Townhouse in June 2012 / ØªØ§ÙˆÙ† هاوس في ÙŠÙˆÙ†ÙŠÙˆ Ù¢Ù Ù¡Ù¢

June 6, Library, 7 pm

Artist Talk
Rana Hamadeh &
Eva Frapiccini

Rana Hamadeh
For her second public lecture during her residency at the Townhouse gallery, Rana Hamadeh will take us on a docu-fictive journey through her past and future work (and life), focusing on her ongoing expansive project GRAPHIS No 127 that she initiated in 2008. Blurring the borders between the artist talk and the work of art, the document and the conditions by which the document is produced, Hamadeh's performative lecture will reflect upon her practice, which she describes as an evolving cartography of narratives, conversations, debates, objects, images, texts and appropriated works of other artists, whose historical, geographical and political significance are in constant mutation.

GRAPHIS No 127 is an issue of an international graphic design magazine that was penetrated by a bullet during the Lebanese civil war. The artist uses the magazine and the narratives generated around it, as catalysts for debating the conditions of image production,  as well as the conditions and mechanisms of spectatorial engagement with the image produced.  

Eva Frapiccini
Eva Frapiccini's practice questions both her own cultural identity, and that of the generations spanning from the 1940s to the 1980s. As she attempts to trace a collective memory, Frapiccini’s method involves the systematic research and analysis of archival materials (images, films, objects and texts), as well as the collection of testimonies.

By taking documents out of their original contexts to tell a new true story, or by creating believable fictional characters with their own apparatuses of fake documentation and specimens, Frapiccini appropriates recent history and socio-cultural developments, as well as art history, literary history and the history of science. The artist attempts to deconstruct the appearance of reliability and the ethics behind our systems of knowledge and belief by unmasking spaces such as the media, libraries and museums, attempting a new definition of what could truly be considered "auctoritas." Her often collaborative practice moves harmoniously from advertising campaigns to dance performances, from photography to sound installation, from public art intervention to sculptural installations, from film to exhibition-making.

Frapiccini is currently focusing on a research project exploring the borders of collective imaginations found in different cultures through people's descriptions of dreams. Stemming from an interest in the Jungian theory of the collective unconscious, she aims to trace the changes archetypical images by collecting audio recordings of dreams throughout her travels, which inform her ongoing project, “Dreams’Time Capsule.” 

June 12, First Floor, 7 pm

Artist Talk
Xenia Nikolskaya

On the occasion of her month long exhibition in Townhouse, "Dust," Xenia Nikolskaya will walk viewers through the exhibition to further describe her process through this six year long project.

Xenia Nikolskaya lives between St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Cairo. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and received her MFA from the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. In 2008 Nikolskaya was granted a Fulbright scholarship, and has received others from the Nordic Council, The Swedish Institute and Sleipnir, as well as grants from the Nordic Cultural Fund, Soros and DBW. 

Nikolskaya has worked as a professional photographer since 1995. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo- and group-shows internationally and is held in prestigious collections, such as Sveriges Allmaänna Konstförening, UBS Bank and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Arts Centre. Her work has been commissioned by Newsweek, GEO, Cosmopolitan, ELLE and the Hermitage State Museum. Nikolskaya has lectured on photography at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg State University, Rutgers University, New York and as a visiting professor at the American University Cairo.

June 20, Library, 7 pm

Film Screening
"Garbage Warrior"
Directed by Oliver Hodge

Garbage Warrior is a feature-length documentary film telling the story of US architect Michael Reynolds and his fight to introduce self sustainable housing. Beyond being an extraordinary tale of triumph over bureaucracy, Garbage Warrior is an intimate portrait of a passionate individual and his dream of improving the world we live in. Michael Reynolds brings an environmental consciousness to his work. Reynolds designs homes that are built from disregarded materials, such as old beer cans, used tires, empty water bottles, and other materials that had been thrown away. More importantly, Reynolds' projects are homes that significantly reduce or eliminate dependence on outside power, water, and sewage sources.

For more information: 
www.garbagewarrior.com

June 27, Library, 7 pm

Film Screening
"Waste land"
Directed by Lucy Walker

Filmed over nearly three years, “Waste Land” follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

For more information: 
www.wastelandmovie.com