- Maja and Reuben Fowkes
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Maja and Reuben Fowkes are contemporary art historians and curators based in Budapest and London who deal in their work with issues of ecology, memory and translocal exchange. They are members of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) and the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), and in addition to their curatorial activities, publish regularly in books, journals and magazines, including Third Text, Art Monthly and Time Out Budapest. In 2010 their activities were recognised with a grant from the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory [1]
Contents
Sustainable art
They have contributed to the development of recent thinking on sustainability and contemporary art, through their published writings, curated exhibitions and organisation of conferences. In 2006 they co-organised the pioneering International Symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art at Central European University Budapest,[1] while in 2008 they organised a symposium that focused on the dilemma of Exit or Activism? Sustainability and Contemporary Art, in 2009 a symposium on Hard Realities and the New Materiality: Sustainability and Contemporary Art and in 2010 a symposium on Art, Post-Fordism and Eco-Critique. An interview with Maja and Reuben Fowkes about their work on issues of sustainability and contemporary art was published in summer 2009 in Antennae Journal [2] Their project on the Ecological Footprint of Contemporary Art involved presentations at Modern Art Oxford, Barbican Gallery London and Cornerhouse Manchester in 2009.
Revolution trilogy
Their curated exhibitions include Revolution is not a Garden Party, which dealt with the legacy of the 1956 Revolution for contemporary art and was held at Trafo Gallery Budapest, Norwich Gallery and Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic in Zagreb in 2006-7.[3] The second part of their revolution trilogy is Revolution I Love You: 1968 in Art, Politics and Philosophy which was shown at the Centre for Contemporary Art Thessaloniki in summer 2008, as well as Trafo Gallery Budapest and International Project Space Birmingham.[4] Revolutionary Decadence: Foreign Artists in Budapest since 1989 completed the trilogy and was shown at Kiscell Museum Budapest in November 2009.[5]
East European art
A major focus of their work is on researching contemporary East European art. Since 2006 they have organised the SocialEast Forum on the Art and Visual Culture of Eastern Europe to examines how 'a revised understanding of the achievements and circumstances of East European art impact on global interpretations of art history'[2]. This has involved holding SocialEast Seminars at the Ludwig Museum Budapest, Manchester Art Gallery, Jagiellonian University Krakow, Mimara Museum Zagreb and Courtauld Institute London, such as the forthcoming Seminar on Networks and Sociability in East European Art in October 2010. Their publications on East European art include From Post-Communism to Post-Transition: Art in Eastern Europe in The Art Book [3] (February 2009) and a special issue of Third Text Third Text on Socialist Eastern Europe.[6] In February 2010 they gave a paper on The Possibility of the Post-National in Contemporary East European Art at the College Art Association College Art Association conference.
See also
References
- ^ Praesens: Contemporary Central European Art Review 1/2006
- ^ Antennae Journal Nature in Visual Art
- ^ Revolution is not a Garden Party, ed. Maja and Reuben Fowkes (MIRIAD Manchester Metropolitan University, 2007)
- ^ Revolution I Love You: 1968 in Art Politics and Philosophy(Manchester Metropolitan University, 2008)
- ^ Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Revolutionary Decadence: Foreign Artists in Budapest since 1989 (Manchester Metropolitan University and Museum Kiscell, 2009)
- ^ Third Text Special issue on Socialist Eastern Europe, edited by Reuben Fowkes, Issue 96, March 2009
External links
Categories:- Art curators
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