ABsence: Awkward Bastards 2

Workshops, 22 March 2017
Symposium, 23 March 2017 10:15am – 6pm

Programme flyer PDF download

Programme and Biographies

Symposium Schedule PDF download

Booking information through mac Birmingham

ABsence: Awkward Bastards 2 (AB2) is a symposium taking place at mac, Birmingham on 23 March 2017 bringing together artists, activists, thinkers, and producers to rethink ideas around diversity. AB2 is a collaboration between DASH, mac and LADA.

DASH’s first Awkward Bastards symposium in March 2015 was one of the first to engage with the spectrum of diversity from disability, ethnicity, and sexuality, to gender and class. Thanks to generous funding from ACE Awkward Bastards returns in 2017 to consider the ways in which diverse artists and practices have been, are, or could be, framed and our collective responsibilities to our pasts and our futures.

The symposium will be compered by Caroline Parker and feature artists’ presentations, keynote speeches, panel debates, a live portrait painting, and a Radical Practices open mic session.

Contributors: Frances Morris (Tate Modern), Tony Heaton (Shape), Mohammed Ali (artist), Rachel Anderson (Idle Women), Daniel Oliver (artist), Jamila Johnson Small (artist/organiser), Simon Casson (Duckie),  Tanya Raabe-Webber (artist), Sue Austin (artist), Melanie Keen (Iniva), Nick Llewellyn & Cian Binchy (Access All Areas), David A Bailey (International Curators Forum), Aaron Wright (Fierce Festival), Helga Henry (Birmingham Hippodrome), Sarah Watson & Thompson Hall (Creative Minds), Rachel Gadsden (artist), Rachael Savage (Vamos Theatre), Julie McNamara (artist), Katherine Araniello & Aaron Williamson (The Disabled Avant-Garde) and Amanda Cachia (curator).

Following an open call for proposals, we are delighted to announce the thirteen artists who have been invited to present short provocations for the Radical Practices open mic session:  Vera Boysova (Objectify Me), Alex Leggett (Posthuman Autistic does some shit things and fails horribly), Catherine Hoffmann (Stenchwench Presents Ten Tips On Being Feckless And Poor Whilst Pretending Not To Be),Jane Thakoordin & Riffat Bashir (Don’t Tell Me I Am Hard To Reach), Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros (Gypsies/Roma: Onstage Revered…Offstage A Big Issue), Lewis Devey (Kaepernick My Kaepernick), Sexcentenary (I Just Said That), Nicholas Tee (This Chink Is Going Gold),Faye Claridge (Moor-ish), Rinkoo Barpaga (Language, Limited World), Priya Mistry (Inviting Discomfort – Broken & Tropical), Ben Spatz (Behold How Good), Olivia Sparrow (Your Booking Is Cancelled).

The symposium will be preceeded on 22 March by four day long wokrshops led by Rachel Gadsen, Sue Austin, Mohammed Ali and Gemma Marmalade. For application and other details please visit DASH.