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FAKING IT Wednesdays 6.30pm £3/£2 Concs

A series of talks organised in association with the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Audiences can be moved and persuaded by the re-enactments and reconstructions of performance even while they doubt their authenticity. This series of talks explores contemporary performances that play fast and loose with ideas of art as authentic expression.

Gavin Butt

Wed 31 May

Is ‘the theatrical’ a pejorative term? And how might ‘contemporary queer’ move beyond camp? In this wide ranging discussion Gavin Butt will discuss examples from the queer cabaret of Kiki and Herb to the pop performance of Antony and the Johnsons. Gavin Butt is the author of After Criticism: New Responses to Art and Performance and Between You and Me – Queer Disclosures in the New York Art World, 1948 – 1963.

Rod Dickinson and Tom McCarthy

Wed 14 Jun

Artist Rod Dickinson and writer Tom McCarthy will discuss the project Greenwich Degree Zero, an exhibition which recorded an incident where a French anarchist failed in his attempt to blow up Greenwich Observatory in 1894.

Vision Machine

Wed 21 Jun

Vision Machine Film Project is a filmmakers’ collective that seeks to research, analyse and respond to the conditions and mechanisms of power. In particular, Vision Machine focuses on forms of systemic violence and terror – from death squads in Indonesia in 1965 and in Colombia today to the growth of Kurdish gangs in London. Rather than ‘dramatize’ history, they work through interventions, infiltrations and provocations in public space.

Richard Dedomenici – Did Priya Pathak Ever Get Her Wallet Back?

Wed 28 Jun Dark Studio

Following his stint as Arnolfini’s Visiting Writer in February, Richard will deliver his new performance-lecture, which deals with his relationship with the police (best described as complex!) and includes footage shot at Arnolfini during the Inbetween Time Festival.