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 Exhibits and Activities

 Culture Visits and Workshops

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Thought for Food, at Langara College, Vancouver

Space Run Artists online, in Fillip 7

419, or the Spanish Prisoner, Documentation


An Inner Colony (full text)


BLOG

-The blog continues with an entry on the censorship of a work of art in the city of Cardedeu, another on the prohibition of the burka in certain Catalan municipalities, as well as a reflection on xenophobic discourses and their relationship to Falangist or neo-fascist positions, within the current context of the judicial persecution of Judge Garzón. In Spanish and Catalan:

http://barcelonacultureblog.blogspot.com/ 

NEWS

As part of Margarita Andreu`s project at the Canòdrom 00:00:00, Add On Spaces, and within the space of her own work, I will lead an encounter on hunger, creativity and certain questions related to the geopolitics of food.

On Wednesday May 19 at 8PM, I will deal with these subjects under the title "A Hunger Artist, by Franz Kafka, and other Food Policies". We will look at the short story by Kafka about the hunger artist, another text by Knut Hamsun, Hunger, dealing with the voluntary starvation of the creator, and certain aspects of the extraordinary novel by J. M. Coetzee, The Life and Times of Michael K. To be followed by some thoughts on problems related to food and gastronomy from a critical and analytical point of view.

To see the full program of "Urban Encounters", as organized by Margarita Andreu, follow this link to her webpage.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

-See the article in the new issue of the journal Leonardo (V. 43, Issue I, 2010), published by The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology.

In "Space-Run Artists: Cultural Activism in Contemporary Barcelona", I review the relation between art activism and urban space in Barcelona since the early 90s.

Leonardo does not publish articles directly online, but they are available through MUSE, which can be accessed through larger public and university libraries. The new issue can also be acquired online: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/order/cart.asp

-A new essay in the book Martí Guixé: Food Designing, published by Corraini, Mantova, Italia. The text "A Host for Critical Gastronomy: Martí Guixé’s Food Designing", in English and Italian, explores the idea of critical gastronomy in the light of designer Martí Guixé's work in food design. Released April, 2010, in Milan.

EDUCATION

-In July 2010 I participated as a professor in the Summer Intensive at Metàfora, an independent art school. Sessions reviewed issues in Spanish art--violence, poverty and austerity, the grotesque, protest--as well as 20th C concerns in Catalan art related to urban space. Another session looked at the new role of artists.

-Last winter I led a workshop on urban space and public intervention for the students of ABK Maastricht, through the independent art school Metáfora, Barcelona. Ephemeral Urban Intervention: A Slice of Barcelona is part of the International Workshop. From November 13-17 in Barcelona.

I frequently guest lecture and do seminars for this school, most recently being early February, 2010, with a seminar on themes in Spanish and Catalan art.

Metáfora has one of the best degree-granting art therapy programs in Spain.

-From February to June, 2010, I taught History of Art and Design II, at Eina, Barcelona, a leading degree-granting design school. The third-year course focuses on the late 19th century to the 1960s, and emphasizes subjects relevant to industrial design students in art, design, architecture and material culture.

Previously this academic year I taught Design Analysis and Criticism I at Eina. The course included a module on analysis, where we brought in concept lattices to analyze design problems, a module on criticism, including a project of critical tagging of the public space, and a section on design and rhetoric. The final part of the course was dedicated to specific traditions or tendencies in design criticism, such as functionalism, sustainability, elite design and feminism.

Students contributed to a blog where they engage design, culture and other issues both critically and analytically: www.agoradisseny.blogspot.com.

-In the summer of 2009 I taught a summer session Humanities course at Emily Carr University , Vancouver, Canada. Held from July 6 to August 19, 2009, the course dealt with food politics, hunger and agricultural models, and also examined questions of taste dominance in gastronomy and its relation to geopolitics. "The Geopolitics of Food: Hunger, Culture and Contemporary Dietary Ideologies" looked as well 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 workshop dealt with the presence of the artist together with the artist's work, an attention to details, the creation of codes and languages for specific "occasions", 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?

I engage some of these issues in a text on designer Martí Guixé and his food designing, soon to be released by Corraini, Mantova, Italy.  

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.

See the short video produced for the exhibition: The Art of Eating (Nails).

PUBLICATIONS

Just Published: 

-a version of the text indicated below, "Space-Run Artists", appeared in the journal of MIT Leonardo in February, 2010. 

-a text on the possibilities of a critical gastronomy, "A Host for Critical Gastronomy: Martí Guixé’s Food Designing", appears in the book Martí Guixé Food Designing. Released in April, 2010 by Corraini, Mantova, Italy.

-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.

-I am currently working on critical pieces to be published in 2010 for Art Etc, the Indian publication out of Calcutta, for Fillip, the magazine from Vancouver, and for an independent publication on the work of Barcelona-based team Asunción + Guasch.

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 2010.

- Scenografies, 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/ 

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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 , Summer 2010

Margarita Andreu, Canòdrom

Margarita Andreu, Canòdrom
Food For Thought, Exhibition

Food For Thought, Exhibition
Jacobo Sucari, in Fillip 7

Jacobo Sucari, in Fillip 7
Pep Dardanyà's

Pep Dardanyà's "Transpam"
Anti-419 Patch by Brian Wizard

Anti-419 Patch by Brian Wizard
José Noguero at Fundació Suñól

José Noguero at Fundació Suñól