eye.on.art

This month is the inauguration of the much-anticipated 56^th Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor. There has already been great excitement at the news of El Anatsui receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and the appointment of the International Jury: Naomi Beckwith (USA), Sabine Breitwieser (Austria), Mario Codognato (Italy), Ranjit Hoskote (India), Yongwoo Lee (South Korea).

Before Venice, a few events in the diary:

Sonic Disruptions: an ongoing discussion lead by theorist Dr. James Trafford and artist Luke Pendrell, exploring the theoretical movement Speculative Realism and its impact upon contemporary art practice. This discussion will include the premiere of Delusions of the Living Dead, a new film work by AUDINT followed by a response from Robin Mackay and Eleni Ikoniadou, author of The Rhythmic Event: Art Media And The Sonic. Tate Britain, London, Fri 1 May. 19.00-20.30. More information here.

Music, Curationationism, and the end of the Avant-Garde: the contemporary mania for curating has affected many aspects of culture, including (perhaps especially) music, popular and otherwise. This panel discussion explores music’s unique relationship with curating: How and when have the art and music worlds intersected? How did Hip Hop and turntablism in the 1980s use a curatorial sensibility to redefine music? These questions and more are addressed by David Balzer is a critic, editor; Frances Morgan is Deputy Editor at The Wire magazine; Salomé Voegelin Swiss artist and author of Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art (Continuum, 2010) and Sonic Possible Worlds: Hearing the Continuum of Sound (Bloomsbury, 2014) and Adam Harper, music critic and musicologist. Brilliant Corners, London, Sat 2 May, 3:00pm. Read more.

Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden concludes at Tate Modern on 10 May. The following day the Tate American Artist Lecture Series features Glenn Ligon in conversation with Duro Olowu. More here. Ligon will also be talking about his practice at Nottingham Contemporary on 13 May at 6:30. See information.

At the V&A: ‘Staying Power: Narratives of Black British Experience’ conference looking at the contribution of black Britons to British culture, society and photography. Speakers will include, Barby Asante, Jennie Baptiste, James Barnor, Pogus Caesar, Stella Dadzie, Paul Goodwin, Paul Halliday, Neil Kenlock, Renée Mussai, Ingrid Pollard, Syd Shelton, Mark Sealy and The Islington Twins. 22 May, more information here.
The exhibition Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience 1950s-1990s ends on 24 May.

After giving a lecture at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and New Art Exchange in March as part of her participation to FORMAT International Photography Festival, Zanele Muholi is back to London for a conversation with journalist, critic and BBC broadcaster Bidisha on 26 May. Muholi is one of five artists shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015. Her work is currently exhibited at The Photographers Gallery.

In Preston, UCLan’s Institute for Black Atlantic Research is currently preparing a major conference entitled ‘After Revolution: Versions and Re-visions of Haiti’ in collaboration with the University of Liverpool. An exciting interdisciplinary programme with keynotes by Prof. Matthew J. Smith (University of the West Indies), an expert in Haitian twentieth-century history and the anthropologist and performance artist Prof. Gina A. Ulysse (Wesleyan University), a public lecture by Prof. Lubaina Himid MBE (University of Central Lancashire) on her artistic engagement with Toussaint Louverture, a presentation by Leah Gordon, photographer, filmmaker and co-founder of Haiti’s Ghetto Biennale, and more leading international scholars. The conference will take place on 9-10 July. Find out more here.

Calls for artists and projects

Artes Mundi 7:  Following a critically acclaimed Artes Mundi 6, the Wales-based prize invites nominations from individuals working within the global arts community including curators, artists, writers, critics, gallerists and art historians. Selectors for Artes Mundi 7 are Elise Atangana, freelance curator based in Paris and Cameroon; Alistair Hudson, Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; and Marie Muracciole, Beirut Art Centre Director.
Deadline 15 May 2015. More information here.

EVA International 2016: proposals are invited from individual artists or groups for inclusion in the 37th edition of EVA International, 16 April – 10 July 2016, curated by Koyo Kouoh. Proposals are invited in response to the curatorial project Still (the) Barbarians and the context of the 1916 Easter Rising centenary. Deadline 15 June 2015. More details.

ghetto Biennale 2015: The Ghetto Biennale is calling for applications for its 4^th edition (Nov. – Dec. 2015) and invites artists and curators to explore what potentials the radical tools Kreyol, Vodou and the Lakou have to offer to the contemporary world. The biennale is looking for projects that incorporate language, dialogues, place, symbolism and performance, or consider global territorial struggles, forms of linguistic refusal and friction, and ritual and esoteric forms of obstruction and intransigence. Deadline 5 July 2015. Find out more here.

Coming soon

At David Roberts Art Foundation, London, the 8^th Curators Series: All Of Us Have A Sense Of Rhythm an exhibition by Christine Eyene, with: Larry Achiampong, Younès Baba-Ali, Julien Bayle, John Cage, Ayoka Chenzira, Em’Kal Eyongakpa, Jon Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Evan Ifekoya, Zak Ové, Michel Paysant, Anna Raimondo, Robin Rhode, David Shrigley and William Titley. Dates: 5 June – 1 August 2015. See here for more information.