Media Releases

REAL Emergency

Article released: Saturday, 01 August, 2009

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What effects do crises – Hurricane Katrina, environmental catastrophes, war, for example – play in transforming aesthetics? Conversely, how have ‘real’ crises been reconfigured by a new visual language and sensibility in contemporary art practice?
Emerging art forms and fields have arisen as responses to real world emergencies including post-documentary film, video and new media art. The group exhibition, REAL Emergency, co-curated by COFA Professors Jill Bennett and Anna Munster, highlights these new approaches with the Australian premiere of interactive installations and screenings by renowned international and national artists.
According to Bennett, “The works in REAL Emergency manifest a critical awareness of current media and documentary practice, but also extend aesthetic, sensory explorations of events, utilizing media to imagine and enact new forms of engagement with real events. Art may not report on the Emergency as it happens but it offers a vital means of tracking the thoughts, forces and intensities that shape the unfolding of public events.”
Artists in REAL Emergency include: Yang Shaobin (China), Hito Steyerl (Germany), Liza Johnson (USA), Sharon Daniel (USA), Michele Barker and Anna Munster (Aus) and Atanas Djonov (Bulgaria/Aus).


Exhibition: 27 August - 19 September 2009 | Opens 28 August, 6-8pm

What: Public Symposium: Infectious: crisis, contagion and communication aesthetics,
Where: College of Fine Arts, UNSW,
When: 11 September 2009 with drinks at the IDG 5:30pm-7:30pm.
Convened by the Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics (CCAP).
Cost: $40/$20.
Contact: For info or bookings- Shivaun Weybury: managerccap@cofa.unsw.edu.au ph: +61 2 93850635