Launches, Readings & Performances at Wysing, Saturday 14 December 2013, 3 – 5pm

Reading & Writing
Saturday 14 December 2013, 3 – 5pm
Launches, Readings & Performances

3pm – ‘The Wanderer by Franz Kafka’ by Rory Macbeth (audio extract)

Macbeth’s novel has been written by translating Kafka’s classic tale without knowledge of the German language or use of a dictionary. Rather than relying on computer-aided translations, Macbeth uses belief as a method for writing, forcing himself into a place where he simply believes the translation to be correct.

3.10pm – Launch of The Fox with introduction by Mathew Whittington

Although technically a first issue, The Fox ‘issue 4’ is loosely a continuation of the seventies journal of the same name produced by the artists’ collective Art & Language. This regenerated version, edited by Mathew Whittington, deviates from the concerns of the past publication, being more closely aligned with the ‘natural world’ and using the urban fox as a medium with which to explore attitudes towards the city, culture, nature, labour, architecture and design.

3.30pm – Launch of PERSONA including performance of East Coast/West Coast Re-presented, directed by Jessica Wiesner and performed by Paul Becker and Nadia Hebson, and introduction by Melissa Gordon

PERSONA is an artist-led magazine co-edited by Melissa Gordon and Marina Vishmidt and looks at the condition of self-presentation for the contemporary artist. In encompasses discussions on refusal, interiority, friendship, candour, and embarrassment. The launch will be marked by a performance of East Coast/West Coast Re-presented directed by Jessica Wiesner which reconstructs the original East Coast/West Coast – a videotaped argument between Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson conducted with Joan Jonas in 1969.

4.05 Short Break

4.15pm – Rebecca Jagoe, No Strange Men Shall Remove the Stone

Writer in residence for the duration of X-Operative, Rebecca Jagoe will bring together her collected writing and present a selection of new work created during her time at Wysing. She has been using the residency to explore an ongoing interest in the archaeological interpretation of megalithic structures, the devolution of technology, time capsules and nuclear waste.

4.30pm – Chris Evans and Will Holder, Errors hit Orient

Chris Evans went to British Library Newspapers, Colindale, to read B.S. Johnson’s football reports (published in The Observer in 1964 & 65) then suggested to Will Holder that they be set to music. Eight reports are scored for speech and eight improvised themes, played ‘bottleneck’ on bass guitar. Four modular, percussive and affective pieces accompany this, composing a commentary in the indeterminate manner of some of the author’s novels.

X-Operative
Wysing Arts Centre
Fox Road, Bourn, CB23 2TX Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
http://www.wysingartscentre.org/