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.
Due to personal circumstances, there has been a delay, but website will go live soon. Thank you.
June 9, 2021 § Leave a comment
DOCUMENTARY FUTURES: : New Ecologies, Science and Aesthetics
International symposium happening Thursday, June 10th. Speakers include Eline Benjaminsen & Elias Kamaiyo, Lebohang Kganye, Sheng Wen Lo, Maija Tammi, Iris Sikking & Mark Curran.
Organised by Lisa Barnard, Salvatore Vitale & Professor Mark Durden, European Centre for Documentary Research, University of South Wales in collaboration with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
The event is free (online) but booking required, please see link.
‘Addressing documentary futures, this one-day international symposium explores the ways in which photographers are now collaborative and expansive in their research as they seek to give visual forms to key aspects of contemporary ecologies, economies, science and aesthetics.’
Further information and how to register here.
Museum of Capitalism – New York City
November 9, 2019 § Leave a comment
OCTOBER 30 – DECEMBER 11 2019
Official Opening Thursday, November 7th
Curated by FICTILIS (Andrea Steves & Timothy Furstnau)
My participation is generously supported by Culture Ireland & Faculty of Film, Art & Creative Technologies IADT.
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)
Why Exhibit? Positions On Exhibiting Photographies – Publication Launch
November 6, 2018 § 1 Comment
Why Exhibit? Positions on Exhibiting Photographies (Fw:Books 2018)
will be launched at
The Finnish Cultural Institute/Institut Finlandais
60 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris
Thursday, November 8th at 7pm.
Opening words by Elina Heikka, Director of The Finnish Museum of Photography/Suomen valokuvataiteen museo and presentation of the book by the editors, Anna-Kaisa Rastenberger and Iris Sikking.
Followed by statements from contributors to the book on the question Why Exhibit? from Lisa Barnard, Mark Curran, Bettina Leidl, Rune Peitersen, Karolina Puchała-Rojek, Anna Tellgren and Penelope Umbrico.
Full publication information and to order available here.
Launch event coincides with Paris Photo 2018
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.
KRAKOW PHOTOMONTH 2018 – Spaces of Flows
May 22, 2018 § Leave a comment
SPACE OF FLOWS: FRAMING AN UNSEEN REALITY
CURATOR IRIS SIKKING
KRAKOW, POLAND
MAY – JUNE 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.
The programme derives its thematic approach from the concept of the “space of flows”, as set forth by the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells in his seminal 1996 volume The Rise of the Network Society. “The space of flows”, explained Castells, “dissolves time by disordering the sequence of events and making them simultaneous, thus installing society in eternal ephemerality”. Iris Sikking
Main programme features projects by Eva Leitolf, Agata Grzybowska, Edmund Clark / Crofton Black, Jules Spinatsch, Salvatore Vitale, Katja Stuke / Oliver Sieber, Antoinette de Jong / Robert Knoth, Rune Peitersen, Lisa Bernard, Agnieszka Rayss, Sputnik Photos Collective, Mark Curran & Michal Luczak. More information on opening events and ongoing programming here.
Installation includes extracts from THE MARKET (2010-)/RYNEK (2010-) comprising Photographs, Powerpoint Presentation, Transcripts of Verbal Testimony, 3D Data Visualisation & Film Projection. Further information here.
Algorithm & Sound Composition Ken Curran 3D Data Visualisation Damien Byrne
SPECTACLE & SCAFFOLDING (USA)
January 4, 2018 § Leave a comment
‘Spectacle & Scaffolding: Contemporary Photography Muses Hierarchy features the works of contemporary photographic artists who explore the underlying power structures that we live with and participate in daily, but which often seem invisible’
The exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA includes projects by Greta Pratt, Trevor Paglen, Mark Curran and elin o’Hara and is curated by Ann Pegelow Kaplan. Excerpts from THE MARKET include photographs, transcripts, film and Powerpoint presentation.
The exhibition runs from October 7th, 2017 until January 6th, 2018.
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
Appalachian State University
North Carolina
USA
(Installation photographs courtesy of TCVA)
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.
THE MARKET/ Le Bleu du Ciel / Lyon
September 27, 2017 § 1 Comment
THE MARKET – Installation
Le Bleu du Ciel
12, rue des fantasques, 69001 Lyon
FRANCE
September 28 – November 25
Official programme of Resonance de la Biennale de Lyon 2017.
‘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. 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’
The installation is part of the year-long programme, Suite-Nouveau Documentaire by Gilles Verneret, Director, Le Bleu du Ciel.
Full information/Dossier de Presse available here.
Participation has been generously supported by Culture Ireland
THE MARKET is curated by Helen Carey and has been supported by 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, Limerick City Gallery of Art & Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris).
THE MARKET 