UNDER CONSTRUCTION

December 13, 2021 § Leave a comment

The absence of updates has, in part, been due to the focus on finally building a new website.

The intention is that the site will, simultaneously, be an archive and repository of the cycle of projects, to date, including, SOUTHERN CROSS (1999-2002), The Breathing Factory (2002-2006), Ausschnitte Aus EDEN/Extracts from Eden (2003-2009) and THE MARKET (2010-) and a means to update on a new project, alongside ongoing events, publications etc. All material will be available and made accessible to download. It is always appreciated when people check here and so thank you for your interest and your patience.

The website can be accessed at markcurran.org and will go live in early 2022.

TAXED TO THE MAX – NOORDERLICHT 2019 (NL)

October 5, 2019 § Leave a comment

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at least you are not afraid to live life on the brink of chaos
Groningen
THE NETHERLANDS
OCTOBER 6 – DECEMBER 1 2019
Offical opening October 5th
‘The 26th edition examines the societal tensions created by international conglomerates with their vast accumulations of capital and their influence on national and global politics. TAXED TO THE MAX asks: how does the increasingly perfected entanglement of corporatism, finance capital and modern government affect the lives of regular people?’

Incorporating photographic series, mixed media, video and sound installations, performances, and spatial work on this theme, artists include amongst others, Alan Gignoux, Brigitte de Langen, David Klammer, Davide Monteleone, Dorothée Elisa Baumann, Ezio D’Agostino, Gina Peyran Tan, Igor Tereshkov, Ishan Tankha, John Vink, Jos Jansen, Kanad Chakrabarti, Mari Bastashevski, Mark Curran, Martin Toft, Oliver Ressler & Zanny Begg, Thomas Kuijpers & Ursula Biemann.

This edition will include installation of The Breathing Factory (2002-2006) at the Centrum Beeldende Kunst (CBK) Groningen. The project was originally supported by Arts Council, Belfast Exposed, Butler Gallery & Gallery of Photography & published by Edition Braus (2006)

‘The Breathing Factory critically addresses the role and representation of labour and global labour practices in this newly industrialised landscape as manifest in manufacturing and technology. Global industrial practices are characterised by fleeting alliances, transient spaces as capital moves when and as required. In such an ephemeral, precarious and globalised context, the project focuses specifically upon the Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing and Technology Campus, part of a cluster formation of multinational technology complexes, in Leixlip in the east of Ireland’

The Breathing Factory was the outcome of practice-led masters & doctorate research, one of the first in the Republic of Ireland. More information here.

Full PDF of book available for free download here.

 

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 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, Bullclipsfrom the project The Breathing Factory (Edition Braus/Belfast Exposed/Gallery of Photography 2006) © Mark Curran

‘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)

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.

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