Fernweh: International Curator's Discussion

27 April 2013

Fernweh: Literally translated (from German) means ‘farsickness’ or an ’ache for the distance’. Some dictionaries also translate it into ‘wanderlust’ or ‘itchy feet’.

Hosted by IOTA at Velocity Cafe, Inverness | Friday 3rd May 2013

Fernweh is a travelling-curator project that aims to investigate notions of travel and hospitality within community and socially engaged art. Its objectives are to consider the notions of art in community (rural-urban) through a hosting, visiting and travelling programme in collaboration with a series of communities and institutions across Scotland. Each place will host the visitors and discuss a topic.

Four curators with a keen interest in socially engaged art have been invited and each of them has selected one younger/emerging curator interested in the above issues. Participating Curators are:

• Mary Jane Jacob, USA and Gibran Villalobos, both School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
• Luiz Vergara, Director, Museo de Arte Contemporanea, MAC, Niteroi, Brazil and Jessica Gogan, MESA (Mediation, Encounters, Society and Art), Brazil/Ireland
• Ernesto Pujol, Cuba/USA and Nuno Sacramento, Director SSW, Scotland/Portugal
• Claudia Zeiske, Deveron Arts, Scotland/Germany and Gayle Meikle, independent curator, Glasgow/Scotland

From 30 April they will be travelling across Scotland on trains, visiting other art organisations, to include Deveron Arts in Huntly, SSW in Lumsden, ATLAS on Skye, Timespan in Helmsdale discussing the notions of:

1. Conversation + Dialogue

2. Community + Place

3. Travel + Remoteness

4. Urban/Rural Dialogue : IOTA

On Saturday 4 May they will come together in Huntly for a final symposium reflecting on the above themes within the topic of Hospitality + Visiting.

During the Fernweh project IOTA will offer an understanding of our place to the visiting curators by giving a short walking tour around some of the city's key public artworks and hosting a discussion with invited speaker Dairmaid Lawlor (Head of Urbanism, A+DS) at Velocity Cafe & Bicycle Workshop.

DISCUSSION

Inverness is a small city within a large rural area and this brings specific challenges – what is needed to make the city a vibrant place for young people, how can the arts and artists be part of that process, what do people want to experience and see happen, how can public space be imaginatively used, how can we navigate the rural/urban issue?

Places are limited but contact Kirsten if you'd like to find out more.

BACKGROUND READING

'Make the boat go faster' by Diarmaid Lawlor, The Geographer, Spring 2013 Issue

'If Spaces Could Talk: The Inverness Story', by Diarmaid Lawlor & Susan Christie, CURB, Volume 3 | Issue 2