2020: Curating: Making shows + making change (Guest lecture, MA/MFA Contemporary Curating)

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CURATING as MAKING: Making shows, making change

Guest lecture, MA/MFA Contemporary Curating, Manchester School of Art 18 June 2020 #MagicCarpet 2017-2019 What did I ‘make’? • • • • • • • •

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30 seminars/exhs/perfs/workshops across 18 months Tapestry art X 1 Booklet X 1, Drawings X 140 Photographed performances X 5 Films X 13, Badges X 600 (13 designs) Performance-lectures X 8? Articles X 15? Durational performance: 18 months

https://youtu.be/arQCE3LoFmA

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RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale 2014-2020 • • • •

r e d si n o C • •

2018: ‘An exploration of running as metaphor, methodology, material through the RUN! RUN! RUN! Biennale #r3fest 2016’. In Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics. February, 1–17. Routledge Taylor and Francis. ISSN 1743-0437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2018.1430488 Presented work of 65 researchers, artists & public: Cardiff National Indoor Stadium, Paris School of Culture & Arts in France. Multi- and interdisciplinary: theatre, paleo-anthropology, biomechanics. Participants: from 40 institutions (eg universities of Oxford & Harvard, and public/3rd sector like Leeds Art Gallery and FreeToRun/Afghanistan). Co-curators: Author & Reader in English and Environmental Humanities Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid (2016), UCL Prof of Geography Alan Latham (2014). Media: ‘Positive atmosphere’ in Guardian, BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking (2017, 300,000 listeners).

Etymology of ‘curate’: caring, cure. Working with materials, people, situations. Juxtapositions. Productive antagonisms.

Dr Kai Syng Tan FRSA SFHEA T: @kaisyngtan @wesatonamat


WHAT TO ‘MAKE’ OF COVID-19? WHAT KIND OF FUTURE DO I WANT TO CURATE? •

Making: making shows, making art, making change à Leadership

Unknowns, locked down: power, agency

Technology: Interface? Tool? Weapon?

How to catalyse crisis for change for the better?

‘Art is a human right. Artists are keyworkers. Making art is […] about organising, drawing and putting things together while thinking about the future. Paul Klee said art was the “life force”. So, make art, folks! We will get through this with art’. – Bob and Roberta Smith 2020

Bob and Roberta Smith 2020 https://arterritory.com/en/visua l_arts/articles/24699what_artists_are_doing_now. _bob_and_roberta_smith_in_l ondon


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