Valentina Desideri and Florencia Portocarrero, A studio practice to explore inappropriate feelings: ANGER

Saturday April 16, Espacio Práctico*
3pm – 6pm: Studio Practice
6pm – 8pm: Andrea Francke in conversation with Florencia Portocarrero

Studio Practice is a fiction (a bet perhaps?) that there is no outside to learning. If we gather and read a text, if we talk, if we cook, if we wrestle on the floor, if we sleep together; we are studying. Usually when we are studying, we pretend it is for later. We pretend we will use that knowledge at some point. But in this studio there is no later, there is only practice. And the practice of the studio is one of testing possible beginnings, sharing partial ideas, more or less interesting exercises, texts, excitement, distractions, boredom and so on.

What if we embrace the capacities of this pretend-space and we gather in the studio to practice studying together? Or, what if we use it to share and study awkward or inappropriate feelings? Moreover, what if we start by reflecting about anger as a legitimate category for the production of knowledge or even political analysis?

In the context of BAR project curatorial program, which this year investigates the politics of control of human behaviour, residents Valentina Desideri and Florencia Portocarrero revisit the feminist claim of the personal as political, and they propose an exploration of the role of inappropriate feelings in both, oppression and political transformation.

From 3pm to 6pm we invite you to come with your own experience and knowledge on anger. Perhaps you know texts, exercises, practices, jokes or stories that are related to this feeling or similar awkward affects. You can join for as long or as short as you like, and participate as actively or passively as you feel like.

At 6pm artist Andrea Francke and curator Florencia Portocarrero will talk about the potential and dangers of anger in art practice and politics. Francke will do a short presentation about her art practice focusing her motherhood experience and anger as the starting point for her political engagement. What are the differences between an art practice that claims its roots on anger instead of generosity? What happens when anger becomes hate? What is needed for anger to become political? This and other issues will be discussed.

More inappropriate feelings will be explored in the following weeks…

Andrea Francke (1978) is an artist born in Peru and currently based in London. Long term projects include: Invisible Spaces of Parenthood, a collaboration with Kim Dhillon exploring the legacies of Second Wave feminism and their implications with art and its infrastructures, labour, and care; Wish You’d Been Here, organising and reflecting on hosting as an artistic and feminist method along Eva Rowson; and FOTL with Ross Jardine, currently focused on administration. She is currently a PhD candidate in Latin American Studies at the university of Manchester. Her doctoral research attempts to develop a decolonized alternative genealogy for social practice in Peruvian Art.

*Calle Tarros 3, 08003 Barcelona