This is the first of two sessions where Institute of Urban Dreaming will host round table discussions, drawing on a network of researchers to unpack the dynamics and representation of the Chinese city.
The event will include:
John van Aitken & Jane Brake (IUD) The End of Industrial Road: the transformation of everyday life in Guangzhou workers housing units
Paul Waley (University of Leeds) Down with the old – up with the new! Demolition and its consequences in Chinese cities
Valentina Anzoise (University of Venice ) High tech zones & the production of new urban spaces
Paul Watt (Birkbeck, University of London) The Role of the Local State in London’s State-Led Gentrification
This is the first of two programmes for LOOK/17 (Liverpool International Photography Festival) where we explore urbanism and exchange through the universality of photography.
Throughout the week we are joined by John van Aitken & Jane Brake from the Institute of Urban Dreaming (IUD) – Their Temporary Research Space is installed in the Tate Exchange space for the public to engage and interact with. Join IUD to explore a collection of photographs, books, articles and videos, about the dispossessions and displacements behind the visual drama of China’s hyper urbanization.
IUD’s Temporary Research Space is designed by Tim Denton and funded by Grants for the Arts.
The lab will explore and discuss current and developing practices of cultural exchange between the UK and China. It is a forum to discuss how we can develop collaborations or networks to strengthen UK and China Exchange. We have an exciting line up of speakers from RIBA North to British Council, and FACT.
Introductory talk followed by a screening of Haze and Fog. 2013. China. Directed by Cao Fei. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 47 min. Beijing-based artist and filmmaker Cao Fei mixes pop aesthetics, fantasy, and surrealistic references with documentary and social commentary to reflect on China’s rapidly changing economy and how it transforms the everyday lives and imaginations of its citizens. The film will be introduced by Steph Fletcher (Assistant Curator) from the University of Salford Art Collection.
© Benjamin McDonnell
Open Cities is an interactive piece of music. As the participant walks around a short loop of Albert Dock, eight compositions, each based on the dimensions of colonial buildings on a corresponding route in Hong Kong are played. The music disrupts and punctures, revealing the city in a new way.
To experience Open Cities please download the free app Echoes xyz which is available for IOS and Android phones. Once the app is open, load the project Open Cities, this should be the first in the list of projects. Follow the map and walk around Albert Dock in any direction you wish, the different sounds will play as you change location. Headphones are recommended for the best experience.
Michael O’Brien will be talking about his work at The Gallery over two days to accompany his exhibition which spans several bodies of work including ‘Liverpool Summer of ‘16’ comprising of portraits of people from Liverpool. Michael is currently Associate Chair of Photography at The Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, he holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Yale University where he studied with Walker Evans. Michael’s work with renowned artist Matthew Barney has been exhibited at the Musee Moderne (Paris, 2002) and the Guggenheim (New York, 2003).
Description: In this artist talk, Helen Couchman will talk about the Workers Project from 2007 when she photographed a large group of Chinese workers engaged in construction work in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The end result was a set of 143 portraits, a copy of which was presented to each worker.
Emily invites individuals or small groups to share a collection of ‘methods of engagement’ - which are inspirational ideas to transform where you live. Emily will personally present her methods in the form of a library catalogue, which generates objects and stories to suit each visitor. Emily is an architect and urban designer with a desire to involve as many people as possible in the design of spaces, buildings, neighbourhoods and cities.
The session is drop in, with no need to book. For information on LOOK events at Tate Exchange please see the link below.
Get informal advice on your work, the 15 minute slots provide photographers and artists with the opportunity to talk about their work around Urbanism. Portfolios will be reviewed Tabitha Jussa; a documentary photographer and contemporary artist also based in Liverpool and Thomas Dukes; Curator at Open Eye Gallery.
Unpack the dynamics and representation of the Chinese city.
Note: The venue of this event has changed. It will no longer be held at Tate Exchange at Tate Liverpool. It will now take place at Museum of Liverpool in Education Room 3, First Floor.
This is the second of two sessions hosted by the Institute of Urban Dreaming, drawing on a network of researchers to unpack the dynamics and representation of the Chinese city. IUD will be joined by academic Loretta Lees and Liverpool’s North Docks Community Group, discussing gentrification.
A Roundtable discussion and talks about how urban development affects our homes, environments and every aspect of our lives, whether in China or Liverpool. The session also questions how photography and art generate ideas about urban spaces that are being transformed by contemporary capitalism.
The event will include:
John van Aitken & Jane Brake (Institute of Urban Dreaming) Landscapes of Capital: Visualizing Accumulation by Dispossessing Xian Village
Eugenie Shinkle (Westminster University) Untopographic: Urban Landscape and the Global Imagination
Marianna Tsionkis (CFCCA) Curating the Anthropocene: Rare Earths, Toxicity and Geopolitical Representations
Loretta Lees (Leicester University) Planetary Gentrification: Uneven Development and Displacement
North Docks Community Group Anticipating Gentrification
Museum of Liverpool in partnership with Tate Exchange Liverpool for LOOK/17 Liverpool International Photography Festival.
Part of the week-long event LOOK/17: UK/China Cultural Exchange I, taking place at Tate Exchange Liverpool.
A mass participation photography project led by photographer Dave Allen. Dave will draw a grid over the city and highlight intersection points that become locations for a photograph. Participants then get assigned a point on the grid, and are sent off to photograph that point from any perspective they choose. All images are collated and uploaded to create a photographic map of the city.
Everyone is invited to contribute using their smartphones, ipads or cameras. To get involved, visit our base at Bluecoat on Saturday 22 April from 11.00am to find out more. We will be talking about the project and handing out grid co-ordinates during the morning, we will begin downloading images throughout the afternoon. The images will be assembled overnight and the projected the following afternoon on Sunday 23 April.
To find out more and to book a free ticket please visit Bluecoat.
In partnership with LOOK/17, Bluecoat presents a discussion on the evolution of cities in China and Hong Kong as shown through the work of documentary photographers. The discussion will be led by Dr Paul Jones (Bluecoat’s Sociologist in Residence) and Dr Fei Chen (University of Liverpool Architecture Department).
As the festival draws to a close, LOOK/17 (Liverpool International Photography Festival) presents a week long programme of events which explores urbanism and exchange through the universality of photography.
In 2014, Sian Bonnell selected and curated a series of exhibitions showcasing UK graduate photography at Pingyao International Photography Festival. This talk looks at setting up a Higher Education discussion group to share and explore methods and models of exchange programmes from taking work to China to developing routes for showing work from China in the UK.
Get informal advice on your work, the session provides photographers and artists with the opportunity to talk about their work around Urbanism. Portfolios will be reviewed by Adam Lee; a freelance photographer and photographic workshop facilitator based in Liverpool and Ying Tan who is currently the curator at Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), where she is in charge of the annual programme of exhibitions, public programme, as well as national and international touring shows. Available as 15 minute slots.
This event is aimed at artists, photographers, curators and those interested in socially engaged practice, the event will be chaired by Sarah Fisher; Executive Director of Open Eye Gallery.
Join Jennifer Verson, Manuel Vason and Tara Fatehi Irani of the DARC collective for talks and presentations on the practices, aesthetics and ethics of co-creating performance documentation, performance photography and photo performances.
Last summer Manuel Vason was in residence with the multi-faith women’s group and choir Migrant Artists Mutual Aid (MaMa) and the transmutable voices team: performer/director Jennifer Verson, artist/psychotherapist Lorena Rivero de Beer and and social psychologist Pamella Mastrilli and co-created a series of photo performances exploring new aesthetics of citizenship.
Manuel Vason returns to Liverpool on May 11th with Tara Fatehi Irani to discuss the theories, processes and challenges of creating the ethical document.
DARC are a collective of artists who believe that the documentation of other artists work is not just preservation but a creative act. This event is programmed by Open Eye Gallery in association with LOOK/17 and is part of the week long event LOOK/17: UK/China Cultural Exchange II.
As part of LOOK/17 International Photography Festival, RIBA North has commissioned photographer Virgile Simon Bertrand to join curator Davina Lee to consider the urban geography of Hong Kong housing.
‘About the Size of Dartford’ is inspired by the Choi Hung public housing estate built in 1959 to accommodate - according to the British colonial government’s yardstick - a population of 43,720, which is “about the size of Dartford”.
The exhibition takes the form of visual and textual fragments which will be released via Twitter throughout the duration of festival. Tweets will come from @RIBANorth with the hashtag #LOOK17
To accompany the online exhibition there will be a social housing symposium in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University which will interrogate what can be learnt, good and bad, from high density social housing in Asia and how this learning can be applied in the UK as cities expand. This reflects the global shift to urban living from rural, with 54% of the world’s population lving in urban areas in 2014. This is expected to increase to 66% by 2050.
The symposium will also look at how social housing can create a sense of community and establish an environment in which people choose to live.
Speakers include Virgile Bertrand, Dr Fei Chen (University of Liverpool) and Dave Proudlove (UVNS).
Jiang Jiehong is Professor of Chinese Art, Birmingham City University. He curated major exhibitions in China and the UK including the Guangzhou Triennial: the Unseen (2012), the Asia Triennial Manchester: Harmonious Society (2014) and more recently in 2016, the Shadow Never Lies in Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum and the Distant Unknown: Contemporary Art from Britain at OCAT Shanghai. Jiang is currently establishing a new postgraduate course, MA Contemporary Arts China (September 2017), which aims to foster innovative perspectives and new understandings of Chinese contemporary arts, design and visual culture through interdisciplinary practices, transcultural research and first-hand professional development experiences with more than 15 partnerships of art museums in the UK, China and internationally.
His well-known book, An Era Without Memories: Chinese Contemporary Photography on Urban Transformation, published by Thames and Hudson in 2015, will be the basis for the talk on the impact of urbanisation on contemporary art practice in China.
In partnership with LOOK/17 Festival, Redeye presents a daylong event on improving the commissioning process and building better relationships between commissioners and photographers.
A NEW Photographers Tour is available on Fridays during LOOK/17 for groups of up to 6. One hour long specialist talk and tour of Edward Chambré Hardman photography, equipment and techniques. Entrance is at the visitor reception located at the back of the house on Pilgrim Street.
John Davies will present photographs which focus on our evolving urban landscapes – with images made from high vantage positions revealing changes in the fabric, infrastructure and history of our evolving cities. John will focus on a selection of his black and white and colour documentary cityscapes, from work made since the 1980’s to the present day - with opportunities to ask questions during the talk.
