Artspeak

Artspeak has been invited to participate in Subvision, an arts event in Hamburg’s HafenCity on the port. From August 26 to September 6, 2009,thirty international artists’ initiatives will present varied artistic efforts and mediation strategies to the public on an undeveloped site that will be temporarily populated by shipping containers. The focus is on the cultural strategies of artist collectives, artist-run spaces, nomadic projects, archives, curatorial, and artistic networks. Traditional forms of cultural activity - art fairs, biennales, and large-scale events - are intentionally confronted here with opposing formats and experimental ways of (re)presentation and distribution. Often, the common element in these heterogeneous, mainly project-related, temporary alliances is a self-organized, collaborative method of working as well as an emphasis on situative intervention. Independent, viral distribution paths and networks develop, under not infrequently precarious production conditions.

As an extension of Artspeak’s OFFSITE activity, Subvision affords an opportunity to extend our programming beyond Vancouver. Artspeak is working with visual artist Kara Uzelman and writer Lee Henderson, and has asked them to collaborate on a site specific, processual project for Subvision. Reflecting Artspeak’s mandate to foster dialogue between contemporary art and writing, this collaboration will operate on a shared interest in both factual and fictional histories to undertake a consideration of the Subvision site (and Hamburg) through a Vancouver lens. Subvision is providing Artspeak with two containers as a site for the collaborative activities between Uzelman and Henderson, as well as to house an archive of Artspeak’s publications. Uzelman and Henderson will work both materially and performatively. One framing device for their project is to consider and map Vancouver onto Hamburg, examining the port cities’ shared attributes. This mapping might manifest in a written (fictional) history, walking tours, installations, excavations, music, and readings.