MA Curatorial Practice presents a talk with Matt Williams, the curator of the Public Programme at Camden Art Centre, a PhD candidate at Manchester Metropolitan University, former Head of Programme at ICA, London, and Creative Director at the International Project Space, Birmingham City University. Williams has curated numerous monographic and group exhibitions, as well as public programs, both nationally and internationally, cultivating a distinctive portfolio of cultural initiatives and interdisciplinary projects. These projects often exist at the nexus of art and society and routinely involve collaboration with creative practitioners, academics, publishers and independent grassroots organizations.
Williams will be focusing on a project called Novel, Public Knowledge at Camden Art Centre and We Versions, the latter being an extension of his PhD project.
Novel draws together artists writing, texts and poetry that oscillate between modes of fiction and criticism. A cacophony of voices, that is the primary condition of writing, seek to break the habitual methods of representation and productions of subjectivity. Disconnected from any unitary theme these texts coalesce around writing as a core material of a number of artists exploring language and fiction. This fiction acts as a speculative force, no longer defined by what is said, even less by what makes it a signifying thing, but perhaps as a mode that exists parallel to the visual. Here, art writing is an apparatus for knowledge capture, informed by theory, film, politics and storytelling; writing as parallel practice, different, tangential; writing as political fiction; writing as another adventure on the ‘skin drive', renegotiating unfulfilled beginnings or incomplete projects that might offer points of departure. Amidst the insinuated narratives and materialized visions there is a concern for writing and the impossibility of fiction which is at stake. Novel asks us to think of writing as something distinct from information, as at least one realm of cultural production that is exempt from the encompassing obligation to communicate.
Public Knowledge is a critical component of the public program at Camden Art Centre, serving as a progressive platform for creative and independent publishing and distribution. It is an initiative that provides a space for emerging and underrepresented artists, musicians, poets, performers, and writers. It encourages a rigorous and shared exchange of ideas and creative expressions through various formats, such as public discussions, live performances, listening sessions, moving image presentations, digital broadcasts, and workshops, fostering a more inclusive, accessible and vibrant cultural dialogue.
We Versions is a curatorial, research, and production advisory based in London, UK, operating internationally.
We Versions is a curatorial, research, and production advisory that creates public sound works to foster civic engagement.
We Versions seeks to excavate the collective voices and cultural activities of communities by sonically mapping their spatial environments and historical contexts.
We Versions uncovers new vocabularies and critical insights into the environments we inhabit and traverse, challenging established narratives to cultivate novel explorative auditory experiences.
We Versions connects the past with the present and future, emphasizing active listening and inclusivity, amplifying voices previously unheard in mainstream discourse accessible to all.
The Curatorial Roundtable, an international forum for curators and institutional leaders to discuss formative and current projects, is hosted by Steven Henry Madoff, founding chair of the MA Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.