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Gabo Guzzo: artist in residence, Banner Repeater reading room/project space.

Residency: 24-30th May 2012.
Opening night and talk: Thursday 31st May 5-9pm. Talk: 7-9pm.

The work in residency will become a site for discussion from 7-9pm on the 31st May, and can be viewed after this until the 10th June.

Guzzo has invited several noted speakers to join together in conversation on the 31st May, using the diagram as a site for discussion and debate: Paul Crutzen, Rasheed Araeen, Jan Zalaseiwicz, with TJ Demos (chair) to discuss some of the controversial ideas that come of the proposed new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

  Speakers:


Paul J. Crutzen is a Dutch Nobel prize winning atmospheric chemist, and theorist on the Anthropocene.

Rasheed Araeen is a London-based conceptual artist, writer, and art critic. His artistic activity has been complemented since 1987 by the groundbreaking art publication of Third Text. He is the author of ‘Ecoaesthetics: a Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century’.

Jan Zalasiewicz is a lecturer in Geology at the University of Leicester and was formerly with the British Geological Survey. He has published over a hundred papers in scientific journals and is the author of ‘The Earth after us: what legacy will humans leave in the rocks?’

T. J. Demos - will be chairing the discussion. T.J. Demos writes widely on modern and contemporary art. His published work centres broadly on the conjunction of art and politics, examining the ability of artistic practice to invent innovative and experimental strategies that challenge dominant conventions. (Recent essay: Art after Nature: the Post-natural condition. Artforum, April 2012.)

    THE GEOLOGICAL TURN: art and the Anthropocene

GABO GUZZO

As Fredric Jameson's oft-quoted: 'the market is in human nature' echo's vainly through the ruins of the present economic crisis, several other commonly held beliefs seem to also be in question, new technologies helping to collapse any remaining dichotomies of in here/out there, blurring ideas of nature versus culture amid new-found complexities arising from advanced geo as well as bio-engineering that allows us to recklessly re-design both nature and human life.

In this interdisciplinary project grounded in the concept of The Anthropocene (the recent age of man) Gabo Guzzo, an Italian artist working in London, with an MSc in Economics as well as Fine Art, draws on the research and writing of Paul Crutzen, the Dutch Nobel prize winning atmospheric chemist, and theorist on the Anthropocene. Guzzo investigates the controversial implications of the increasingly discussed new geological epoch, defined by the influence of humanity’s collective actions upon the planet (Time magazine, 2012).

From the Industrial Revolution to the present day, the global population has climbed rapidly from under a billion to its current count of 7 billion and rising. The exploitation of natural resources, particularly coal, oil, and gas, enabling planet-wide industrialisation, construction and mass transport, has transformed much of the Earth’s ecology through erosion, denudation of continents, carbon cycle perturbation and changes to our climate, bio-culture and oceans.

Humans have become a force of nature, reshaping the planet on a geological scale, but at a "far-faster than geological speed" (The Economist, 2011) the implications of which can be felt at an anthropological, social, cultural and economic level. As the Copernican turn seemingly flips back to us in the driving seat, are we even able to solve the problems that go far beyond the present financial crisis that could mean we are at a tipping point, and not just another double-dip?

Guzzo’s work takes into account labour process theory (immaterial labour), social anthropology, and debates in contemporary political philosophy, with an aim to examine the new critical framework in which art moves today. Practicing an art that is often based in collaboration, his ambition is to question the relationship between artistic labour and productive labour and the limits and possibilities of authorship. Linking together art, philosophy, science and anthropology, his research focuses on aspects that relate to the effect of collective action upon the planet, humanity and the (inter-connected) individual subject.

Guzzo will develop a diagram during his week in residence in the project space at Banner Repeater from May 24 - May 30th. The diagram is considered a collaborative work with contributions welcome from all, (Guzzo will be in residence during the hours: 8am-3pm fri 25th and tues 29th, all other weekdays 11am-6pm, weekends 12-6pm) as well as invited contributions from: Alessandro Rabottini, Rasheed Araeen, Gitanjali Dang, Mariana Calo and Francisco Queimadela, Michele Robecchi, Ami Clarke, Kat Austen, Francesco Scasciamacchia, Amy Pettifer, amongst others.

Experimental writing by Guzzo, to accompany the show, printed in an edition of 100, will be available for free during the residency and opening.

Everyone is welcome to join us for what promises to be a lively debate on the 31st between 7-9pm. We will be filming the discussion which will be available on the website (in the downloads section) for further viewing.

The project is kindly supported by Arts Council England and Dr. Rossana Pittelli (Fine Art specialist) at the Italian Cultural Institute, the Elephant Trust, and Claudia Montesano-Borruto.

    BANNER REPEATER is an artist led reading room and project space, situated on Platform 1, Hackney Downs railway station.

The project is driven by its location, dedicated to developing critical art in the natural interstice the platform and incidental footfall of over 4,000 passengers a day provides. This is achieved by rush-hour opening times that attract commuters, and an open door policy maintained 6 days a week.

The reading room holds an archive dedicated to artists’ publications and is home to Publish and be Damned’s public library. It provides an important bibliographic resource that all visitors to BR can browse. The bookshop holds a selection of artists’ publications for sale. The project space has an ambitious exhibition programme of new art works installed in a highly visible and accessible location and a vigorous programme of talks, events and performance.

The emphasis on multiple points of dissemination, via pamphlets and posters published from the site, and the other free material distributed, as well as on-line activities, and the siting of the archive of artists’ publications as a public library; a resource to be utilised by both local community and visitors in a working station environment, remain key.

Banner Repeater was supported in 2010/11 by an Empty Shop Fund grant from local government initiative: Arts in Empty Spaces, as well as an Arts Council England grant. Banner Repeater is one of a series of projects supported by Hackney Council that aim to provide activities that will benefit Hackney’s residents and visitors.

Banner Repeater continues to be supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts in 2012, and was awarded the Chelsea Arts Club Trust artist-led space award 2011/12, as well as support from the Elephant Trust, Dr. Rossana Pittelli (Fine Art specialist) at the Italian Cultural Institute, Claudia Montesano-Borruto, National Express and Greater Anglia.

Banner Repeater is a not-for-profit organisation.

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Samuel Pimentel: In Response

Roland Shaw: Response

Detail from Libby Scarlett's re-drawing of The Geological Timeline in collaboration with Gabo Guzzo

[Anthropocene?]

Jeremy Shaw making his response...

Jessica Peace: Response