I Went Mental And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt The vacuum cleaner
acting-out: the institution denied Venue: Anatomy Museum & Theatre, King’s College London
Tue 10th June – Sat 21st June 12:00pm FREE ENTRY Performances: £5 / £3 (concessions)
Performances by Eva Kotátková and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, introduced by curator Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz: Tuesday 10 June, 19:00.
Performance by the vacuum cleaner: Tuesday 17 June, 19:00.
Talk by Professor John Foot on Franco Basaglia: Thursday 19 June, 18:30.
Peter Robinson’s documentary Asylum (1972) examining the ideas of R. D. Laing at Clapham Picturehouse. Introduced by Adrian Laing.
Exploring the role of performance in the liberating, yet anxious process of defying institutional boundaries and social labels.
acting-out: the institution denied explores the role of performance in the liberating, yet anxious process of defying institutional boundaries and social labels.
Engaging with the theories of critical psychiatrists R. D. Laing and Franco Basaglia, the project seeks to move beyond popular definitions of ‘acting-out’ as a destructive or anti-social impulse, framing it as a performative action and a form of resistance. New commissions and existing works across installation, film and live performance offer multiple approaches to the term: from a literal engagement with the history of critical psychiatry and mental health assessments, to abstract explorations of psychological processes and languages.
Artists include: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Dora García, Eva Kotátková, David Lamelas, Javier Tellez and the vacuum cleaner.
Biographies
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s (b.1985 Amman) work frequently deals with the relationship between listening and borders, human rights, testimony, truth and law, through the production of audio-visual installations, graphic design, sculpture, photography, workshops and performance. His work with sound and its intersection with politics originate from his background in DIY music. His work was submitted as evidence at the UK asylum tribunal where the artist himself was called as an expert witness. His solo exhibitions include The Freedom Of Speech Itself (2012) at Showroom, London, The Whole Truth (2012) at Casco, Utrecht and most recently Tape Echo (2013) at Beirut in Cairo His works have been part of group exhibitions at Tate Modern London, M HKA Antwerp, Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven, the Beirut Art Center and The 2012 Taipei Biennial. Abu Hamdan’s writing can be found in Forensis Sternberg press, Manifesta Journal and Cabinet Magazine. Abu Hamdan curated events at the Reitveld Academie in Amsterdam and at Batroun Projects Lebanon. He is part of the team Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths College London where he is a PhD candidate and lecturer.
Eva Kotátková (b.1982, Prague) studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, Prague Academy of Applied Arts, San Francisco Art Institute and Akademie Bildende Kunst Wien from 2002-2007. In 2007 – at the age of 25 – she became the youngest artist ever to be awarded the Jindrich Chalupecky Award for young artists in the Czech Republic. Kotátková exhibits extensively internationally and in the Czech Republic and her work is included in numerous private and public collections. Her latest international shows were in solo show Modern Art Oxford 2013 and Venice Bienalle 2013. Kotátková recently exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennale as part of Massimiliano Gioni’s The Encyclopedic Palace.
Dora García studied Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She lives and works in Barcelona after having resided in Brussels for over two decades. Dora García uses a range of media including performance, video, text and installation. Her practice investigates the conditions that shape the encounter between the artist, the artwork and the viewer. Her work focuses more particularly on the notions of duration, access and readability, concerned with the privilege afforded to “those in the know”. García’s pieces often involve staging unscripted scenarios that elicit doubt as to the fictional or spontaneous nature of a given situation. They predetermine set rules of engagement or utilize recording devices to frame both conscious and unconscious forms of spectator participation. García’s work also explores the political potential rooted in marginal positions: namely the figures of the outsider, the outcast and the outlaw, paying homage through several works to eccentric and often anti-heroic personas. Dora García has had solo exhibitions at (a.o.) Index Stockholm (2011), Kunsthalle Bern (2010), Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2007), SMAK, Gent (2006) and Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2005–06). She has participated in documenta (2012), Biennale di Venezia (2011), Biennial de São Paulo (2010), the Biennale of Sydney (2008), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007), Istanbul Biennial (2003).
David Lamelas (b. 1946, Buenos Aires) was originally a sculptor, but came to prominence when he represented his country at the Venice Biennale with a piece called Office of Information about the Vietnam war on Three Levels : The Visual Image, Text and Audio. It was here that he met Antwerp-based gallerists from Wide White Space and Marcel Broodthaers, and the contacts he made helped to precipitate his later move to Europe. After Venice he moved to London, where he studied on a sculpture scholarship at St Martins School of Art. It was during his time in England, whilst using photographs and text as material, that Lamelas began working in film. Through a desire to “produce sculptural forms without any physical volume”, the core concerns of his work emerged: time, space and language. His experimental work has been seen in numerous exhibitions in Europe and America, such as his first European retrospective at the Witte de With, Rotterdam and Kunstverein Munchen, Munich, both in 1977, and a large retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1995. He has also exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2000; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2004; retrospective at the Witte de With, Rotterdam and Kunstverein Munchen, Munich, both in 1977, and a large retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1995. He has also exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2000; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2004; Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, and Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Oporto, 2003–4; and Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2005, among others. His work is included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA, New York; Tate, London; and MOCA, Los Angeles, among others.
Javier Téllez (b.1969, Valencia) He lives and works in New York and Berlin. For almost two decades mental illness has been one of the main subjects of Javier Téllez’ practice as an artist. Working often in collaboration with psychiatric patients, it is the aim of Javier Téllez to produce films and videos that attempt to challenge the stereotypes Selected Solo Exhibitions include S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, BE (2013); Marco, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo, ES, (2010) and Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, PT (2010). Selected Group Exhibitions include dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel, DE (2012) SMAK, 11th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, FR, (2011) and Musac Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León, SP (2011).
the vacuum cleaner is an art and activism collective of one. He employs various creative legal and illegal tactics to mock, vandalise and disrupt concentrations of power. Through site-specific performance, street-based intervention and film, the vacuum cleaner empowers his audience to address socio-political issues including consumerism and mental health discrimination. From one-man shows to large-scale participatory actions, his approach is variously subtle and extreme, but always candid, provocative and playful. His work has been commissioned and exhibited internationally, including at Tate Modern, ICA, Fierce Festival, the Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow, the Liverpool Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Wooster Collective (USA), Anti Festival (Finland), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Switzerland), Hebbel-Am-Ufer, Tanztendenz (Germany), Khoj Live 08 (India). His films have been commissioned by BBC4, Channel 4 and Arte. the vacuum cleaner is an Artsadmin Associate Artist
About Anxiety 2014
Anxiety 2014 presents a dynamic programme of visual art, film, performance, music, dance, theatre and talks spanning venues across London, including leading arts organisations, universities, health care institutions and community centres. Anxiety 2014 is a new London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation and taking place throughout June. The festival explores anxiety, looking at its causes, how it affects all of our lives, and how it can act as a creative force. It brings together leading and emerging artists to address anxiety from different angles: from medical, social and historical perspectives to individual, collective and contemporary viewpoints.
