Gatherings

In late June I attended the “Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges” gathering in Bergen, Norway, organised by the indomitable Anne Szefer Karlsen, with whom I’ve worked on a range of publication projects. The conference was organised to mark the end of the MA Curatorial Practice, instigated by Anne ten years earlier, in which five widely dispersed and positioned cohorts took part and to which I contributed (see my posts on Responses #2 and Responses #1). However, it also highlighted that coming together, being together and working together, to paraphrase Maria Lind, can also be a very celebratory and productive event – highlighting resonances and affinities, strengthening connections and relationships, and contributing to a self-reflexive approach to one’s own practice.

It was a wonderful opportunity to listen to people long on my radar as interesting practitioners offering prompts and provocations, and also appreciate the strong international network that Anne has nurtured to generously – through the framework of the course and her warm personality. It was great to be able to hear Zdenka Badovinac speak about her longstanding practice, as well as Eszter Szakács, Federica Baeza, Myriam Amroun/Natasha Marie Llorens, Manuela Moscoso, María Berríos, Patrick Flores, Sabina Sabolović (and many others), watch a wonderful film by (former GSoA student) Ciara Phillips (sadly not present herself but her partner Michael Stumpff was) and be immersed in the wonderful linguistic musings of Neo Sinoxolo Musangi.

Last but not least, it was a great opportunity to dip in and out of conversation with PUBLICS’ Annabelle Antas, who was gearing up to the “Positioning” conference in Helsinki in September, which I sadly could not attend, but where Anne was also part of the line up. We walked, chatted, got soaking wet (I was very glad I had brought my full waterproofs), ate and drank and left nurtured on every front. Seeing my response to the release of the first set of images on social media quoted by Anne, the selection below to some extent contradicts my own assessment – some pictures do say a lot.