The University of Warwick is a Tate Exchange Associate

Researchers from the University of Warwick are exploring their research findings through artistic practice with the public at Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange programme this month (June 12-17).

Tate Exchange is an ambitious ‘open experiment’ which allows other organisations and members of the public to participate in Tate’s creative process, running events and projects on site and using art as a way of addressing wider issues in the world around us.

Warwick is collaborating with Tate for a second year to create a week of engaging art works and public events on the theme of The Production of Truth, Justice and History. The week-long programme of events explores the latest research on prisons, mental health, feminism, indigeneity, sovereignty and satire through publicly-engaged art that also aims to challenge cultural divides between London and the Midlands, looking towards Warwick’s role in supporting Coventry City of Culture 2021.

Dr Hannah Jones, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, is Warwick’s lead academic for Tate Exchange this year.

She said: “We are living in this age of so–called ‘post-truth’. But we are asking – when has the truth ever been simple? If you start thinking of truth, justice and history as things that are produced, you start raising many, sometimes uneasy, questions. More than one version of history can exist and truth and justice are concepts which evolve over time and in different ways in different places.

“This year, researchers in history, sociology, literature and social theory from the University of Warwick are partnering with artists working in media including embroidery, film, photography, painting and performance, to bring to life their research insights for the public and challenge society’s ideas about what we believe are fundamental truths.”

There will be a rolling programme of interactive events and live performances in the Tate Exchange main space on Level 5 of the Blavatnik Building throughout the week from 12noon until 6pm and Ten Minute Talks by Warwick academics around the main Tate Modern galleries at 1.30pm every day.

Some highlights from the programme include:

• Tuesday 12 June: Launch event where artists, curators and researchers interrogate the bigger political questions about what it means to engage in critical art and academic practice, in the contemporary context of universities, galleries and cultural debate. How far can artistic practice interrogate the histories and records of (in)justice of the institutions in which it takes place? What does it mean to make university research accessible through artistic practice when education has been used for both liberation and subjugation? Featuring panellists Anna Cutler (Director of Learning and Research, Tate), Maureen Freely (Warwick, and President of English PEN), Davinia Gregory (Royal College of Art and Warwick), Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths), Willard Wigan (artist).
• Tuesday 12 June: Memory and (In) Justice: #Kashmir Artivism: Artist Uzma Falak works on an outline map of Kashmir and demonstrates her work in film and poetry, performances in conversation with the research of Warwick’s Dr Goldie Osuri, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, on communicating the ongoing conflict in Kashmir.
• Wednesday 13 June: Human Library: Learning from Lived Experiences of Criminal Justice: An opportunity to learn about the lived experiences of former prisoners, their supporters and prison arts educators, and learn about criminal justice directly from them. Visitors will browse a library catalogue which summarises key aspects of the 'human books' on site, and can then approach them for a conversation, ask questions and listen to their stories. This work relates to Dr Anastasia Chamberlen’s (Sociology) research into punishment and prisons and is produced in collaboration with the Howard League, Safe Ground, and independent reading consultant and prisons expert, David Kendall.
• Wednesday 13 June: The Production of Mental Distress in Prison: Film screening of Disorder Contained by Talking Birds Theatre Company based on the research of Warwick History’s Professor Hilary Marland exploring the introduction of solitary confinement to English prisons in the 1850s.
• Friday 15 June: Modern Tribal: Producing Indigeneity in the Modern World: A theatre and dance workshop led by Mukul and Ghetto Tigers linked to research by Dr Rashmi Varma, Associate Professor in English and Comparative Literary Studies on representations of indigenous art in India.
• Saturday 16 June: Co-producing Feminist Knowledge: A Critical Exchange: Warwick’s Professor Akwugo Emejulu, from Sociology, leads a public debate exploring how feminist activists, academics and artists come together to collectively produce feminist memory and solidarity between different kinds of feminists. With Ifeanyi Awachie (writer and arts curator), Ruth Ewan (artist), Adele Patrick (Glasgow Women’s Library) and Selina Thompson (artist and performer) and organised with Glasgow-based curatorial practice, Panel.
• Saturday 16 June: Whose Satire is it Anyway? Watch a performance of a new play, Verbal Warning by Coventry’s EGO Performance Company, based on the research work of Dr David Taylor from Warwick’s Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies into the 1817 trial of William Hone.
• Sunday 17 June: Must Satire Offend? Warwick’s Dr David Taylor leads a public debate on the role of satire in society, with Martin Rowson (Guardian cartoonist and satirist); Ella Bucknall (cartoonist and founding editor of Whip, a magazine that publishes political cartoons by women); and Gholam Khiabany (specialist in democracy, multiculturalism, and Islamophobia, and co-editor of After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech (Zed, 2017)).

For a full list of events and to book your free place at any performance or workshop visit: www.warwick.ac.uk/tate and http://warwicktate.eventbrite.com

To find out more about Tate Exchange please visit tate.org.uk/tateexchange. For press information about Tate please email pressoffice@tate.org.uk or call 0207 887 8730 (for Tate Liverpool call 0151 702 7444). For high-resolution images visit tate.org.uk/press.

4 June 2018

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Notes to editors:

The University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is consistently ranked in the top 10 universities in the UK and top 100 in the world. Warwick has an acknowledged reputation for excellence in research, teaching and innovation alongside pioneering links with business and industry. The University of Warwick is a Tate Exchange Associate.

Tate Exchange Associates

Organisations from a wide range of fields well beyond the gallery’s normal reach have become Associates of Tate Exchange. This group programme the dedicated spaces at Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool. Working in a spirit of generosity, openness and trust, the Associates collaborate with one another around an annual theme inspired by the art on display. Now in its second year, Tate Exchange has expanded its group of Associates to 60 partners, while consistently seeking to engage audiences which are new to the museum. For the full list of Associates and more information please visit tate.org.uk/tateexchange.

Contacts:

• Tom Frew, Senior Press and Media Relations Manager – University of Warwick:

E: a dot t dot frew at warwick dot ac dot uk
M: +44(0)7785433155

• Andrea Cullia, Media Relations Manager - University of Warwick:

E: A dot Cullis at warwick dot ac dot uk