PRAKTIKA

by Alex Hetherington, 31 Mar 2008

I wanted to write up some thoughts on the film screening and what we want this to do, but I got distracted because we have some ways to go with the final program, so instead I thought I’d write on Praktika. I also don’t want to disrespect it because it was very valuable, however it has left me restless, agitated, frustrated.

The Praktika workshops are now a few weeks past and I wanted to consider the space between the work presented during the seminars and what we are presenting as the first stage of our work during this residency.

This will help me write up the text we are supplying for the publication, the deadline for which is the 15 April.

I spoke with Sally Hobson, theatre artist and Programme Development Manager (Education) at EIF; she said an interesting thing, “that the language to describe these [socially-engaged] projects has not yet been invented’ and I have to agree with her. I think we struggle to explain or illuminate the workings of the projects or detail the relationships developed or articulate any results they may achieve. I need to spend more time researching some of the texts related to this area of work and perhaps that may give me a base to speak more confidently about this language or its absence.

Some of the projects at Praktika made me angry and its perhaps because I don’t see myself as an artist who works in socially-engaged spheres or arenas; rather I think my work overlaps or touches on narrow areas of this field of work and I find myself spending more and more time working in a position of reluctance. I cannot explain more about this yet since it is in a process of developing. Its also maybe because I have had some bad experiences working with this kind of material or brief.

I don’t want to isolate any of the projects at Praktika, rather I have thoughts and questions on some of the statements made during the event. And I apologize if this seems illogical and scattered. I wonder if the idea and process of fundraising for these projects becomes more alluring than the project itself. Some of the artists considered themselves as ‘social workers’ and I wonder how much this respects/disrespects individuals, their experiences and training who work in this field? I was bewildered by some of the images of individuals involved that seemed to constantly depict them, identify them as victims. I need this explained. I need to understand this process, because I feel it creates a really significant barrier between apprehension and critical dialogs. This was an attempt to empower these individuals and I can’t quite see how this can be. I wonder how some of the projects work entirely without budgets for their artists to make work? I wanted to address some of my thoughts on ownership of other people’s stories, experiences and thoughts and whether or not artists are best placed to re-voice these stories, experiences, thoughts. I was dismayed by a lack of political criticisms and debates on the processes, situations, agendas etc that results in such a huge displacement of humanity, such a myriad of misery, escape, destruction and sanctuary; without criticism we have indifference or acceptance and in that way I sense that we may be taking advantage. Some of the work has this very specific aesthetic that seemed to summarize it as immediately and obviously socially-engaged which means all the work looks the same, it doesn’t differentiate and therefore it doesn’t anticipate more from its audience, it doesn’t conclude or interrogate it just persists, it is able to maintain itself, without evolving. I don’t see how “dead French philosophers” can’t inform these projects; the areas of making art don’t site themselves purely in pockets of easily tagged separation. I just don’t think it’s good enough. I wonder why there was so much agitation about galleries, when the results of the work were presented in galleries. I can’t help thinking that questions of how these 3 month or longer residencies create legacies or long-term change is redundant, in my mind I think it is generations away and also major shifts in other thoughts, approaches, notions of empowerment, self-respect, personal responsibility, enabling. I also don’t think I have the answers. I don’t think I am becoming a Republican (as an almost middle aged half American). I also don’t think I am having a nervous breakdown, but I am not ruling it out.

Anyway back to the purchase orders, faxes, telephone calls, emails, franking machines, I am up to 55 words per minute now.