Other Plans: bookworks by Juan Cruz and Michael Dean
FormaOther Plans: artists bookworks by Juan Cruz and Michael Dean
Curated by Simon Morrissey
Commissioned and published by Forma
Panel discussions and launch events:
21 Feb 2007, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
22 Feb 2007, BALTIC, Gateshead, UK
Full details at www.forma.org.uk
Other Plans was initiated in response to significant regeneration projects in NewcastleGateshead UK and to bids for European City of Culture 2008. The two resulting artists bookworks by Juan Cruz and Michael Dean provide subtle critiques of projects that commission artists to respond to particular geographical locations or contexts.
For Other Plans, Dean and Cruz have produced two strikingly original new works that distinctly resist the idea of creating artwork that could be used to serve cultural agendas other than the artists own. Both bookworks can be seen to work as displaced critiques of the entangled relationships between commissioner and artist, place and artwork, in this increasingly prevalent type of commissioning. The books are accompanied by an essay by the curator that explores the evolution of the project and its critical ambitions
Juan Cruz – a translation of Niebla (fog) by Miguel de Unamuno
Niebla (fog) is a new English translation of Miguel de Unamunos classic 1914 novel.
Cruz draws on the act of translating specific texts to explore the mechanisms of displacement, the construction of identity and to interrogate the creative process. In Niebla (fog) Cruz re-presents Unamunos classic text as a meditation on the blurred relationship between autonomy and dependence – the central problematic in making art public.
ISBN: 0954828828
Michael Dean – mountains and triangles
Michael Dean uses the barest language and starkly minimal typography to create an almost physical linguistic space that becomes charged with an unexpected emotional impact. In prioritising an intensely localised way of recording the world, Dean reformulates the idea of context as an intimate, personally constructed space that is continuous and the basis of our relationship with different geographic, social and historical contexts.
ISBN: 0954828836
Juan Cruz lectures in Visual Arts at Goldsmiths College, London and is represented by Matts Gallery, London and Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid. Cruz has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. In 1999, he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists.
Michael Dean studied Fine Art Practice and Contemporary Critical Theory at Goldsmiths College, London (1998-2001) and since his graduation has exhibited throughout Europe. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1977 and currently lives and works in London.
Simon Morrissey is an independent curator and writer on contemporary art. Recent projects have included commissions for public institutions including Arnolfini, Bristol; The Bowes Museum, County Durham; and The British Council. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Bristol School of Art, Media & Design, UWE.
Forma is a creative production agency for ambitious, interdisciplinary contemporary art.
Working closely with artists over extended periods of time, Forma produces, tours and publishes groundbreaking new projects that seamlessly combine diverse media. Its extensive international touring programme, delivered in collaboration with major venues and festivals world-wide, pioneers new hybrid forms of music, visual art, film, new media, dance, theatre and live art.
For further information visit www.forma.org.uk
Forma publications are distributed by Cornerhouse www.cornerhouse.org.uk/books
Other Plans is funded by Arts Council England and Bristol School of Art, Media and Design, University of the West of England.
