‘After Care’ will be the first in a series of digital and hybrid activities over the coming 18 months titled PICKED (Programme for International Curatorial Knowledge Exchange & Dialogue), in partnership with British Council’s Biennials Connect programme.
Liverpool Biennial and British Council have been working with a cohort of curators from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through this programme, and the events we develop with the cohort provide opportunities for them to connect with artists and curators from the UK, and from other parts of the world.
The intention of this series of events is to facilitate an international exchange of best practice in different areas of curation and art production. The themes of each event are connected to the cohort’s interests and have been shaped by a series of interviews that they undertook with the Audience Agency during a week-long visit to Liverpool during Liverpool Biennial 2023. Some of the topics that were raised throughout this process range from ‘the economy’ to ‘environmental justice’.
In November 2023, we published Issue 12 of Liverpool Biennial’s online research journal, Stages, with contributions from artists, curators and some of the cohort. This first event will act as a follow-on or addendum to the themes contained within that issue around the different modes and ethics of care.
‘After Care’ will comprise live and pre-recorded contributions from: Christopher Cozier, Roo Dhissou, Nwando Ebizie & Languid Hands’ Rabz Lansiquot and Imani Mason Jordan.
It will take the below provocation as a starting point:
‘How do we consider and care for artists and audiences after the work is done? – thinking about the work after the work.’
As a follow-on to ‘Being In The World’, Issue #12 of our online journal Stages, this event is an opportunity to expand on and think beyond the themes discussed in that issue. Participants have been invited to share their thoughts on how we care for an audience, both in preparing them for what they are about to experience but also the work we undertake afterwards to help them reflect on or better understand what they have seen. Similarly, we will be discussing ways that organisations can provide that same level of after care for participants and artists. There will be collective and individual moments to respond to provocations and presentations from the invited contributors as well as Q&A sessions.
You can register for the event using the form below. Please include any access requirements you may have when booking your ticket. This event will be live captioned.
Online Symposium: 'After Care'
Chaired by
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Dr Jareh Das
Dr Jareh Das is an independent curator, writer and researcher who lives and works between West Africa and the UK. Das’s academic and curatorial practice is informed by an interest in global modern and contemporary art with a specific focus on performance art. In 2022, Das curated Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics and Contemporary Art held at Two Temple Place, London and York Art Gallery. The exhibition spanned seventy years of ceramics and explored how clay has been disrupted, questioned and reimagined by Black women artists. Das has held curatorial and editorial positions with Deptford X, Middlesbrough Institute of Art, Middlesbrough; Etemad Gallery, Dubai; Arts Catalyst, London; MVRDV, Rotterdam; and Camden Art Centre, London and has contributed to a number of print and online publications.
Live Contributions
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Christopher Cozier
Christopher Cozier ( b.1959, Port of Spain ) is an artist, living and working in Trinidad and a co-director of Alice Yard, which participated in Documenta 15. He was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2004 and is a Prince Claus Award laureate, 2013.
Through his notebook drawings to installations derived from recorded staged actions, Cozier investigates how Caribbean historical and current experiences can inform understandings of the wider contemporary world. Exhibitions include the 5th & 7th Havana Biennials, Infinite Island, The Brooklyn Museum, (2007) Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic (2010), TATE Liverpool, Entanglements at the Broad Museum, Michigan 2015. Relational Undercurrents at MOLAA. L.A. (2017) and The Sea is History, Historiskmuseum, Oslo, 2019.
Cozier participated in the public program of 10th Berlin Biennial, 2018, exhibited in the 14th Sharjah Biennial in 2019, the 11th Liverpool Biennial in 2021 and Experiences of Oil at the Stavanger Museum, Más Allá, el Mar Canta, The Times Art Centre, Berlin, 2021, Fragments of Epic Memory, AGO, Toronto, Forecast Forms at the MCA, Chicago 2022, Unraveling The ( under – ) Development Complex, Savvy, Berlin 2023.
The artist is participating in Prospect 6 ( 2024) and works were recently acquired for the collection of the MCA in Chicago and MoMA, NY.
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Roo Dhissou
Artist/researcher Roo Dhissou works with communities, diasporas and her own histories. Using community engaged practice, craft, cooking, performance and installation she explores how communal and individual identities are formed. Roo has worked with BMAG, New Art Gallery Walsall, Niru Ratnam, The Bluecoat, Tate Liverpool, Primary and internationally in Spain, Canada and Poland. Roo is currently working on a practice based PhD has work in permanent collections including Arts Council Collection. She is interested in DIY culture, care and ethics both in and outside of institutions.
Pre-recorded Contributions
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Languid Hands
Languid Hands is a London-based artistic and curatorial collaboration between filmmaker and DJ Rabz Lansiquot and artist and writer Imani Mason Jordan. The duo explore collaboration, curation, black study and experimentation across exhibitions, moving image, text, performance, publications and public programming. They are Lead Curators of the Artistic Programme at 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning in Herne Hill.
In 2023 Languid Hands curated Ebun Sodipo’s Nasty Girl (The Sharpest Girl In Town) at V.O. Curations, London. No Real Closure, their programme as Curatorial Fellows at Cubitt, London (2020-2) featured the work of numerous artists, including R.I.P Germain, Ajamu X, Camara Taylor and Shenece Oretha. In 2021, Languid Hands curated the LIVE programme for Frieze London, commissioning new performances from Rebecca Bellantoni, Ebun Sodipo & Ashley Holmes. -
Nwando Ebizie
An unclassifiable polymath, British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist Nwando fabulates speculative fictions and alternate realities at the intersection of live art, experimental music and multi-sensory installation.
Crossing boundaries of curator and artist, her first exhibition was commissioned by HOME Mcr, Lighthouse, Brighton Festival and went on to tour to Liberty Festival, Melbourne Science Gallery and MENTAL at Art/Science Singapore. In 2023 she was commissioned by Invisible Flock and Leeds2023 to create a piece ‘Last to Bloom, First to Fruit’’ for ‘This Is A Forest’, which explored why and how rituals are created and what supportive structures and knowledge they can offer – a speculative fiction mixed media piece with sculptures and photography.
Curated happenings include: Wellcome Collection Lates: Your Reality is Broken, Crystal Opening: Site Gallery, In the Black Fantastic Weekender for Southbank Centre.