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BLOG -The blog is back with a commentary on the magazine Time Out in Barcelona, and art criticism. In Catalan at http://barcelonacultureblog.blogspot.com/ .
EDUCATION - Jeffrey Swartz will teach a summer session Humanities course at Emily Carr University , Vancouver, Canada. From July 6 to August 20, 2009. The course will deal with the subject of food geopolitics, especially in relation to hunger and famines, and will also examine questions of taste dominance in gastronomy and its relation to geopolitics. "The Geopolitics of Food and Vancouver Eating Ideologies" will also look at regional and local food and diet ideologies in the Vancouver context, in light of recent research. -"The Perfect Host" (L'amphitryon parfait), a Jeffrey Swartz workshop that delved into the concept of the "host" in relation to contemporary art. From February 2-5, 2009, at the Haute École d'Art (HEART) de Perpignan , France. The presence of the artist together with his work, his attention to details, the creation of codes and languages for specific "occasions", the concern for the aesthetic and social experience of the spectator-receiver, the mediation of pleasure, and the desire to see the spectator participate in the definition and completion of the work--all these factors bring contemporary artists closer to the world of the host. What does it mean in the present day to speak of the artist as host, or the host as artist? PROJECTS
-Thought for Food: A Gastronomical Reading Room . A project by Jeffrey Swartz for a reading room on food and gastronomy. In artist Kristina Lee Podesva's public project Vehicle, at Langara College, Vancouver, Canada. From January 13th to February 10th, 2009. The Jeffrey Swartz project Thought for Food was installed inside the ephemeral module-container that Podesva has designed for her artist's residence at Langara College, the first project of the recently begun Centre for Art in Public Spaces. The project reflected upon the traditional way of referencing books and food in their absence: through cards, whether from the card catalogue of a library or from a recipe box. Faced with the absence of the written document or the prepared dish, the card signals without satiating, while arousing the desire of the reader-diner. Inside Podesva's vehicle the project includes a display case with books on gastronomy, boxes with their corresponding cards, and videos from tv cooking programs, where the spectacle consists in watching and listening to recipes which the viewer will never repeat at home. See the short video produced for the exhibition: The Art of Eating (Nails). PUBLICATIONS
Just Published : -a reflection on the image of Barcelona's Raval neighbourhood as constructed from the perspective and values of the Eixample. An
Inner Colony: Barcelona's Raval in the Terms of the
Eixample , was written for the catalogue
commemorating the 10th anniversary of the gallery La Xina Art, Barcelona. Released in April, 2009. See link for full text. -"Abstinence", a short text for the book-catalogue by Miralda, Power Food LEXIcom , after his exhibition Power Food in late 2008 at Artium, Vitoria, and in Palma de Mallorca in early 2009.The book is distributed by Actar. An article on Miralda and his project appeared in the cultural supplement Babelia of El País, on March 7, 2009. Texts Pending Publication :
-a text on the possibilities of a critical gastronomy, in the context of a book on designer Martí Guixé's food-designing work, to be published by Corraini, Mantova, in early 2009. -a version of the text indicated below, Space-Run Artists, will appear in the journal of MIT Leonardo in mid-2009. Recent Publications : - The Tourism Debate beween Seekers and Receivers, introductory text to the central dossier of the journal Barcelona Metropolis, no. 72, dedicated to tourism. The revista came out in the summer of 2008. The article is also available in Spanish and the original Catalan through this link to the journal webpage. Jeffrey Swartz was the guest editor of the central dossier on tourism, the city and the many debates surrounding it in the present day. Swartz is member of the editorial board of Barcelona Metropolis, published by the City of Barcelona. - catalogue text for the exhibition by Jo Milne, all a wibble wobble , at Galeria Trama, Barcelona, May-June, 2008. - SPACE RUN ARTISTS, magazine publication I contributed a piece on artist self-initiative and social dynamics in the city of Barcelona to Issue 7 of Vancouver critical art publication Fillip, launched February, 2008, in Vancouver. The article is now available online through the above link. A version of the text will be published by the journal of MIT Leonardo in mid-2009. - ESCENOGRAFIES, catalogue essay Recent work by Noguero was seen in Escenografies at the Espai Zero of the Fundació Suñol, Barcelona, from February-April, 2008. I contributed the publication essay for Noguero's first Barcelona solo show in 15 years, with the title José Noguero's Freeze-Frame Baroque. - BETWEEN INDIA AND THE WEST, magazine publication The late 2007 issue of Papers d'Art (no. 92), features a J. Swartz essay on East Indian sculpture and its complicated western reception, in the light of José Noguero's long sojourn in the country and 2006 exhibit in Alicante.
- UNFOLDING YOUTH: Salvador Cidrás' Critical Analysis, catalogue essay Published in May, 2007, the catalogue of the Salvador Cidrás exhibition held in the winter of 2006-07 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Unión Fenosa, in La Coruña, Spain. I contributed the catalogue essay, which reviews Cidrás' work since the early 90s and comments on the shift in his approach in recent years, as seen in this exhibit. CURATORIAL -Documentary film series on Lagos, with the exhibition 419, or 'THE SPANISH PRISONER' In April, 2008, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica presented a series of documentary film on the cultural, social and urban reality of Lagos, Nigeria. -419, or 'THE SPANISH PRISONER' , from February to May, 2008. The exhibition project on the Nigerian e-mail scam known as 419, with a documentary section by curator Jeffrey Swartz and a video installation by Catalan artist Pep Dardanyà, was shown at Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, after travelling to Vic and Girona. A full overview of the documentation to be exhibited and internet links related to the show have been posted here. A more complete press release from the previous venue in Vic is available here .A video of 419 expert Brian Wizard talking on YouTube about the world of email scamming. A video of the exhibit in Girona can be viewed on YouTube. The article published in the Spanish daily El País on November 23, 2007, can be found here. -Since May 2007 I've got a blog with articles on cultural politics in Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, recently updated: http://barcelonacultureblog.blogspot.com/. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BARCELONA CULTURE STUDIO Information Barcelona Culture Studio is the personal project and web page of Jeffrey Swartz. You can find here information on my professional activities as critic, curator and cultural educator. FOR MORE INFORMATION: jmswartz_2000@yahoo.com .
Jeffrey Swartz , June 2009
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Exhibits and Activities
