About this Event
Join us for What is collaboration? the second of a series of events as part of Assembly, an online learning and development programme for curators, producers and public art practitioners that explore issues and good practice in relation to the expanded field of public art.
The further we move into a sphere of practice that places collaboration and co-creation at its heart, the more urgent questions relating to ethics become. Is it ok for curators and artists to receive a fee for a collaborative project that is co-authored with members of a community, while those members remain unremunerated? Is our work empowering or tokenistic? Who is the ‘author’ of these projects and what do we mean by ‘participation’, ‘collaboration’, ‘engagement’ and ‘co-creation’? How murky are these terms and who do they serve?
What is collaboration? is chaired by Matteo Lucchetti, Curator at Visible Project. Speakers include Samra Mayanja, artist and writer and Kerry Campbell, independent contemporary curator.
All Assembly events will take place in The Hall, UP Projects’ digital participation space.
Live captioning and British Sign Language Interpretation will be available at this event. Should you require British Sign Language Interpretation please email info@upprojects in advance of the event so we can ensure to provide you with dedicated access links to the event.
Assembly has been developed by UP Projects in collaboration with Public Art Network UK (PAN) and is generously supported by The Art Fund. The programme has been put together by Jes Fernie, Elisabeth Del Prete, Theresa Bergne and Emma Underhill.
About Matteo Lucchetti
Italian born, Matteo Lucchetti (he/him) is a curator, art historian, and writer. His main curatorial interests are focused on artistic practices that redefine the role of art and the artist in society. His curatorial projects include Marzia Migliora. The Spectre of Malthus, MA*GA, Gallarate; Sammy Baloji. Other Tales, Lunds Konsthall and Kunsthal Aarhus, 2020; First Person Plural: Empathy, Intimacy, Irony, and Anger, BAK, Utrecht, 2018; Marinella Senatore: Piazza Universale. Social Stages, Queens Museum, New York, 2017; De Rerum Rurale, 16th Rome Quadriennale, Rome, 2016; Don’t Embarrass the Bureau, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, 2014; Enacting Populism in its Mediæscape, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, 2012; and Practicing Memory, Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, 2010. In the projects he curated, Lucchetti has worked with artists such as Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Rossella Biscotti, Nástio Mosquito, Marinella Senatore, Jonas Staal, SUPERFLEX, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Pilvi Takala, and Stephen Willats, among others. He served as Curator of Exhibitions and Public Programs at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht in 2017–2018. Since 2010, Lucchetti is curator, with Judith Wielander, of the Visible Project.
Lucchetti has worked as a curator in residence at Para Site, Hong Kong; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and AIR, Antwerp. During his residency at BAK in 2010, Lucchetti worked in the frame of the Former West project to develop curatorial and discursive possibilities for the new online platform of the research—the digital archive. He has organized and taken part in several seminars, talks, and debates at various institutions, such as the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Steirischer Herbst, Graz; and the Centre for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg. He lectured as a guest professor at HISK, Gent; Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam; Sint Lucas Antwerpen, Antwerp; and Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, and contributed to magazines such as Mousse Magazine, Manifesta Journal, and Art Agenda.
About Samra Mayanja
Samra Mayanja (she/her) is an artist and writer based in Leeds whose work spans writing, performance and film. Informed by her background in Economics, Mayanja’s work researches, through experiments, modes of collectivising wealth (and debt), as an attempt to address disparity and to explore what it feels like to (mis)trust. Mayanja has exhibited at Signal Film & Media, Barrow-in-Furness and MAMA, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Mayanja has performed at Centre for Live Art Yorkshire (CLAY), Leeds and Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany.
About Kerry Campbell
Kerry Campbell (she/her) is a Sheffield based independent contemporary art curator, consultant and researcher with demonstrable experience developing cultural strategies, programmes, exhibitions and events regionally as well as transforming and diversifying local arts engagement and leading teams with dynamism and sensitivity.
Her curatorial practice is informed by interests in; the civic responsibility of arts and cultural organisations, methodologies of co-authorship and understanding the complex relationships between social class, structural inequality and representation.
Most recently Campbell was the Artistic Director at Mansions of the Future - an expansive three-year Art’s Council Ambitions for Excellence funded arts and cultural organisation and international public programme in Lincoln. During her tenure she led a team celebrate local culture, foster partnership working and refine a thoughtful and dynamic approach to commissioning which was inherently social, site-specific, and collaborative.
You can find more about the Mansions of the Future project and legacy Here.
