Feature by Northings
Networked
13 Dec 2011 in Visual Arts & Crafts
VERONICA SLATER reports from the Triangle Trust Conference
NETWORKED was a conference that celebrated 30 years of Triangle and its achievements.
IT OPENED with an introduction by Alessio Antoniolli, Director of Triangle and David Elliot, Chair of Trustees of Triangle Network, who welcomed a sell out conference with over 300 participants from different parts of the globe. They stated “… there is no centre and no periphery… Triangle networks aim to be non hierarchical with a diversity of connections that is organic in its form of communication and ideas”.
The 6°WEST artists (photo by Shannon Tofts)
The conference recognised the issues of mobility, and that many artists/creative practitioners could not be present due to visa restrictions and border controls. For this reason the conference was being filmed and will be shown on the Triangle blog along with all the information available.
My report here is essentially a personal overview with highlights and added observations. The links below include a copy of the conference schedule and speakers for further information, and my full report on the conference..
The first panel, Triangle Network, a conversation between Anthony Caro and Robert Loder, the co-founders of Triangle Network (UK), and Sonia Boyce, Artist and Trustee of Triangle Network (UK), gave a fascinating insight into the origins of Triangle.
Caro described how it began with a search for storage space in New York that resulted in providing the initial venue for the first two week workshop. It was called Triangle because it comprised of artists from USA, Canada and UK. The workshop was incredibly successful and showed there was a need for artists to come together and exchange ideas and process without any pressure of outcome, to be experimental, playful and out of the ordinary. Caro made the point that being an artist can be a lonely occupation, and the two week workshop gave support and confidence to the ‘madness’ needed for creative freedom.
A conference session underway
Triangle went on to inspire further workshops that mushroomed around the world, leading to an extraordinary set of global networks. No two workshops are the same and creativity is valued in its own right with the emphasis on process rather than product. This is the key to Triangle’s success, and its legacy has made crucial contributions to the development of many individual artists’s practice. Triangle is a space where cultural diversity and context are at the core of a laboratory of ideas. It is a dialogue that is unique to its time and location which will resonate long after the end of the workshop.
There were numerous panels in the conference that went on to address different areas of networks. One panel explored the concept of ‘spatialising practices’ where the interface of place and process are the work itself, with no stable entities.
There was the notion of ‘cultural neighbours’ and the nature of growth in diversity through expanding global networks. Artists are the priority and organisations should recognise the ‘bottom up’ rather than the ‘top down’ notion of policy making. There was discussion on how language is built in to interact within a framework, and its potential for ‘possiblisation’. This was linked to Robert Loder’s reference of seeing Triangle as being a ‘cultural postman’.
The role of relentless networking was outlined in seeking shelter for hosting artists in distress. Creative Resistance Fund and Arts Rights Justice are organisations that provide a safe haven for artists fleeing persecution and war zones, in liaison with Amnesty International.
Getting networked
Presentations took place around the constitutions of museums with reference to artists and the curatorial process. Triangle’s conference was cited as an example of the paradoxes of capitalism (at Bloomberg with the anti-capitalism encampment outside) and that the most successful network was our host building ‘Bloomberg’. Borders are convenient tools for control of the poor and thereby maintaining the status quo. The values of a network are crucial to its effectiveness in challenging the issue of borders for creative practitioners.
There were powerful accounts of artists and writers in Egypt, the Republic of Cameroun and Zimbabwe, who face being detained by oppressive regimes. This has led to the much needed African Charter of Human Rights being established.
In the context of the Arab Spring, revolution has instilled urgency to a creative questioning process and the role of contemporary art. ‘Makan’ in Jordan showed work where paperwork becomes an artform of resistance.
Different philosophies of funding were discussed and centred around how you keep connected to the creative frontline, ‘the eyes and ears of what is happening in a country’; raise funds and direct resources in a climate of austerity. ‘Seed funding’ and interest free loans have proved to be effective funding strategies, along with a diverse and skilled workforce. Cultural complicity was floated as an issue to be looked at in relation to keeping power structures in place whereas cultural intervention challenged power structures.
The conference heard from a range of speakers about initiatives such as The Asia Art Archive, a living and active resource for artists. It is an independent, contemporary documentation of artists across China who have engaged with complex fields of conflict regarding identity and authority. Also Art Moves Africa, supporting the mobility of artists within Africa and facilitating meaningful exchange.
Wefund, a website for ‘crowd funding’, and The One Minutes Foundation works with submitting videos online. It is about ideas that can inhabit this format and aim to have an open strategy of top down structure for showing work.
The ‘role of a curator is to be a team player not a shopper’.
6°WEST making their presence felt
The Artsadmin campaign ‘Thought Police or Fighting Terror’ seeks to establish a distinct visa for artists and performers coming to the UK – this will provide the key to expanding future cultural exchange. If the vision of what Triangle has built up in the last 30 years (from the idea of Loder and Caro) is to succeed as a Global Art Ecology; then this campaign must succeed.
NETWORKED was an extremely successful event and inspiring to be at. I hope this summary gives you a taster for my full report, which can be downloaded (see link below) with links and aims to be a useful tool to visual arts practitioners everywhere.
NETWORKED: Dialogue & Exchange in the Global Art Ecology, Triangle Network Conference, 26 & 27 November 2011.
Veronica Slater is an artist and member of the 6°WEST collective.
© Veronica Slater, 2011
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