The Breathing Factory at FORMAT 2013, Derby, UK

March 5, 2013 § Leave a comment

I mean we can keep throwing tax breaks at them but that’s just…that will only go so far…it’s a fool’s economy or a false economy or fool’s paradise or whatever you want to call it…I think we need to be…more cost effective and I don’t think…at the moment we really are…what we have got is, as I said, is…a well-trained, educated, kind of workforce…so that’s in our favour, but, again time will tell whether that’s enough…I don’t see it attracting everybody…I think they’ll always come in for the tax break and that’s probably the main reason they’re here for now…so I’m really not sure where this is going to be in 10-15 years time…you could have a lot of well-educated people walking done to the dole office (unemployment office) and you know…but like, I don’t really know where it’s going…you know…
(Cleanroom Supervisor, Canteen, Hewlett-Packard Ireland, 28 November 2003)

‘Untitled’, Gowning Room, Building 7 11.02 a.m., Monday, November 11th 2003’ (Leixlip, Ireland) 1m x 1cm Ultrachrome Archival Print, Nails, Bullclips
from the project The Breathing Factory (Edition Braus/Belfast Exposed/Gallery of Photography 2006) © Mark Curran

THE BREATHING FACTORY
A project by Mark Curran

is presented as part of the main programme of FORMAT 2013

Curated by Louise Clements (Artistic Director QUAD Derby & FORMAT)

The theme of this edition is FACTORY: Mass Production in the city which founded the world’s first ever factory. The complete programme includes exhibitions by Brian Griffin, Polly Braden, Archive of Modern Conflict, Edward Burtynsky, Erik Kessels, Ien Teh, Simon Roberts, Alinka Echeverria, Martin Cregg, Darek Fortas, Rob Ball and Ken Grant amongst others.

Chocolate Factory

John Street via Siddels Road

Derby DE1 2LX

England

Opening: Thursday, March 7th at 6PM and continues until April 7th, 2013

With a title inspired by a widely utilised economic management model responsive to the needs and demands of the global market, which is intended to be implemented not only on the factory floor but to extend to the nation state, The Breathing Factory, critically adddresses the role and representation of labour and global labour practices in Ireland’s newly industrialised landscape. In 2005, the Irish Republic was defined as the ‘most globalised economy in the world’ with full employment. In 2013, national unemployment is close to 15%, while for those under the age of 25, it is 28%.

Global industrial practices are characterised by fleeting alliances; transient spaces as capital moves when and as required. In such an ephermeral and global context, and in the absence of significant audio and visual representation of labour and globalised industrial space regarding the Republic’s accelerated economic development, the project focuses upon the Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing and Technology Campus, part of a cluster formation of multinational technology complexes, in the east of Ireland. Following 9 months of negotiation regarding access and completed over a 20 month period, the work is the result of a practice-led doctoral research project incorporating ethnographic practices in its undertaking. The installation includes, photographs, text-base work, oral testimony, digital video projection, artefactual and sound archival material in its full presentation.

The Breathing Factory (2006) was published by Edition Braus, Heidelberg with the support of Belfast Exposed Photography, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny and Gallery of Photography, Dublin.

The installation has been generously supported by CULTURE IRELAND.

Installation of The Breathing Factory, DePaul Art Museum (DPAM), Chicago, 2010 (image by Dominic Fortunato)

In relation to The Breathing Factory, Curran will also present on re-presenting the conditions of labour in the global factory On the panel titled, The Worker: Towards the future, at the FORMAT 2013 conference being held at the University of Derby, on Friday, March 8th. The day-long event begins at 9.30AM, and is chaired by Paul Herrmann (Director, Redeye) and Heike Löwenstein (Course Leader, Photography, UCA Rochester). Further details can be found here.

Update: short video clip of the installation at FORMAT 13

Installation of The Breathing Factory, FORMAT13, Derby, UK from Mark Curran on Vimeo.

Tagged: Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast Exposed Photography, Butler Gallery, Culture Ireland, Edition Braus, FORMAT 2013, Gallery of Photography, Heike Löwenstein, Louise Clements, Paul Herrmann, The Breathing Factory

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