Public Facing events
We have held a range of events that engaged TRADING STATION with the public including exhibition, discussion events, intervention and socially engaged practice. These took place in public spaces and arts organisations in Liverpool and Istanbul throughout the project.
Liverpool Art Month
TRADING STATION was programmed as part of Liverpool Art Month, and the newspaper publication was distributed during the month of May.
TRADING STATION exhibition at Curve Gallery
This exhibition opened 21 September to 13 October 2012. The production period of the exhibition encouraged conversation, exchange of ideas, critique and development of artworks and their presentation and personal development of artists. The exhibition featured 8 new works made by the artists during the exchange. These works included installation, sculpture, and video works, some of which were new methods of working for several of the artists. The two newspapers that had been published at that point formed an installation in the gallery and throughout its entrance.
The exhibition was a point part-way through the exchange, so some of the presentation of works was at an ‘in progress’ stage. We had hoped that the exhibition could be placed somewhere between a traditional object-based exhibition and a more flexible space for trading and exchange to occur. On reflection, the pressures of producing ‘an exhibition’ bypassed the more subtle requirements that a development space allows. In the context of using the publications as an exchange point, this exhibition did provide a useful static counterpoint.
Open Conversation event
We planned 2 discussion events during the exhibition at Curve Gallery; ‘TRADING STATION in open conversation’ was publicised through the Liverpool Independents Biennial and was open to the public. Our intention was to invite guest speakers, but time pressures on each of the artists meant that this did not happen. The first event featured four of the Liverpool artists, Nancy Atakan, Gülçin Aksoy and gallery curator Lisa Who, with 3 members of the public attending. In the end, not having an invited guest speaker meant that this proved to be a really useful point for some of the deeper conversations about the value of trading as artists to take place. It led to greater understanding of each other’s practices and how they are placed in the wider European context.
The second of these open conversations did not take place. This was due to timetabling conflicts with higher profile biennial events meaning low audience figures for the first event translated into no members of the public for the second.
If planning such an event again, it would be good to have the backing of a more high profile organisation, as we did with our ‘Stammtisch’ event at the Bluecoat in our 2010 project which was more widely promoted. Programming such an event when the exchange artists are in the country is essential if we do this in future. Timetabling so as to avoid clash with other events will be neccessary, although not completely avoidable.
5533 gallery, Istanbul
Susan Meyerhoff Sharples exhibited a series of images at 5533 gallery in Istanbul during September. This was presented in an ‘engaged practice’ manner, with the assistance of the intern at 5533, who asked the passing audience at this conservative Turkish shopping centre to comment and respond to the work she has created. Engagement was limited, but was of high quality, with considered and through provoking responses to the work.
Watermark Intervention
Claire Weetman made a four-hour performance intervention into a public square in the Besiktas area of Istanbul in September 2012. This engaged and intervened in the lives of around 500 people, with around 30 of them actively participating and altering their movements in response to it.
Welcome (Flash Mob)
Cecilia Kinnear created a flash mob in the process of making her video installation ‘HOŞ GELDİN/WELCOME/HOŞ BULDUK. This flash mob involved approximately 65 participants and took place in the gardens of the Bluecoat, Liverpool.
