Artists have for many decades being dealing with topics relating to repair, care and maintenance. From Mierle Laderman Ukeles MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART 1969!: which celebrated the mundane of everyday chores to Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto ideas on the liberation of owning and inhabiting spaces of failure, breakdown and disconnect. Opening with an introduction into how repair, care and maintenance have manifested within contemporary art practice, the session will be followed by a summary of key theoretical positions, including those relating to queer feminist theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick notion of the reparative turn and the role that repair cultures play in contemporary concerns related to feelings, senses, being, and belonging.

Students will be encouraged to bring with them images of repaired objects and upload to the TALES OF CARE AND REPAIR and create short interventions (stories/images/illustrations) that support thinking through what a local declaration for repair and care would look like and mean.

Facilitators

Teresa Dillon is an artist and researcher and the project lead for TALES OF CARE AND REPAIR. In 2018 she co-founded Repair Acts – a practice-based research programme that explores repair cultures and practices in a pluralistic and collective manner. Since 2013 she also directs Urban Hosts – a programme the explores alternative urban futures and is a member of the spatial collective Soft Agency. Her work has been published in various contexts and she has participated in numerous exhibitions, art residencies, conferences and seminar programmes. A Humboldt Fellow, Teresa currently holds the post of Professor of City Futures at the School of Art and Design, UWE Bristol.

Agenda

14.00 – 14.430 : Welcome and Introduction

14.30 – 15.30 :  Sharing Repair Stories and uploading images

15.30 – 15.45: Break

15.45-16.45: Constructing intentions and statements

16.45-17.00: Close and thanks

In advance of the workshop please bring three photos images of repaired objects with you. This can be a mix of a professional repair, DIY/self-repair or a failed repair.