Archive 2017-18
CIRCA
- Venue: Fine Art Lecture Theatre
- Start: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 17:15:00 GMT
- End: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 19:00:00 GMT
CIRCA - in conversation with Giles Bailey
CIRCA Projects are an arts organisation that collaborates with local and international artists and partners to initiate contemporary art situations exploring context and format, rooted in the specific conditions of the northeast of England. It is run by Adam Phillips and Dawn Bothwell in Newcastle with Sam Watson based in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Since 2009, CIRCA Projects have worked and publicly shown the work of over 200 contemporary artists – including early projects from now established artists including Ed Atkins, Benedict Drew, Emma Hart and Heather Phillipson. They have consistently experimented with the form and purpose of the art exhibition, examining its relevance to contemporary culture and the audiences who experience it.
Giles Bailey teaches in the Fine Art department at Newcastle University. He works largely with performance, writing or strategically appropriating texts that he performs himself. These works are often conceived to propose alternative approaches to the assembling of histories and set archival footage, narrative video or particular images against experiments with language. Increasingly, he works closely with others to facilitate collaborations in order to explore these themes and is developing longer pieces of experimental writing. At the heart of these interests is an abiding preoccupation with conventions and archetypes, why they persist and how we might challenge the thinking that perpetuates them.
In 2016, CIRCA Projects invited artist Giles Bailey to spend two-years producing a new body of work in the northeast of England – concentrating on the possibilities of a ‘commission’ when developed conversationally over a longer period of time. As part of the visiting lecturer programme Giles Bailey and Adam and Dawn from CIRCA Projects will be openly reflecting upon collaborative activities presented publicly over the past year.
Over the course of 2017 Giles Bailey & CIRCA Projects have extended the invitation to audiences to directly get involved in their activities, exploring methods and ideas for new artworks transparently and fluidly. This approach has manifested itself in a series of open studio events (entitled Studio is Sudden at The Northern Charter, Newcastle upon Tyne), a summer school (World is Sudden: Summer Lab) and a number of co-curated public exhibitions, events and workshops (Take the Credits, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival / My part of your home, Shipley Art Gallery).
www.circaprojects.org