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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
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Exhibits and Activities
