ReFramed, 2016 London Biennale Manila Pollination
Video, Single-Channel:
A video project created for the 2016 London Biennale Manila Pollination and the Transart Triennale 2016: The Imperceptible Self
Also screening September 15, 2016 at the First United Building, Escolta Street in Binondo, Manila, Philippines.
Some bodies are more capable than others, their longitudinal reach is potent and latitudinal reach out of all proportions to their bodies. Could making the body the measure of sustainability and ethics offer an adjustment of the current balance of power?
These works all open up this question and help us to consider bodies (exceptional, normed, absent and unseen) in the context of the moving image. Some works examine built and imaginary structures, engaging the borrowed concepts of adaptive re-use, sustainability, and repurposing from architectural frameworks vis-à-vis contemporary existences, otherness, the collective, individual and hybrid identities. Many works ask how can those identities extend their reach, which identities would need to contract?
Built space for bodies is finite. Is the head space for identity also finite, stereotypes therefore inevitable? Or is the longitudinal and latitudinal reach of some mental spaces simply crowding others out? A range of artists coming from various built, destroyed and re constructing environments offer different perspectives on the “Imperceptible Self.”
ReFramed is a video project that stitches together strands of the Transart Triennale: Imperceptible Self and the 2016 London Biennale MANILA Pollination exploring real and/or imagined architecture for sharing culture and inter-connectedness.
The London Biennale project was founded in 1997 by David Medalla, an internationally acclaimed Filipino conceptual artist based in London, with International Coordinator Adam Nankervis, who assigns the theme for each year’s biennale. The event aims to challenge and transform the notion of the art world ‘biennale’ as a large state or corporate-sponsored event with artists selected by curators based on their geographical location, citizenship, nationality, race and ethnicity by throwing open borders and encouraging a more intimate and community-based dialogue between the artists and audiences. Over the years, the London Biennale has expanded with simultaneous satellite events taking place in Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Berlin, New York, Boston and Las Vegas.” This year, it is pollinating in MANILA, Philippines. The inter-linked inter-twined-themes of LONDON BIENNALE 2016 ‘SYNCHRONISATIONS – SYNCOPATIONS’.
www.facebook.com/LondonBiennaleManilaPollination/
www.facebook.com/London-Biennale-724512040911236/
Participating Artists: Florencia Almirón, Adam Baer, Linnea Bågander, Lynn Book, Roos Cornelius, Gian Cruz & Claire Villacorta, J.Casey Doyle, Anna Faroqhi & Haim Peretz, Khaled Hafez, ImagenSubliminal, Petra Johnson, Gilsuk Ko, JaeWook Lee, Anja Malec, Fauzia Aziz Minallah, Paribartana Mohanty, Roc Parés, Irena Pejovic, Eva Petric, Jacob Podber, Ramon Raquid, Anna Rubi, Adam Schreiber, Omar Shoukri, Dimitra Skandali, Eirini Sourgiadaki.
Curators: Josephine Turalba & Sonia Barrett
Born in Manila, Philippines, Josephine Turalba is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice incorporates intersecting layers of different media: performance, sculpture, video, sound, photography. She holds an MFA, New Media from Transart Institute NY and Donau Universität Krems Austria, is currently a faculty of the graduate program and recently served as Dean at the School of Fine Arts and Design at the Philippine Women’s University (2012-2015). Her works explore issues of divide and convergence between the Global North and South, focusing on visceral approaches to the politics of violence and dynamics of infliction, trauma – depicting traces and spaces, where empathy translates into healing.
Her works are works are in the collections of the Yuchengco Museum Manila; Metropolitan Museum of Manila; Omer M. Koc Collection, Istanbul & London; Francis J. Greenburger Collection, New York. They have been exhibited at the European Cultural Center in Venice, Italy (concurrent with the 56th Venice Biennale 2015) Hofburg Innsbruck, Austria 2015; Arter Space, Istanbul, Turkey 2014; JOGJA International Mini Print Festival 2013, Indonesia; VII Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art, Uzbekistan, 2013; 2nd Kathmandu International Arts Festival, Nepal 2013; Santorini Biennale, Greece, 2012; The Pier-2 Art Center, Taiwan 2012; La Cinematheque Française, Paris, France 2012; Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin, Germany, 2012; M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2012; KIT Kunst-im-Tunnel Düsseldorf, Germany 2011; The 12th Cairo Biennale, Egypt 2010; Malta Contemporary Art Center, 2009; and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2007 and 2009.
Of German Jamaican Parentage brought up in England, China and Cyprus Sonia Elizabeth Barrett has an international range of cultural influences. She is a graduate of St Andrews University graduating with an MA in literature and theTransart Institute with an MFA in Studio Practice. Sonia is a Macdowel fellow and has been recognised by the Premio Ora prize , Art slant showcase for sculpture and the Neo Art Prize. She has exhibited by the Museum for the Sea Italy, the National Gallery of Jamaica, and the Künsthaus Nürnberg, The Heinrich Böll institute Germany. Her work has been shown at a number of galleries including the OCCA California, the NGBK Berlin, The Format Contemporary in Milan and the Rosenwald Wolf Gallery Philadelphia. Her works have been published in the International Review of African American Art, Black History 365 Journal, and Kunstforum International. Sonia is currently setting up an arts forum in Bavaria, Germany.
