Kurt Schwitters in the North West

Merzman Conference

Location: Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6DD.

An international conference about Kurt Schwitters and his legacy in the North of England featuring artists, academics, arts professionals including Clarissa Corfe, Curator, Castlefield Gallery, who will speak about the BORN AFTER 1924 exhibition and publication within the historical contexts of Dadaism and Constructivism.

For a list of other speakers please visit www.merzman.co.uk

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Artist David Medalla in conversation with Kwong Lee

The Spirit of MERZ: an interview and presentation by international artist David Medalla with Kwong Lee.

More on: David Medalla was born in Manila, Philippines in 1942 and is a pioneer of kinetic, land and live art. His work ranges from sculpture and kinetic art to painting, installation and performance art. He lives and works in London, New York and Paris.

To see more images of the conversation event with David Medalla at Castlefield Gallery on Thursday 10 March 2011 please visit our Flickr site

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Ingo Gerken Talk – Tuesday Talks at The Whitworth Art Gallery

Venue The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester.manchesterarthistory.com

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BORN AFTER 1924

Artists: Ingo Gerken and invited artists: Matti Isan Blind, Madeleine Boschan, Rainer Ganahl, Antonia Low, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Reto Pulfer and Gregor Schneider.

Castlefield Gallery is proud to present BORN AFTER 1924, a project by German artist Ingo Gerken. Interpreting the contemporary legacy of the Merzbarn and Kurt Schwitters(1) in the UK, Castlefield Gallery has invited Gerken to respond to Schwitters’ Merz Magazine (issue 8/9) of 1924 called Nasci. The theme of the magazine, Nasci(2), meaning ‘being born’ or ‘becoming’, was co-edited with Russian Constructivist artist El Lissitzky(3) forging an alliance of Dadaist and Constructivist ideals and included reproductions and texts by Vladimir Tatlin, George Braque, Man Ray, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Mies van der Rohe among others.

Often referring to his work as ‘activating’ art-historical contexts, Gerken is interested in the porosity of imagined and real spaces, their construction, flexibility and weight. BORN AFTER 1924 will become a group show and a site-specific manifestation of Gerken’s shifting and re-arranging of the contexts of Dada, Merz and the Nasci issue of 1924 itself. A re-edited and updated version of the historic avant-garde magazine will be published to accompany the resulting group show. The exhibition will become a physical manifestation of Gerken’s collages that will include other invited artists, from the UK and Germany as ‘articulations’ or ‘punctuations’ of his own practice. The exhibition will transform the gallery and represent a condensation of Gerken’s diverse and playful art practice drawing on some of sensibilities of Schwitters’ work.

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(1)Kurt Schwitters’ (1887–1948) Merzbarn is located in a remote woodland in Cumbria and stands much as he left it incomplete after his death in 1948. After considerable discussions about its future which involved the British pop artist Richard Hamilton the surviving Merzbarn wall was removed for safe keeping and presented by its owner, Harry Pierce to Newcastle University Hatton Gallery in 1965, where it is now on public view. The Merzbarn building itself still survives and contains evidence of Schwitters’ original working methods and materials.

(2)Nasci is the Latin word for ‘nature’, ‘being born’ and ‘becoming’.

(3)El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941) was a Russian Constructivist designer and artist.

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BORN AFTER 1924 is kindly supported by Atlas Bar; Manchester, Barefoot Wines and Mint Hotel; Manchester.

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David Gledhill and Corin Sworn in conversation

To accompany their two person show, David Gledhill and Corin Sworn will discuss the use of found images in their work and their potential in opening out debates concerning social, political and historical issues of contemporary relevance.

FREE / BOOKING REQUIRED
To book please call the gallery on 0161 832 8034 or email events@castlefieldgallery.co.uk with your contact details and number of places.

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Castlefield Gallery @ The Manchester Contemporary

Castlefield Gallery will be occupying a stand at this year’s The Manchester Contemporary showing the work of Nicola Dale and Jason Thompson.

The second edition of The Manchester Contemporary will open on 29-31 October 2010 at Spinningfields, Manchester. This year’s event has been curated by The International 3 and brings together 13 galleries from around the UK and Europe to show high calibre contemporary art by internationally exhibiting artists and those that are new and emerging. We are delighted as a partner of the event to offer you the chance to get free tickets to the event. Click here – www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk – to visit the website for all the artist information, timetable for the talks and to register for your ticket.

Opening hours: Fri 29 Oct, 11am-7pm / Sat 30 Oct, 11am-6pm / Sun 31 Oct, 11am-5pm

Location: Spinningfields www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk

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Two Person Show: David Gledhill and Corin Sworn

Castlefield Gallery is pleased to present a two-person show with David Gledhill and Corin Sworn that consists of new and existing work. Through painting and old media the artists extrapolate and represent personal artefacts such as photo albums, slides and diaries found at flea markets and skips. The discarded vernacular imagery – divorced from author, epoch and context – challenges our understanding of the spatial and the temporal, re-imagining and re-categorising them to enact as new instances in time and association.

Sworn’s Endless Renovation consists of a series of projected, discarded slides salvaged from a skip accompanied by a narrative spoken by the artist. The piece suggests that the images have been taken by a clock maker whose products represent an unusual relationship to time; one that loops and folds, rather than through a specific progression. Respectively, the audio text moves between theoretical discussion of the images and a collection of meandering thoughts, quoted essays and poems. A relationship gradually develops between the artist and clock maker, constructed through a meta-narrative that is at times self reflexive, seemingly probable but the degree to which it may move beyond supposition is never clear.

Gledhill’s Doctor Munscheid series of paintings are transcriptions of photographs from a family photo album discovered in Frankfurt at a flea market. The photographs, that span a nine year period in 1950s East Germany, feature scenes from the Munscheid family home and social gatherings with family and friends. The images, some of which are un-composed and include optical aberrations, add a degree of intimacy and mawkish sentimentality presenting a complex relationship between the personal and the political backdrop of the Cold War.

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Feral Trade Dinner with the Artist

Join artist and trader Kate Rich for a trade-enabled dinner, where ingredients shipped in from Morocco, Vancouver, Mosel, Beirut, Gujarat, Tehran and Manchester will collide on a plate. Vegetarians welcome.

£10 (includes food and wine). All proceeds will go to the artist and Feral Trade. PLACES LIMITED/BOOKING AND PRE-PAYMENT ESSENTIAL

To book please use the secure Paypal facility here. Alternatively call us on 0161 832 8034 or email events@castlefieldgallery.co.uk with your contact details and number of diners, and we’ll tell you how to guarantee your places. Bon Appétit!

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Summer House @ Castlefield Gallery: a.a.s.: The Nomads

Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 September, 11am prompt + 6pm Discussion

Inspired by the dérives of the Lettrist and Situationist Internationals, a.a.s. invite you to help them search for the city beneath the city using a combination of I Ching readings and the Paranoid-Critical Method. During The Nomads, a.a.s. intend to change perceptions and lend new significance to two randomly selected sites during each outing and will occupy those parts of the city for several hours.
Join the artists to explore selected parts of central Manchester, leaving Castlefield Gallery at 11am or call 07806 50 27 26 for live updates. aasgroup.net

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Summer House

To coincide with Feral Trade Café, Summer House acts as a temporary ‘2nd home’ or ‘urban retreat’ for collectives and individual artists housing multiple staggered projects and events. Disrupting the conventional exhibition experience, Summer House will be self determining and responsive, testing collaborative and curatorial methods that will remain open to the public throughout.

Summer House will feature: Home and Away | a.a.s.: The Nomads | Tether: DAY ZERO | Association: Call out to Collaborators | Zero Point Collaboration: 4th Annual General Meeting | Malgras|Naudet

For Summer House the gallery will be open Wed – Sun 1-6pm and by appointment.

For further information on Summer House projects and the artists’ groups involved see below.

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