Temporary Services

MELD vs Radical Space

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

MELD is a new initiative based in Greece which understands the arts to be part of the means to address Climate Change because the arts can be a collaborative catalyst as well as a catalyst of social change, a catalyst for economic growth and also a marketing tool.

On the other hand you might also be interested in Brett Bloom’s (of Temporary Services) article Radical Space for Art in a Time of Forced Privatization and Market Dominance which focuses on how not to be part of the ‘art world,’ but to find new means now, resisting the corporatisation of art.

These two are perhaps at opposite extremes of the range of practices addressing socio-economic environmental issues.  Didn’t Einstein say “We can’t solve the problems using the same thinking we used when we created them.”

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

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AREA #9: Peripheral Vision + ART WORK: – A Discussion with Nicolas Lampert & Dan S. Wang on “Activist Art in the Era of Economic Crisis”

Date: March 30, 2010 – 19:00

Artist/writers Nicolas Lampert & Dan S. Wang, collaborators on the indie publications AREA #9: Peripheral Vision and Art Work, invite you to a presentation and discussion on the state of activist art practice in this era of economic crisis and how to enlarge the collaboration between activists and artists.

Art Work is a free, nationally distributed paper produced by the art group Temporary Services. The group had hoped to spark a national conversation about the state of labor, creative exchange, and strategies for survival, from the perspective of artists and cultural workers struggling in the precarious economy. It has taken off, with events in Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Iowa City, Chicago, Houston, Bloomington-Normal, New York, and now Madison.

AREA is a semi-annual publication by and for activist artists, researchers, and educators produced in Chicago. In AREA #9: Peripheral Vision focuses on those spaces and regions, populations and ideas frequently considered marginal in relation to the major urban centers, but which those centers depend upon for sustenance, self-definition and “sense of place” whether it be Madison, Milwaukee, or Chicago.

Nioclas Lampert is an artist, writer, activist, and a member of the Just Seeds graphic arts collective. The collective was awarded the Grand Prize at the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana in 2009. His individual work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), MassMoCA (North Adams, Mass.), and the Priebe Gallery of UW-Oshkosh. He teaches printmaking and socially-engaged art strategies at UW-Milwaukee. Nicolas interviewed the Wisconsin artist Susan Simensky Bietila for AREA #9. He contributed an article titled “Organize! What the Artists’ Union of the 1930s Can Teach Us Today” for Art Work.

Hired Gun

Agitprop by Nicolas Lampert

Dan S. Wang is a printer, writer, and activist. He was a co-founder of the experimental cultural space Mess Hall. His cultural criticism and writings on political art have been widely published and he’s lectured at the Contemporary Museum (Baltimore), the Kansas City Art Institute, and the Depot (Vienna). He lives in Madison and teaches printmaking at Columbia College Chicago. He was the co-editor of AREA #9 and wrote an analytical article about Just Seeds for Art Work.

So stop in for some creative talk, collaborative schemes, and a free paper!

Rainbow Cooperative

Reposted from Art Work : Archive : Event: Rainbow Cooperative, Madison, WI, March 30.