An international contemporary art exhibition spread across the city’s gallery spaces. Free entry. Venues include Bloc, Millennium Gallery, S1 Artspace, Site Gallery, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery and the public realm.

Read the full programme online.

Deadline for Applications: Tuesday 26 January 2010

Museums Sheffield and Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum are offering a unique training and placement opportunity for artists, as part of the forthcoming Art Sheffield 2010 - Life: A User’s Manual. This city wide contemporary art event takes place from 6 March to 1 May, and takes the form of a single exhibition stretching across various venues in Sheffield.

We are looking to train four contemporary artists based in Sheffield/ South Yorkshire to lead guided Saturday Tours during the festival. The training is free, and will equip participants with the knowledge, skills and confidence to talk about art to a general public. Participants will also be paid £100 for leading two tours.

Please find below and attached more information about the training. Please contact Jo Nancarrow on jo@artsheffield.org or 0114 2812013 if you would like further details, or visitwww.artsheffield.org/art-sheffield-festivals/ to find out about the Art Sheffield events.

“This has given me an insight, and greater confidence, into how to speak about contemporary art in general but more specifically might help in terms of verbal communication concerning my own work” (Placement artist, Art Sheffield 08: Yes, No & Other Options)

Art Sheffield 2010 is a city-wide contemporary art event showcasing artwork by locally, nationally and internationally based artists. It will take place across venues in Sheffield from 6 March until 1 May 2010.

Netherlands-based curators Frederique Bergholtz and Annie Fletcher have been collaborating with curators and artists in the city to select a dynamic and varied programme for the event.

In October 2009, we invited Bergholtz and Fletcher to come to Sheffield to talk more about the curatorial framework they have developed for the festival, at a public talk at the Showroom Cinema. They shared thoughts about the context, and the thinking and research that lead to it. They also opened and closed and interspersed their talk with some works and interviews with artists: Katarina Zdjelar, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Yael Davids and Cathy Wilkes.

Part one: Introduction and background

Download audio file (as10-1.mp3)
 (8m 49s)

Katarina Zdjelar, Shoum

Introduced by Katy Woods, Artistic Programme Co-ordinator at Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum, Bergholtz and Fletcher talk about their collaborative curatorial practice, and their rolling platform If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, introducing the basic elements behind the thinking for Art Sheffield 2010. They also showed SHoum! by Katarina Zdjelar.

Links and further reading:
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution

Part two: Announcing the title and ideas of ‘Affect’

Download audio file (as10-2.mp3)
(7m 40s)

Yael Davids, The Hand is Quicker than the Eye

Here Bergholtz and Fletcher announce the subtitle for the event ‘Life: A User’s Manual’ and introduce ideas of ‘Affect’, referring to quotes by curators, artists, critics and philosphers, including Okwui Enwezor, Andrea Fraser, Professor Sara Ahmed, and Brian Massuma. They also talk about the three main subcategories, or rubrics, that they have developed for the festival, the first working title being Affectivism, which includes the rallying cry of contemporary critic Brian Holmes who penned the ‘Affectivist Manifesto’. At this point the curators introduce the work of Yael Davids, an Israeli artist based in Amsterdam.

Links and further reading:

Brian Holmes, the Affectivitist Manifesto
Andrea Fraser (on wikipedia)
Professor Sara Ahmed (Goldsmiths staff profile)
Brian Massumi (on wikipedia)
Okwui Enwezor (on wikipedia)

Part Three: Affective economy and the Intimacy of Scale

Download audio file (as10-3.mp3)

Wendelien van Oldenborgh Après la reprise, la prise , 2009. Still transferred to slide. Courtesy Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam.

To finish their presentation, Bergholtz and Fletcher talk briefly about the final two subcategories which they are using  ‘Affective Economy’ and ‘Intimacy of Scale’. In relation to the first they show Après la reprise, la prise (2009) Wendelien van Oldenborgh, a video work which follows women working in a Levi’s factory that closed in the 90’s, and their involvement in a theatre project about this experience, and therefore the connection between ‘work labour’ and ‘art labour’.

In relation to ‘Intimacy of Scale’ – they presented a short interview with Cathy Wilkes which articulates the possibility of connection through affect.

Curators’ Reading list for “Affect”

- Sara Ahmed: The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 2004.
- Jill Bennett: Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art (Cultural Memory in the Present) Stanford University Press 2004.
- Henri Bergson: Matter and Memory, New York: Macmillan. 1911.
- Leo Bersani: Intimacies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
- Judith Butler: Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence. London/New York: Verso 2004.
- Gilles Deleuze: Cinema 1 – the movement image. London: The Athlone Press 1986
- Mark Hansen: The Time of Affect, or Bearing Witness to Life
- Critical Inquiry; Spring 2004; 30, 3; ProQuest Direct Complete pg. 584
- Michael Hardt: Affective Labor; info.interactivist.net/node/2589
- Brian Massumi: Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, London: Duke University Press: 2002.
- Brian Massumi: The Autonomy of Affect
- Cultural Critique, No. 31, The Politics of Systems and Environments, Part II. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 83-109
- Brian Massumi: Navigating movement www.brianmassumi.com/…/NAVIGATING%20MOVEMENTS.pdf
- Luciana Parisi: Abstract Sex, philosophy, biotechnology and the mutations of desire’ Continuum, 2004
- Mario Perniola: The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic. Contnuum 2004
- Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick: Touching, Feeling. Affect, pedagogy, performativity. Durham, London: Duke University Press 2003
- Susan Sontag: Regarding the Pain of Others. Picador, 2004.

The skeletal remains of Sutton Scarsdale Hall continue to decay. A dilapidated wreck of a structure, you enter at your own risk. This decay needs to be resisted and Sutton Scarsdale needs to live again…

In the very heart of England, Sutton Scarsdale Hall is to become the Pavilion of Postcontemporary Curating, a new international art facility set in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside, dedicated solely to new curating.

The current hall is a perfect exhibition/performance space: lit from above, with high walls, neutral floor. As a functioning work of art/art centre, it should provide everything the contemporary curator requires, and be able to evolve as those needs change… Importantly it will facilitate new media production as well as old, it will have a library, archive, research facilities, studios and accommodation as well as a gallery dedicated to the history of the house.

It will be a base for new ways of looking at art and its production. A sculpture, it will become part of the regional landscape and act as a beacon to advanced ideas and art praxis in the regional and international scenes.

With this call for entries, the Centre of Attention is seeking proposals for the re-imagining of Sutton Scarsdale Hall, Derbyshire into a pavilion of postcontemporary curating.

This call is open to architects, designers, artists, curators and others. All ideas, gestural, utopian or pragmatic are welcome. Proposals and concepts can be submitted as drawings, images or texts, by email to on@thecentreofattention.org

More information and images: www.thecentreofattention.org
The Centre of Attention: 020 8880 5507 or 07792 582 386

images (from left to right): Stills from: The Hyperborean, Chloë Brown; Adhãn, Haroon Mirza; Acrospire, Paul Morrison.

Presenting work by Sheffield-based artists at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield

Tuesday 2 February 6pm
£2 (£1.50 conc)

Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum invites you to a home screening of The Sheffield Pavilion 2009, a screening programme and limited edition DVD of specially commissioned and existing video works by eleven Sheffield-based artists.

The Sheffield Pavilion 2009 was originally screened and distributed during the opening days of the 11th Istanbul Biennial at Büyük Londra Hotel, presenting the work of Sheffield-based artists and promoting contemporary art activity taking place in Sheffield, UK in an international context. It features an essay by artist / curator Ian White and is designed by renowned Sheffield-based design firm The Designers Republic.

The Sheffield Pavilion is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Yorkshire ArtSpace: Porter Brook Studios is in Sheffield City Centre (S1), and is available from May 2009. Next door to Persistence Works, this well lit, well serviced, low cost temporary studio base with spaces on the 1st and 2nd floor, will be available on a short term licence basis.

Yorkshire ArtSpace: Manor Oaks Studios in the S2 area of the city is available from Spring 2010. These brand new, purpose built studios at Manor Oaks farm are being developed in partnership with Green Estate, in line with their sustainable agenda.  The studios in this historical setting, close to Sheffield city centre, are particularly suitable for artists working in crafts or applied arts. 

Yorkshire ArtSpace: SOAR Works are new developments in Parson Cross (S6) in the north of Sheffield, and are available from Summer 2010. These new, purpose built studios are being developed in partnership with Southey Owlerton Area Regeneration.  All units are north facing and situated on the top floor with natural skylights.  This complex is situated with easy access to the M1 and the A61North and the studios are particularly suitable for more quieter visual arts practices.

All artists within these new complexes will be part of Yorkshire ArtSpace Society’s membership, with access to communal facilities at the main building at Persistence Works, such as the meeting room and reception, participation in joint events and initiatives and access to business support services. For further information, images of the spaces and an application form visit http://www.artspace.org.uk/studios.htm or contact Anita Lloyd on anita@artspace.org.uk or 0114 2761769.

Press Release: March 2009

As well as organising the Art Sheffield international biennial festivals in the city, Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum (SCAF) also organises projects which aim to promote the work of Sheffield based artists in international contexts. 

To date SCAF has organised The Sheffield Pavilion, an exhibition of commissioned artwork in book form which was launched and distributed at the Venice Biennale, Documenta and  Skulptur Projekte Munster festivals in 2007. This nexus of projects falling together offered a unique opportunity to symbiotically present the work of ten Sheffield-based artists and promote the contemporary art activity taking place in Sheffield in an international context.

The next such project - The Sheffield Pavilion 2009 undergoes a change in both form and context, moving from book to screening programme/DVD edition and from a launch at the Venice Biennale to one in Istanbul in September 2009 during the opening days of the 11th Istanbul Biennial.  The construct of the ‘Pavilion’ (a temporary structure used for leisure, entertainment or exhibition) has again been used to structure the project and the artists’ contributions. A nomadic pavilion is easy to pack up and move on to further seek its audience, it can respond to the migratory movements of the art world with equal levels of critique and complicity. 

As well as existing as an exhibited screening programme of specially commissioned and existing artists’ films, a limited edition DVD edition will be produced with accompanying essay by artist/curator Ian White and designed by renowned Sheffield-based design firm The Designers Republic. These will also be distributed at the launch and will be available by contacting SCAF.

Participating artists: 

Richard Bartle, Chloe Brown, Katie Davies, Hondartza Fraga, Steve Hawley, Esther Johnson, Tony Kemplen, Haroon Mirza, Paul Morrison, No Fixed Abode, Third Angel