Langlands & Bell
Catherine Bertola
Layla Curtis
Jeremy Deller
Lothar Gotz
Andrew Grassie
Eva Weinmayr
Susanna Bianchini
Habda Rashid
Cult of the Difficult. A group of contemporary artists, from multi-disciplinary practices, have been invited to re-engage with their works held in the Government Art Collection. The show becomes an extension of the Collection, blurring the boundary between what has been collected and the works in the exhibition.
Curated by Susanna Bianchini and Habda Rashid
Cult of the Difficult is the fourth part ofMACC to GAC and Back: Four Curatorial
Interventions, a series of displays that mark the culmination of a collaborative
research project between the Government Art Collection (GAC) and final year
students of the MA Curating the Contemporary (MACC), taught by London
Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery. Three displays run at the
Government Art Collection with an additional off-site exhibition at the Cass
Gallery, part of the London Metropolitan University.
For the exhibition Cult of the Difficult a group of contemporary artists, from
multi-disciplinary practices, have been invited to re-engage with their works
held in the GAC. The multifarious strategies needed by the Government Art
Collection to collect contemporary art, such as site-specificity and
commissioning, are highlighted in the process.
This exhibition will be the only display from the series of four curatorial
interventions not to use the collected works of the GAC, playing instead with
the notion of their absence. The artists have responded by adding to series,
creating new works and engaging with the ephemera from their collected pieces.
The display thus formed exists in its own right as well as maintaining a
connection to the Government Art Collection.
The show becomes an extension of the Collection, blurring the boundary between
what has been collected and the works in the exhibition. By re-instating the
role of the artists, their wider practice and propositions, the exhibition opens
up a new space of inquiry into the collecting of contemporary art, whilst also
revealing the Government Art Collection to a new audience.
For further information please contact Susanna Bianchini
T: 07913717999 E: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com
Special Events:
Cult of the Difficult – Artist Event
In conversation: artist Charles Avery with Daniel F. Hermann, Curator: Head of
MA Curatorial Studies, Whitechapel Gallery. Introduction to the Government Art
Collection by Philippa Martin, Curator: Information and Research (Historical).
Video works by artist Mark Titchner.
Wednesday 11th May at 6:30 pm
Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX.
RSVP Essential to habda.rashid@gmail.com
Cult of the Difficult – Symposium
The Curator as a Patron for Contemporary Art: Challenges, Diplomacy, Solutions.
Speakers: Adrian George, Curator: Collection Projects, Government Art
Collection; Lucy Bayley, Curator: National Programme, Contemporary Art Society;
Andrew Grassie, Artist.
Tuesday 17th May at 6:30 pm
Frederick Parker Chair Collection, (as part of Cass Gallery)
41 Commercial Road London E1 1LA.
Further information: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com
Opening 10th May 2011
The Cass Gallery
41 Commercial Road - London
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 12 – 18 pm
Admission free