Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti]

Lecture at MA in Art and Media Practice in the University of Westminster

Guest speaker: Alfredo Cramerotti, curator at QUAD, Derby, presents his art-as-research practice as curator of Manifesta 8 and author of the book Aesthetic Journalism How to Inform Without Informing (Intellect, 2009).

Session format: Visual Lecture. The author will give a lecture illustrated with images of the artworks of M8 and the book followed by Q&A

Abstract: ” My curatorial approach is not about creating new (artistic) knowledge but rather shifting existing modes of knowledge production and distribution. It implies entering a mutual relationship with other systems such as mass media, science, law, architecture or other areas, constantly shifting society’s perception of itself through non-artistic disciplines.
In my most recent curatorial project, the European biennial of contemporary art Manifesta 8, Region of Murcia, Spain, I opened up a space for artists to cross boundaries with the realm of media information and communication, a daunting terrain as opposed as the ‘safe’ environment of art. By creating new sequences of knowledge and generating what I regard as ‘aesthetic journalism’, artists and audiences alike become active participants of the curatorial concept since they become a part of the information chain, of the sequence of  knowledge.
The talk will investigate this approach, from the development of the concept to its practical implementation, and will open up to the audience to discuss how hybrid practices – think about biopolitics, sustainable development, experiential reality and other processes that are the sum of different parts of ‘set’ disciplines- are re-constituting us and our world on a daily basis.”

Reading for week 05

Visit the following websites:

• Alfredo Cramerotti’s own website for text and image resources

http://www.alcramer.net

• Manifesta 8 website

http://www.manifesta8.com/manifesta/manifesta8.home

Download the press dossier

http://www.murciaturistica.es/manifesta8/descarga_en_9.pdf

read about the projects

http://www.manifesta8.com/manifesta/manifesta8.manifesta_artists

http://www.manifesta8.com/manifesta/manifesta8.artists_commissioners

• Curatorial statement

Alcramer, 210. Curating in the context of Manifesta 8: A conversation between ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Art Forum), CPS (Chamber

of Public Secrets – Alfredo Cramerotti & Khaled Ramadan) and tranzit.org. [online] Available at: http://www.alcramer.net/cms/publications/Curating%20in%20the%20context%20of%20M8_cut_invisible%C2%A0.pdf [Accessed 7 October 2010].

• Cramerotti, A., 2009. Aesthetic Journalism How to Inform Without Informing. London: Intellect.

Full text available as electronic resource in Westminster catalogue

• Aesthetic Journalism: wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia/org/wiki/Aesthetic_Journalism

Etivity for week 05

In the blog “An ABC of Aesthetic Journalism” you are invited to choose one letter from A to Z to respond to the book and Fay’s response to it.

http://fayinc.wordpress.com/category/1-about/

“We invite you to engage in the ABC blog by responding to a post/s or by creating your own. You can add to, comment on, critique, extend, oppose or digress from the current content. Responses can take the form of text, image, video, audio or web link. Directly or indirectly consider our opening bullet points in relation to this invitation.  Your approach can be academic, artistic, communicative, reflexive, objective or personal. The only rules are that you cannot delete existing content and that responses are indexed in their respective alphabetical category. You will be given the username and password to the blog.” Alfredo Cramerotti / Fay Nicolson

After you post in the ABC blog, post the full text  in the  TP blog, with a permalink to your text in the ABC blog.