Location

28, 29 & 30 March

Open Space presents its inaugural edition of Forum, a three-day event comprising artist performances, film screenings, talks and workshops. Forum: Of Hosts & Guests will run from Thursday 28 March – Saturday 30 March 2019 across three cultural venues in Bloomsbury, London: University College London (UCL), Mary Ward House and Pushkin House. Through diverse, site-specific responses to these spaces, six participating artists will explore ideas of hospitality, hierarchy, ritual and belonging.

Of Hosts & Guests ​is guest curated by Katherine Finerty.

Forum will feature: a collective performance by ​Adelaide Damoah ​that will see the artist use her own body to confront Ghana’s colonial history; a ​three-act food-art performance interrogating conceptions of class by ​Nora Silva  and  a  screening  of  Amartey Golding​’s  ​Chainmail  film  series  exploring  identity  politics  around  race,  gender and class followed by a live crit of his work led by his family and friends. Further works include: a life drawing  class  led  by  ​Henry  Hussey​,  ​addressing  issues  of  an  imperial  and  gendered  gaze;  an  entrancing,  colour saturated film of a Ghanaian market projected into a mirrored installation, activate​d ​with a drawing workshop led by ​Larry Amponsah​; and a participatory photoshoot by William Martin in collaboration with Charlotte Speechley, designed to invert the hierarchy of viewership and rituals of dressing. 

Deriving its title from Albert Camus’s 1957 short story L’Hôte​, which translates into both ‘the host’ and ‘the  guest’, ​Of Hosts & Guests ​invites artists and audiences to play with the duality of playing both of these roles. The  programme ​will  unfold  as  a  journey  through  spaces,  challenging  social  structures  in  pursuit  of  social  connection and asking how we can establish a sense of home and community in the face of contested borders and endangered notions of belonging.  

To book for our Forum: Of Hosts & Guests events please see our Open Space Eventbrite page here.

About Katherine Finerty 
Katherine  Finerty (b.  1988  New York City) is an independent curator and writer focusing on research-based  and socially-engaged practices, trans-local identity politics, and contemporary African art. Recently, she has worked with Gallery 1957, Ed Cross Fine Art, and Daata Editions as Guest Curator; curated artist projects for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair; and created an educational art programme for the City of London School. Katherine has previously worked as the curatorial assistant to Elvira Dyangani Ose for GIBCA 2015 (​Göteborg International  Biennial  for  Contemporary  Art​)  and  ​Biennale  de  Lubumbashi  2012/2013. ​She  holds  an  MA  in  Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art (London), a BA in History of Art and Africana Studies from  Cornell  University  (New  York)  and  has  studied  History  of  Art  at  Pembroke  College,  University  of  Cambridge (Cambridge). 


Image credits (from right to left):

William Martin, Pup (2017) Photo by Chris Parkes, Courtesy of the artist.

Henry Hussey, Zennor (2018) Film still, 9 mins, Courtesy of the artist.

Amartey Golding, Chainmail 1 (2016) Film still, Courtesy of the artist.

Larry Amponsah, Looking for Sugar in the Ocean… Who is the Enemy? (2018) Film still, 15 mins, Courtesy of the artist.

Nora Silva, Minced Meat (2017) Performance still, Photo by Giulia Brescianini, Courtesy of the artist.

Adelaide Damoah, Into the Mind of the Coloniser (2019) Photo by Jennifer Moyes, Courtesy of the artist and Open Space.

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