Daughter Products - Seminar with The Otolith Group
free school for art theory and practice
The guests of the Free School for Art Theory and Practice in February are the London-based artists, The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun).
Public lecture: February 21, 2012
Seminar: February 25, 2012
Venue: KIRALY 102 - tranzit office (1067 Budapest, Király utca 102, first floor).
Please send your applications to the seminar until February 19, 2012 at office@tranzitinfo.hu
The work of The Otolith Group combines social theory and political activism with artistic practice. Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun are art world insiders and artist-researchers .They travel extensively to investigate the politically troubled parts of the planet, and at the same time, also hold a relevant, non- market oriented position in the London art world. The Otolith Group makes film-essays, curates exhibitions and film programs, and also writes texts. The collective is known to comment on the promises and ruins of 20th-centurymodernist utopias, both on ideological levels as well as their manifestations in economics, politics and culture. Anjalika and Kodwo are also interested in how these utopias are confronted with the current, globalized neo-liberalism, which makes economic and political relations more complex, non-transparent and human beings more vulnerable than ever.
The films and lectures of the artists are based on research, in which archival footage, literary texts and music are woven into multi-layered audio-visual essays. Besides their own work, The Otolith Group also features other filmmakers’ work, having curated exhibitions with the Black Audio Film Collective, Chris Marker and Harun Farocki.
Seminar with The Otolith Group
February 25, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. (with coffee and lunch break)
venue: KIRALY 102 - tranzit office (1067 Budapest, Király utca 102, first floor)
Daughter Products
According to activist and critic Sabu Kohso, the meltdown of the 3 nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi on 11 March 2011 signals a new phase in the war of the 'global nuclear regime' against all 'other life forms.' The Daughter Products seminar will think through the histories of artistic forms of abstraction in relation to the planetary existence of the 'global nuclear regime'. In particular, it will consider practices of abstraction that aim to produce forms of the audible and the visible in relation to the necropolitics and chronopolitics of radiation.
Professional development opportunity to meet The Group and to gain in-depth understanding about its practice. Attendance by active participation and prior registration only. Email motivation letter with proposal for visual and thematic contributions by February 19: office@tranzitinfo.hu
In order to support the exchange of ideas, tranzit. hu organizes preparatory events to the seminar. Two film-screening sessions will focus on filmmakers who are crucial references in essay film-making. These expressively informal public events are planned to be platforms to start developing questions and comments regarding the projects of The Otolith Group. In two public events, the works by the The Otolith Group will be screened and discussed.
Preparatory events to the seminar
February 3, 6 p.m.
KIRALY 102 - tranzit office (1067 Budapest, Király utca 102, first floor)
Screening of Chris Marker:
La Jetée, 1962 (27 min)
San Soleil, 1982 (103 min)
Introduction by Zsolt Sőrés, film critic
February 11, 12-6. p.m.
KIRALY 102 - tranzit office (1067 Budapest, Király utca 102, first floor)
Screening of Peter Watkins:
The Forgotten Faces, 1961, (17 min)
La Commune, 1999 (3 45 min),
Introduction by Zsolt Sőrés, film critic
Public events with the Otolith Group
February 14, 6 p.m.
Blood Mountain Foundation (1025 Vérhalom utca 27/c)
Screening and discussion
The Otolith Group: Otolith I (2003), Otolith II (2007), Otolith III (2009)
With an introduction by the artists
February 21, 6.p.m.
Ludwig Museum Budapest (1095 Komor Marcell u 1), lecture hall
Screening and talk
The Otolith Group: Anathema, 2011
With the participation of the artists
In February 2012, The Otolith Group is artist-in-residence at the Blood Mountain Foundation in Budapest. www.bloodmountain.org
Image: The Otolith Group: still from the performance “Communists Like Us”, Beirut 2010 | © Houssam Mchaiemoh 2010
