EXHIBITION AS MEDIUM - Introduction

EXHIBITION AS MEDIUM - Introduction

 is the Project Space programme developed by CRATE's 2011-12 curator, Toby Huddlestone.

Starting with a on April 16th 2011, it will examine alternate models of exhibition format.

The Exhibition as Medium programme concentrates attention on alternate models of exhibition format through the presentation of research through production - exhibitions, screenings, events, talks, symposia, papers and publications will be produced alongside social events, informal discussion and electronic dialogue.

The focus of the exhibition will shift from the more traditional spatial 'static' show, where artwork remains in the space to be consumed, to something more active, temporal and engaging. Consumption and viewing will make way for a more fluid site of action, response and production.

Five major projects are planned through twelve months along with two symposiums book-ending the programme.

SOLO SHOW / GROUP SHOW
15 July - 7 August 2011

A group exhibition presented more in-accordance as a series of solo shows. Each artist is invited to take on the exhibition space, utilising or dismissing previous incarnations by artists before them.

Curatorially, the importance is shifted towards the exhibition's time frame rather than use of space. This group show format places artists in a much more active decision-making role than usual, asking them to respond physically to others' work in the space, so shifting the curator's role of placement to the artists.

Artists include Bestue and Vives, Garrett Phelan, The Woodmill and Noel Clueit.

GROUP SHOW / SOLO SHOW (Robert Barry)
26 August - 18 September 2011

An exhibition centred on the work of sixties and seventies conceptual artist Robert Barry. A solo show you might say, except that none of his actual work will be displayed.

Instead, a reinvention of the solo show. Here, re-workings and re-interpretations of Barry's work will be presented in the only exhibition in the programme that will remain in a static form.

A focus here lies more in what a solo show can constitute, in this case focusing on artists and thinkers who have utilised Barry's ideas in order to create new work or re-imagine original works.

This curatorial premise of re-thinking the solo show abolishes the ongoing contentious issue of whether solo shows can ultimately be curated; this is much more a curatorial project than an invited and organised solo exhibition.

Artists include Jonathan Monk, Paul O'Neill, Mario Garcia Torres and Goran Djordjevic/Museum of American Art.

I'M SO BORED OF VIEWING...(WORKING TITLE)
14-30 October 2011 (opening 13 October)

Co-curated by selected students on the MA Curating course at RCA.

Artistic production is shifted from artist to curator in this evolving exhibition.

An artist, selected by the RCA students, will electronically send their daily research to the curatorial group. The process between research in a raw form and exhibited artwork will then be carried out by the curators, who will create the artworks from this research for the exhibition space.

I'm so bored of viewing investigates power relations and authorship around artistic product. The artist to a point is giving up artistic and curatorial control over their work; the curators having to work quickly and intuitively with raw research rather than finalised works; the friction ensuing through this process hopefully fueling both verbal and material discussion and debate.

TO PAY RESPECT TO THE GENEROSITY OF THE THREE-MINUTE PUNK-ROCK SONG
18 November - 11 December 2011

The three-minute punk-rock song is one of the most generous forms of artistic expression ever created. Lasting around three minutes, it allows us plenty of time both before and after the event to carry on with the rest of what we have to be getting on with.

The works and artists in this exhibition recognise the poignancy of a wanting for cultural quickness, and the importance of (the word that defines what we do) practice as we continue to re-interpret and re-invent artistic methods to create new associations and commentaries of our qoutidian reality.

The works are not one-hit wonders, far from it; like the punk-rock song, they arrest us and reverberate a political stance through us, shuddering us into an altered state forcing recognition and ambition, and like the punk-rock song there are also strewn errors, spasms, glorious hic-cups and splutters, reminiscent of our everyday stumblings. These are left exposed, as a reminder that practice is still practice.

Artists include John Latham, Rose Kallal and Mark Beasley, Kim Noble, Sue Tompkins, Vito Acconci and Daria Martin.

EVENT SHOW: THE WAY THINGS GO
Jan-Mar 2012

This project will begin with a screening of Fischli and Weiss' The Way Things Go, and takes on John Latham's theory of any object or thing being the result of a time-based event.

One thing sparks another, and each artist will invite another into the process of working on an event that is sparked by the previous event to have taken place. This will continue until the date-end of the project.

Artists include Neal White, Karen Di Franco, Filipe Glissen, Ryan Gander and Freee.

END SYMPOSIUM
April 2012

At the Showroom, London (date and place tbc).

Participants form the start symposium and more picked up along the way regroup to publically discuss the Exhibition as Medium programme and new thinking into alternative exhibition strategies.
A publication of the programme will launch at an event planned for the evening.

Image: Event Show 2012