CAPITAL @ Ballarat Biennale
August 26, 2019 § Leave a comment
Curators Naomi Cass & Gareth Syvret
National Centre For Photography Ballarat AUSTRALIA
AUGUST 24 – OCTOBER 20 2019
As part of the core progamme of the Ballarat Biennale, the exhibition, CAPITAL, explores the use of the photography as a method for reflecting upon systems of value and exchange in contemporary Indigenous and settler cultures. Drawing together Australian and international practices that encounter forms of financial, political, human and photography’s own capital, the project questions the capitalist model and its legacy. If the invisible hand of the market grips the world, then Capital proposes that art can reveal and question that which seeks to bind us.
Featuring Gabi Briggs (Aus), Peta Clancy (Aus), Mark Curran (Irl/De), Simryn Gill (Malaysia/Aus), Kristian Haggblom (Aus), Newell Harry (Aus), Lisa Hilli (Aus), Nicholas Mangan (Aus), Darren Siwes (Aus), Martin Toft (Jer), Yvonne Todd (NZ), Justine Varga (Aus) and Arika Waulu (Aus). More information on opening events and ongoing programming here.Installation includes the film Algorithmic Surrealism (2015) from THE MARKET (2010-) projected in the vault of the former Union Bank (now site of the new National Centre for Photography)
Algorithmic Surrealism (2015) (digital still)
An excerpt from the film is available to watch here
‘Curran filmed in the new financial district of Zuidas, on the periphery of Amsterdam, global centre for algorithmic trading. Adapted from a text by former trader and financial activist, Brett Scott, examining High Frequency Trading (HFT) and how the input of human values, are excluded, the voiceover and title of the film, Algorithmic Surrealism, are inspired by Scott’s essay. The film suggests the hegemony of HFT, accounting now for most trading, and extinction of human reason—including traits such as empathy and ethics—in market decisions will only perpetuate the power relations of minority wealth in globalised capitalist systems’ Helen Carey
Commissioned by NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK) & Noorderlicht Festival (the Netherlands). Elaborating on the project, THE MARKET, addressing the functioning and condition of the global markets, Curran undertook research in Zuidas, the new Global Financial District on the periphery of Amsterdam, the Netherlands during the summer of 2015. The location for the film is a landscaped park facing one of the largest Dutch-based global banks.
Film Editor: Lidia Rossner
Film script adapted by Mark Curran from original essay by Brett Scott
Voice: Claudia Schäfer
(Single channel HD digital video, colour, sound/voiceover, 11’ (full length))
For Allan Sekula (1951-2013)
(CAPITAL invite image: Darren Siwes, OZ OMNIUM REX ET REGINA, Silver female, courtesy the artist and Gagprojects)
SPACE OF FLOWS: FRAMING AN UNSEEN REALITY (Documentation)
August 21, 2018 § Leave a comment
Data & Power (Panel, Krakow, May 2018)
‘Featuring an international slate of artists, the festival focuses on the ceaseless flow of people, information, and substances, through expanding urban areas, the virtual realm of cyberspace, and endangered natural landscapes. In the face of worldwide streams of refugees and migrants, an overload of manipulable digital information, and injurious amounts of harmful particles suspended in the atmosphere and discharged into waterways, those in power look the other way. And all the while they withdraw and intensify control to protect what they have. Short-term success is favoured over having a sustained vision of the future’ Iris Sikking, Curator Krakow Photomonth 2018
Extracts from THE MARKET (2010-) /RYNEK (2010-)(installation at the Szara Kamienica Gallery)
Installation comprised Photographs, Powerpoint Presentation, Transcripts of Verbal Testimony, A4 Colour Photograph/Text Pamphlet, Film & 3D Data Visualisation.Algorithm & Soundscape composition Ken Curran / Data Visualisation Damien Byrne.
The project was installed alongside excellent projects by Susan Schuppli, Axel Braun & Eline Benjaminsen.
As part of the official programme, a panel titled, Data & Power took place on Saturday, May 26th at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art. Participants were Iris Sikking, Dominik Skokowski, Eline Benjaminsen, Mark Curran, Esther Hovers, Clément Lambelet, Rune Peitersen, Salvatore Vitale and was moderated by Alicja Peszkowska. To a full house the event went overtime due to audience responses and discussion. It was documented and available below.
‘A more perfect reminder of exactly how on-time and urgent these artists and their projects are, considering our connected world, even the very ground we walk upon. These stories remain resident in my consciousness and now alert me at odd moments to pay attention, to observe my own special omens’ From review by Christiane Monarchi on Photomonitor.co.uk available here.
Thank you to Iris Sikking for her generous invitation and to Aga Dwernicka, Joanna Gorlach, Karolina Leśniak, Marcin & Małgo and team in Krakow for all their hard work.
THE MARKET has been curated by Helen Carey (Director, Firestation Artists’ Studios) and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK), Noorderlicht (Netherlands), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Gallery of Photography (Dublin), Belfast Exposed & Culture Ireland.
Installation THE MARKET Le Bleu du Ciel, Lyon
October 19, 2017 § 3 Comments
Credit Suisse (Access denied)
Canary Wharf
London England
March 2013 (left)
Anthony, Analyst (negotiation 1.5 years)
The City
London, England
May 2013 (right)
‘In the evolutionary aftermath of the global economic collapse and absence of sustained audio-visual engagement with the central locus of this catastrophic event, the ongoing multi-media transnational project, THE MARKET (2010-), critically addresses the functioning and condition of the global markets and the role of financial capital. It is the continuation of a cycle of long-term projects, beginning in the late 1990s, focused on the predatory context resulting from migrations of global capital.
Bethlehem, Trader (negotiation 1.5 years)
Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)
Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
September 2012
The Viewing Gallery
Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)
Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
September, 2012
(Single channel HD digital video, silent, looped 9’’)
James, Operations Manager (negotiation 1 year)
Irish Stock Exchange (ISE)
Dublin, Ireland
April 2012
Transcripts (Dublin, London, Addis Abeba)
‘Having undertaken an extensive process of negotiation, averaging 1.5-2 years, to access strategic sites/individuals, the ethnographically-informed project incorporates photographs, film, soundscape, artifactual material, 3D data visualisation & transcripts of verbal testimony. Taking the sphere out of abstraction & positioning it as a pervasive force central to our lives, themes include algorithmic machinery of financial markets, central innovator of this technology, absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance & long range mapping & consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens & everyday life. Profiles include traders, bankers & financial analysts & documentation from London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam & Addis Abeba’
Transcripts (Detail)(Dublin, London, Addis Abeba)
Algorithmic Surrealism 2015
Landscaped Park (International Investment Bank)
Zuidas Global Financial District
Amsterdam, Netherlands
(Single channel HD digital video, colour, sound/voiceover 11’04’’)
The installation includes the film, Algorithmic Surrealism (follow link for excerpt) made in the new financial district of Zuidas (Amsterdam), global centre for algorithmic trading & shadow banking, while the voiceover of the film is adapted from a text by former trader, Brett Scott. Forecasted that there will be no human traders within a decade, the film suggests the hegemony of High Frequency Trading (HFT) and extinction of human reason – including empathy and ethics – will perpetuate the power relations of minority wealth in globalised capitalist systems.
Financial Surrealism/Systemic Risk
Colour A4 image and text – Shadowbanking
Artifacts & Correspondence regarding process to secure access to Deutsche Börse AG, Frankfurt/Eschborn 2012 including Letter requesting access to Deutsche Börse AG
from the Irish Ambassador to Germany, Berlin, Germany, November 2011
(accessd denied)
Framed emails/ Vitrine
Artifacts & Correspondence regarding process to secure access to Deutsche Börse AG, Frankfurt/Eschborn 2012 (accessd denied)
Artifacts & Correspondence regarding process to secure access to Deutsche Börse AG, Frankfurt/Eschborn 2012 (accessd denied)
(detail)
Deutsche Börse II (Acess denied)
Eschborn (near Frankfurt)
Germany
March 2012
The Television Studio
Selected Reports from German Television (2012 – 2013) from Frankfurt Börse (Stock Exchange)
(described in the vernacular by Deutsche Börse AG (owners) as ‘The Television Studio’)
Frankfurt, Germany
Digital Video, Silent, Looped (28 minutes)
Taika, External Relations Associate (negotiation 1.5 years)
Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)
Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
September 2012
Matthew, Banker (negotiation 2 years)
Canary Wharf
London, England
March 2013
Poster/Text
JP Morgan (formerly Lehman Brothers)(Access denied)
Canary Wharf
London, England
February 2013
‘Titled the Normalisation of Deviance, through the application of an algorithm identifying the words market and/or markets in public speeches by relevant national Ministers of Finance, the data is then transformed to create the installation soundscape. For Le Bleu du Ciel, the algorithmic translation of the former minister, Pierre Moscovici is presented. To date, those of Michael Noonan (Ireland), George Osborne (UK) and Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Netherlands & Eurozone Group President) have also been included in exhibitions in those countries – to represent contemporary financial capital functioning through the conduit of the now financialised nation state”
Financial District, Lyon
(Window, main gallery space)
The installation is part of the year-long programme, Suite-Nouveau Documentaire by Gilles Verneret, Director, Le Bleu du Ciel and part of official programme Resonance de la Biennale de Lyon 2017. Participation has been generously supported by Culture Ireland.
Exhibition from September 28 – November 25, 2017.
The project has been curated by Helen Carey (Director, Firestation Artists’ Studios) and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK), Noorderlicht (Netherlands), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Gallery of Photography, Belfast Exposed & Culture Ireland.
Algorithm & Sound Composition Ken Curran
Full information here.
MUSEUM OF CAPITALISM (USA)
June 16, 2017 § Leave a comment
‘A Museum of Capitalism* is opening this June in Oakland, California. The museum will be the first of its kind in the United States remembering the historic era of capitalism, dedicated to “educating future generations about the ideology, history, and legacy of capitalism”. Through multimedia exhibits created by a diverse network of artists, scholars, and ordinary citizens, the museum’s opening exhibition will explore the historical phenomenon of capitalism and its intersections with themes including race, class, and the environment. Representing the collaborative efforts of a multidisciplinary team of curators, historians, artists, and designers, the museum’s inaugural exhibition will feature several multimedia exhibits and experiences created by some of today’s most dynamic artists.
Opening on Saturday, June 17th at 6pm. More information on events and ongoing programming here. The exhibition continues until August 20th, 2017.
The Museum of Capitalism is curated by Andrea Steves & Timothy Furstnau (FICTILIS) and includes work by Alexander Rose, Art for a Democratic Society, Ben Bigelow, Bureau d’Etudes, Chip Lord, Dread Scott, Igor Vamos, Jennifer Dalton, Jenny Odell, Jordan Bennett, Kambui Olujimi, Kate Haug, Marisa Jahn, Mark Curran, Michelle de la Vega, Oliver Ressler, Patricia Reed, Rimini Protokoll, Sharon Daniel, Superflex, Tim Portlock and Valeria Mogilevich amongst others.
The exhibition will also include a library where visitors can browse several collections and learn more about the exhibits, as well as a recreation of an early-21st Century museum gift shop. Artifacts of capitalism, donated and loaned from citizens across the country, will be on display alongside the exhibits.
The accompanying publication by Inventory Press will include work by all the artists and written contributions by Lucy Lippard, TJ Demos and Chantal Mouffe amongst others. Full details here.
*Exhibition includes (extracts from) THE MARKET comprising photographs, transcripts, sculpture. Participation by Mark Curran has been generously supported by Culture Ireland
PUBLIC TALK (UK) – NEPN
November 14, 2016 § Leave a comment
NEPN is pleased to welcome Mark Curran to Newcastle to speak about his photographic practice on Wednesday 16 November at 6.30pm at the Mining Institute, Neville Hall, Westgate Road, Newcastle, NE1 1SE.
The talk will start at 6.30pm prompt in the Lecture Theatre and will be followed by drinks and informal conversation in the Library until 8.30pm.
The talk is free however booking is requested HERE.
Mark Curran is an artist researcher and educator who lives and works in Berlin and Dublin. He holds a practice-led PhD from the Dublin Institute of Technology, is Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Photography programme, Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Dublin and Visiting Professor on the MA in Visual & Media Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin.
Incorporating multi-media installation informed by ethnographic understandings, since the late 1990s, Curran has undertaken a cycle of long-term research projects, critically addressing the predatory context resulting from the migrations and flows of global capital. These have been extensively published and exhibited, including DePaul Art Museum, Chicago (2010), Encontros da Imagem, Braga (2011), PhotoIreland, Dublin (2012), Grimmuseum, Berlin (2013) & FORMAT, Derby (2013). He has also presented widely including The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2012), Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) (2013), Abbey Theatre, Dublin (2014), McGill University, Montreal (2014), Royal Anthropological Institute, London (2015), University of Ljubljana (2015), University of Bern (2015), Glucksman Gallery of Art (2016) & Boston University (2016).
Mark Curran’s The Economy of Appearances was commissioned by Noorderlicht Photofestival 2015 and NEPN. Sited in the new financial district of Zuidas on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the work focuses on the Netherlands role in global structures of High Frequency Trading (HFT) and Shadow Banking. It is an elaboration of his long-term transnational research project, THE MARKET, focusing on the functioning and condition of the global markets.Taking the sphere out of abstraction and positioning it as a pervasive force central to our lives, themes include algorithmic machinery of financial markets, as central innovator of this technology, absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long-range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life.
Supported by Arts Council of Ireland & curated by Helen Carey, THE MARKET has been presented at Gallery of Photography, Dublin (2013), Belfast Exposed Gallery (2013), Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2014) and Noorderlicht, Groningen (2015). An extensive exhibition, titled The Economy of Appearances was presented at Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA), Ireland in Autumn 2015 and nominated by Christiane Monarchi, Photomonitor (UK) for the Deutsche Börse Photography Award 2016. Extracts from the project feature in a group exhibition on mapping global networks of capital titled, I Stood Before The Source currently installed at the Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, Canada. Future installations are confirmed for the UK & France in 2016/17 and a full publication of THE MARKET is also planned.
Links:
Video Profile: https://vimeo.com/user6725215
Recent interview with Lewis Bush on Disphotic (UK): http://www.disphotic.com/market-interview-mark-curran/
Please note that disabled access to the Lecture Theatre is gained at the rear of the building and it is best to telephone the Mining Institute ahead on (0191) 232 2201.
Image: Financial Surrrealism (World Trade Center II) , Hoarding, Zuidas Financial District, Amsterdam, Netherlands, From THE MARKET (2010-)
NEPN was established in 2009 to promote and develop photography in the North East of England and beyond. Working with photographers, artists, curators and a wide range of cultural partners, we aim to create a lively and informed context for photographic activity and to encourage new audiences for photography. NEPN is hosted by and is an initiative of the Northern Centre of Photography at the University of Sunderland.
its Since our launch NEPN has established a wider national and international profile for its programme and continues to act as an influential agency for photographers and lens-based artists.
To join NEPN’s mailing list to receive information about events and opportunities please sign up HERE
NEPN is funded by the University of Sunderland. Current commissioning and professional development programme is supported by Arts Council England through Grants for the arts.
NEPN is a member of the North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN).
ARTIST TALK (Berlin)
May 4, 2016 § Leave a comment
Mark Curran / THE MARKET
As part of a series of events organised by Peggy Sue Amison (Curator & Artistic Director, East Wing), Irish Artist, Mark Curran will giving a talk on his research project on the functioning and condition of the global markets, THE MARKET, next Monday, May 9th at tête (artist-run project space). All begins at 7.30.
Irish Artist, Mark Curran will talk about his current ongoing transnational project, THE MARKET, which continues a cycle to date, and focuses on the functioning and condition of the global markets. It has been supported by Arts Council of Ireland & curated by Helen Carey. Future installations are confirmed for the UK & France in 2016/17 and a full publication is also planned.
Full details available here (tête) & here (Photography in Berlin).
The Economy of Appearances – Installation (Film)
March 25, 2016 § Leave a comment
‘In Mark Curran’s practice, projects unfold over time. (Since the late nineties) Curran has undertaken a cycle of long-term, ethnographically-informed multimedia research projects addressing the predatory context resulting from migrations and flows of global capital…in this major exhibition, The Economy of Appearances, Curran draws these projects together for the first time, expanding the enquiry with newly commissioned work completed in Amsterdam. Incorporating photographs, film, sound, artifactual material and testimony, themes include algorithmic machinery of financial markets, as innovator of this technology, absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life’ Helen Carey
from Installation at Limerick City Gallery of Art (Autumn 2015)
Filming Isabella Walsh
Editing Isabella Walsh & Mark Curran
Thanks to Arts Council Ireland, Noorderlicht Photography, NEPN (University of Sunderland), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Belfast Exposed Photography Gallery, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Gallery of Photography & Culture Ireland
Full information here (e-flux).
Installation images here.
The Economy of Appearances @ LCGA (Installation)
October 1, 2015 § Leave a comment
In this major exhibition, The Economy of Appearances, Curran draws these projects together for the first time, expanding the enquiry with newly commissioned work completed in Amsterdam. Incorporating photographs, film, sound, artifactual material and testimony, themes include algorithmic machinery of financial markets, as innovator of this technology, absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life.
Curran filmed in the new financial district of Zuidas on the southern periphery of the Dutch capital – a global centre for algorithmic trading. Adapted from a text by former trader and now financial activist, Brett Scott, which examines High Frequency Trading (HFT) and how the input of human values, are excluded, the voiceover and title of the film are inspired by Scott’s essay, Algorithmic Surrealism. The film suggests the hegemony of HFT and the extinction of human reason or intelligence – human strengths that also include traits such as empathy and ethical behaviour – in Market decisions will both perpetuate and render more extreme the power relations of minority wealth in globalised capitalist systems
Through the application of an algorithm identifying the words “market” and/or “markets” in public speeches by relevant national Ministers of Finance, the data is then transformed to create the installation soundscape. To date, algorithmic translations of Michael Noonan (Ireland), George Osborne (United Kingdom), Pierre Moscovici (France) and Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Netherlands & Eurozone Group President) have been included in exhibitions in those countries. Curran activates the popular graphic representation of such circumstance through a 3D visualisation/virtualisation of the algorithmically-generated soundscape—The Economy Of Appearances—to represent contemporary financial capital functioning through the conduit of the financialised nation state.
Financial Surrealism (WTC)
Zuidas Financial District, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2015
(A4 double-sided colour print)
(text on reverse)
…in the case of the Netherlands, most of the Dutch shadow banking sector…is set-up by corporations for tax purposes, to attract external funding and to facilitate intragroup transactions…the focus of the shadow banking entities located in Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands is the euro area, or even global.
While the relative importance of the euro area shadow banking sector has risen significantly since 2007, it remains smaller than the regulated banking system. Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Ireland are the exception: the shadow banking sector assets in these three countries are substantially larger than those of the regulated banking system, accounting for almost two-thirds of the entire euro area shadow banking system. Credit through non-bank channels can have important advantages and contributes to the financing of the real economy, but can also become a source of systemic risk…
(source Banking Structures Report (2008-2013), European Central Bank, October 2014)
Shadow Banking
Many financial institutions that act like banks are not supervised like banks. The term, shadow bank was coined by U.S. economist Paul McCulley in 2007…because they are not subject to traditional bank regulation…they are in the shadows.
They are characterized by lack of disclosure and information about the value of their assets…opaque governance and ownership structures between banks and shadow banks; little regulatory or supervisory oversight…
Shadows can be frightening because they obscure the shapes and sizes of objects within them. The same is true for shadow banks. Estimating the size of the shadow banking system is particularly difficult because many of its entities do not report to government regulators. The shadow banking system appears to be largest in the United States, but nonbank credit intermediation is present in other countries—and growing. The shadow banking system’s share of total global financial intermediation was about 25 percent in 2009.
(source Finance & Development, International Monetary Fund, June 2013 Vol. 50 No.2)
Portrait (Child) from series Stoneybatter (Dublin) August 1998
Text Helen Carey
Algorithm & Sound Composition: Ken Curran
3D Data Visualisation: Damien Byrne
Film Editor: Lidia Rossner
Film script adapted by Mark Curran from original essay by Brett Scott
Voice: Claudia Schäfer
Thanks to Arts Council Ireland, Noorderlicht Photography, NEPN (University of Sunderland), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Belfast Exposed Photography Gallery, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Gallery of Photography & Culture Ireland
Mark Curran The Economy of Appearances
4 September–30 October 2015
Opening: Thursday, 3 September
Limerick City Gallery of Art
Carnegie Building
Pery Square
Limerick
Ireland
gallery.limerick.ie
Full information here.
The Economy of Appearances @ Limerick City Gallery of Art
September 3, 2015 § Leave a comment
Opening Thursday, 3 September
‘In Mark Curran’s practice, projects unfold over time. (Since the late nineties) Curran has undertaken a cycle of long-term, ethnographically-informed multimedia research projects addressing the predatory context resulting from migrations and flows of global capital…in this major exhibition, The Economy of Appearances, he draws these projects together for the first time, while expanding the enquiry with newly commissioned work completed in Amsterdam. Incorporating photographs, film, sound, artifactual material and testimony, themes include algorithmic machinery of financial markets, innovator of this technology, absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life…’
Helen Carey
E-Flux announcement & full text here. Continuing until 30 October
Limerick City Gallery of Art
Carnegie Building
Pery Square
Limerick
Ireland
Thanks to Arts Council of Ireland, Noorderlicht (Netherlands), NEPN (University of Sunderland, UK), Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Belfast Exposed, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Gallery of Photography & Culture Ireland
Acknowledgments
Algorithm Design & Sound Composition Ken Curran, 3D Data Visualisation Damien Byrne, Editor Lidia Rossner, Voice Claudia Schäfer Script adapted from an original essay by Brett Scott
Image
Algorithmic Surrealism 2015 (digital still)
(Single channel HD digital video, colour, sound/voiceover)
Zuidas Global Financial District, Amsterdam, Netherlands
#DataRush – Commission & Installation NOORDERLICHT/NEPN
August 21, 2015 § Leave a comment
This post is to announce the generous awarding of a commission by NOORDERLICHT in collaboration with the North East Photography Network (NEPN), University of Sunderland (UK) to elaborate on my ongoing project, THE MARKET, on the functioning and condition of the global markets,
The resulting research was undertaken in the Zuidas Financial District on the southern periphery of Amsterdam with emphasis on the central role of the Netherlands in the Global Shadow Banking System and Algorithmic/High Frequency Trading (HFT).
It will be presented as an installation in the main exhibition, #DataRush at NOORDERLICHT 2015 opening Saturday, 22 August at the Old Sugar Factory, Groningen (the Netherlands).
#DataRush continues until 11 October.
On Sunday, 23 August, there will be a public event at the Old Sugar Factory
organised by WAMS titled DEBATE DATA RUSH involving participating artists and scientists. Full details are available here.
The installation will later be presented at Photoville in New York in the Autumn and the UK in 2016.
Acknowledgments
Algorithm Design & Sound Composition Ken Curran, Data Visualisation Damien Byrne, Script adapted from text by Brett Scott Editor Lidia Rossner, Voice Claudia Schäfer, Collaborator Helen Carey
THE MARKET 