From March 27 to 29 2016 I was invited to attend and participate in the ¿Creative Villages? Seminar which was organized as a collaboration between the Ecole cantonale d’art du Valais (ECAV) and LAPS, Research Institute for Art and Public Space, Amsterdam

The premise of the seminar was to take the territory of Leytron/Ovronnaz in Switzerland as a topographical metaphor to address contemporary dynamics of art in public sphere. The seminar itself provided an opportunity to begin radically re-thinking the relationship of 1:1 art practice to the instrumentalization, and commercialization, of the public sphere through contemporary art projects. In the light of this, the seminar also provided an opportunity to also discuss the kind of work, or labour, that the work of art is now becoming under the present conditions of neo-liberal capital.

I’m very grateful for both the invite to this Seminar and for the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with my peers and colleagues. It is not often that we get the time to do this and, through collaboration, encourage ourselves to think a little differently. As a result I’ve agreed to write and extended essay for the project which, when it is finished, I’ll also hope to post on this site. I also hope to develop a working relationship with and to the project as a means to continue thinking through some of these key issues.