This second session draws on two large-scale works from Beaconsfield’s history, the late Monica Ross’s performance rightsrepeated (2005) which developed into the ongoing project Acts of Memory (2008-) and Shane Cullen’s The Agreement (2002). Both works pull at the threads of language, resituating quite lengthy, dense texts into performative, embodied, and sculptural contexts.
For Ross, the repositioned text was The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which was originally recited in its entirety by the artist as part of 'rights repeated' (2005) in the Beaconsfield exhibition Chronic Epoch, and went on to be collectively recited by different groups, across multiple languages 60 times as part of Acts of Memory (2008-) before the artist’s death in 2013.
Commissioned by Beaconsfield in 2000: 'The Agreement is a sculptural work by Dublin- based artist Shane Cullen, conceived to commemorate the signing of the Anglo-Irish Peace Agreement of 1998. The work presents the full text of the document known as the ‘Good Friday’ or ‘Belfast’ Agreement, in a clear and comprehensible manner: 11,500 words digitally routed into 55 HDU panels, each panel 3.5m x 1.22m, total length 67m'.
Beaconsfield (2002) The Agreement [Press Release]
For both projects language becomes a palpable, sculptural matter, to be shared collectively to oppose abuses of power. The selected texts for this session draw on the porous relationships between language, art, collective experience and memory, analysing how creatives concoct these elements together to create solid pathways for tackling the present moment.
The selected readings mirror the layering and repurposing of language that runs throughout
the work of Ross and Cullen. Liedeke Plate and Anneke Smelik’s text introduces different
performative approaches to cultural memory by various artists, filmmakers and authors. Yve
Lomax’s essay heralds the importance of ‘now time’ within Monica Ross’s practice, bridging
together correspondence from Monica, with Lomax’s own reflections on narrative capsules
and prose from Benjamin, The Bible and Giorgio Agamben.
Gómez-Peña’s ‘In Defence of Performance’ will also lay out the vigour of embodied
knowledge and its capacity to transcend political borders, generating ‘more inclusive systems
of political thought and aesthetic praxis’.
Short passages from Guillermo
Archival materials from rightsrepeated (2005) and The Agreement (2002) will be on display for participants to sift through and return to after collectively reading the texts.
