User:Natasa Siencnik/workshop/unfixed/

UNFIXED – Photography and Postcolonical Perspectives in Contemporary Art

Center for Contemporary Art Dordrecht[1]
November 15, 2010

UNFIXED explores the elusive nature of photographic truth and its relationship to notions of ethnicity, culture and identity in contemporary art. Through both an exhibition and a symposium, UNFIXED brings together a group of international artists and theorists with personal relations to migration, colonial history and cultural diaspora. These thinkers and practitioners research and reflect upon photographic histories as they construct new ones. UNFIXED engages the visual approaches and strategies of the exhibited works as points of departure for critical and productive consideration, aiming to contribute to the Netherlands’ relatively young discourse about postcolonialism’s relevance to photography. In the same fashion as many of the participants, the project hopes to blur the lines between art practice, scholarly research and cultural activism.

UNFIXED Projects invites graduate and end exam students (PhD, MPhil, MA, MFA and 4th year BA or BFA) in arts practice, art history, visual culture and theory to work more closely with keynote speaker Kobena Mercer, the artists of the UNFIXED exhibition and curators. The workshop will focus on photography in relation to subjects such as culture, identity, migration, diaspora and colonialism. We encourage students whose work and research relate to these subjects and neighboring themes to apply. We will use the day for a hands-on discussion, in which the students’ own work as researchers, writers and artists will be viewed, considered and discussed.

Artists and Speakers

Charif Benhelima (BE)
Otobong Nkanga (NG/FR)
Keith Piper (UK)
Naro Snackey (NL)
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (US)
Hank Willis Thomas (US)
Kobena Mercer (UK)