has published many articles on contemporary music, culture, and politics and is the author of the Plural Machine blog. His book Interrogation Machine was the first English-language study of NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) – a Slovene collective that emerged in the wake of Tito's death and was shaped by the break-up of Yugoslavia – and offered a critical appraisal of NSK's elaborate organisational structure, internal logics, controversial public actions and the complex political and cultural context within which it operates.

Karen Mirza is an artist who works mostly with Brad Butler as Mirza & Butler. During a recent residency in Karachi, Pakistan – part of an Artangel Interactions commission – they developed their Museum of Non-Participation, a social and political experiment to define the boundaries of non-participation and resistance. Other recent projects include Morris’ Mirrors at Monika Spruth Philomemne Magers (June 2008), and a film installation for at Shoreditch Town Hall for Concrete and Glass (October 2008). Karen is also collaborating with Ruth Beale on a two-year research project called The Voyage of Nonsuch. Karen is a tutor in film and video at the Royal College of Art and is co-founder of the artist platform www.no-w-here.org.uk.

Organised in collaboration with Ruth Beale – artist and founder member of Industrialised Culture Research Network.