CULT OF THE DIFFICULT
curated by Susanna Bianchini and Habda Rashid
Opening: 10th May 2011
Display runs: 11 May - 03 June 2011
Tuesday to Friday, 12 - 6 pm
Langlands & Bell,
Catherine Bertola, Layla Curtis, Jeremy Deller, Lothar Götz, Andrew Grassie, Eva Weinmayr
Cult of the Difficult is the fourth part of MACC to GAC and Back: Four Curatorial Interventions, a series of displays that mark the culmination of a collaborative research project between the Government Art Collection (GAC) and final year students of the MA Curating the Contemporary (MACC), taught by London Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery. Three displays run at the Government Art Collection with an additional off-site exhibition at the Cass Gallery, part of the London Metropolitan University.
For the exhibition Cult of the Difficult a group of contemporary artists, from multi-disciplinary practices, have been invited to re-engage with their works held in the GAC. The multifarious strategies needed by the Government Art Collection to collect contemporary art, such as site-specificity and commissioning, are highlighted in the process.
This exhibition will be the only display from the series of four curatorial interventions not to use the collected works of the GAC, playing instead with the notion of their absence. The artists have responded by adding to series, creating new works and engaging with the ephemera from their collected pieces. The display thus formed exists in its own right as well as maintaining a connection to the Government Art Collection.
The show becomes an extension of the Collection, blurring the boundary between what has been collected and the works in the exhibition. By re-instating the role of the artists, their wider practice and propositions, the exhibition opens up a new space of inquiry into the collecting of contemporary art, whilst also revealing the Government Art Collection to a new audience.
Cult of the Difficult is curated by Susanna Bianchini and Habda Rashid
Cass Gallery
41 Commercial Road, London E1 1LA
For further information please contact Susanna Bianchini
T: 07913717999 E: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com
Special Events:
Cult of the Difficult - Artist Event
In conversation: artist
Charles Avery with
Daniel F. Hermann, Curator: Head of MA Curatorial Studies, Whitechapel Gallery. Introduction to the Government Art Collection by
Philippa Martin, Curator: Information and Research (Historical). Video works by artist
Mark Titchner.
Wednesday 11th May at 6:30 pm
Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX.
RSVP Essential to habda.rashid@gmail.com
Cult of the Difficult Symposium
The Curator as a Patron for Contemporary Art: Challenges, Diplomacy, Solutions.
Speakers:
Adrian George, Curator: Collection Projects, Government Art Collection;
Lucy Bayley, Curator: National Programme, Contemporary Art Society;
Andrew Grassie, Artist.
Tuesday 17th May at 6:30 pm
Frederick Parker Chair Collection, (as part of Cass Gallery)
41 Commercial Road London E1 1LA.
Further information: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com
A publication designed by Supanova accompanies each show and will be available at the venues.
MA Curating the Contemporary students would like to thank Charlyinc and Invite Me to Dinner for their very kind support.
Image:
Catherine Bertola
Home From Home, 2001
Screen Printed PVC
Dimensions Variable
Installation view, the Forth Hotel, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
(CB0039)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery
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