UNFIXED Photography and postcolonial perspectives in contemporary art www.unfixedprojects.org EXHIBITION October 23 - December 4 SYMPOSIUM November 16 WORKSHOP November 15 PUBLICATION 2011 Artists & Speakers: Charif Benhelima (BE), Otobong Nkanga (FR/NG), Keith Piper (UK), Naro Snackey (NL), Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (US), Hank Willis Thomas (US), Kobena Mercer (UK), Patty Pattynama (NL) UNFIXED is a multiplatform project that includes an exhibition, symposium, workshop, and a resulting publication. Bringing together an international group of artists and scholars with personal relations to migration, colonial history and cultural diaspora, UNFIXED explores the elusive ‘truth’ of photography and its relationship to ideas of ethnicity, culture and identity in contemporary art. Through their own practices and research, participating artists and theorists will reflect on photography’s representational abilities within a postcolonial context. Photography’s attraction as a medium, its historical connection to the production and fixation of (cultural) identity, and the urgency of debates over identity, globalization, and culture, inspire UNFIXED. Via its various platforms, UNFIXED seeks to dissolve ideas of photographic truth and cultural identity as essential and unchanging by exploring artistic practices that are innovative, self-reflexive and critical. Organized by UNFIXED Projects in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art (CBK) Dordrecht, the Netherlands Curators: Sara Blokland and Asmara Pelupessy EXHIBITION October 23 - December 4 Six international artists re-construct, re-contextualize and reflect on photography’s fixed representations of history and identity through their installations, found and vernacular images, sculpture, text and video. SYMPOSIUM November 16 The symposium will explore photography’s significance within changing notions of cultural history, identity and representation. The day will include a keynote from art historian Kobena Mercer, along with presentations from all of the participating artists, Patty Pattynama (University of Amsterdam), and the curators. Presentations will touch on such topics as: colonial photography, visual sovereignty, hybrid identity, photographic research and process, image and text relationships and representation within media and popular culture. Researcher, writer and presenter Farid Tabarki will moderate the symposium. WORKSHOP November 15 Graduate and end exam students in arts theory and practice are invited to participate in a workshop with the artists, curators and keynote. Students will have the chance to reflect on their own work in relation to such themes as identity, culture and history within photography. PUBLICATION 2011 A collection of new, autonomous visual and textual essays from a broad range of international artists, writers and scholars. Along with reflective documentation of the project, the publication expands on the postcolonial themes and photographic strategies UNFIXED engages. Please see our website (www.unfixedprojects.org) for more information on how to register and apply for the symposium and/or workshop. Email: unfixedprojects@gmail.com The exhibition, workshop and symposium will be held at Center for Contemporary Art (CBK) Dordrecht Voorstraat 180, 3311 ES Dordrecht, The Netherlands Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 12-17 First Sunday of the month 12-17