guerilla notice: entry #1

guerilla gallery is partnering with visual artist Elgin Helga Rust to present in September this year Appeal 2012, an inter-disciplinary research project and exhibition that engages with judicial and aesthetic strategies of redress. It is a collaborative project, preceded by a workshop, that responds to an earlier body of work by Rust. The exhibition will manifest in innercity Johannesburg. See the Call for Participation, below (closing date May 28). Enquiries to: adv.alice08@gmail.com

--gg, april 16, 2012

Call for Participation: APPEAL 2012

The Forum For Redress (FFR), represented by Advocate Alice and Detective L. Prince, in partnership with guerilla gallery and artist/collaborator Elgin Helga Rust, invites Johannesburg-based practitioners from all disciplines (visual arts, theatre, dance, music, literature and law) to participate in the collaborative research and exhibition project APPEAL 2012.

The Constitutional Court is the final ground for justice. It is based in Johannesburg, a sprawling African metropolis loaded with historical and contemporary sites that are imbued with the residue of acts of violence and redress. It is here that APPEAL 2012 opens a space for debate by inviting 12 'jurors' to consider judicial and aesthetic strategies of redress in CASE NO. 001/05/2008.

The project was initiated by Rust’s MFA project at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town) in 2008. This first phase materialised as a performative installation in which the arguments for CASE NO. 001/05/2008 were staged as a trial, R v JR 2010. Presented by two fictional characters, Adv. Alice and Det. L. Prince, the work playfully offered the viewer insights into judicial processes, but in a more publicly accessible space. The second phase, the exhibition JUDGEMENT - UITSPRAAK 2011 CASE NO. 001/05/2008, hosted by the AVA Gallery in Cape Town, called for a judgment. Artists external to the project were asked to immerse themselves in the work and act as jurors by providing aesthetic ‘judgments’ in the form of artworks that respond to Rust’s work.

APPEAL 2012, the next iteration, calls for 12 Johannesburg-based art practitioners to reinvestigate CASE NO. 001/05/2008. As the jury, this sworn body of people will convene for a week in September to render a verdict. They are asked to argue for or against opposing processes of redress - judicial vs. aesthetic, objective vs. subjective - to revise judgment for R v JR 2010. Individually, each juror is required to investigate the case thoroughly prior to the Jury Session, a collaborative workshop, in which they will produce a work in response. This represents a form of judgment, i.e. that is “the forming of an opinion, estimate, notion, or conclusion, as from circumstances presented to the mind1” where judgment rests on the evidence presented.

The online archive http://ffr.elginrust.net hosts material accessible to all potential jurors and interested parties who wish to familiarise themselves with the case. This site contains all documents from the case file, evidence archive, trial documentation and judgment collected to date. Please contact Adv. Alice via the blog for any queries or evidence pertaining to the case. Jurors are encouraged to request evidence well in advance to ensure that it is readily available at the Jury Session in September 2012.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

The Jury Session is a one-week collaborative research and production workshop starting on 4 September and ending on 9 September 2012. The Jury members should be available for a Meet & Greet on Tuesday 4 September and for the compulsory Jury Sessions to be held from 5 September 2012 until 9 September 2012.

APPEAL 2012, the resulting exhibition, will open to the public on Tuesday 11 September, curated in partnership with guerilla gallery, and will run until Tuesday 25 September with a finissage on Heritage day, 24 September 2012.

SELECTION

Please send a short CV/Resume, portfolio, motivational letter and proposal with a list of evidence and production requirements to adv.alice08@gmail.com

Each participant will receive a stipend for additional materials required and a bursary of R500 to cover transport costs. For more information contact adv.alice08@gmail.com

The deadline for proposals is 28 May 2012. Selected jury members will be notified by 18 June 2012.

This project is produced in partnership with guerilla gallery, an artist-led initiative in Johannesburg (www.guerillagallery-jhb.blogspot.com). It is supported by Assemblage, the National Arts Council and VANSA, the Visual Arts Network of South Africa.

1 JUDGEMENT. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/JUDGEMENT (accessed: December 06, 2010).