THE ASSAULT ON CULTURE: A Mute Magazine talk on privatisation and critical artistic practice

Does private-public funding and management of culture mark the death of institutional and critical autonomy? And is direct censorship an anomaly, the most visible form of a wider constriction of cultural freedom, or the shape of cultural policy to come?

Mute has invited a range of practitioners along to discuss the perils and opportunities for critical cultural activity in neoliberalising institutions:

Mateo López will introduce his exhibition at Gaworks, discussing the development of his practice during the residency at Gasworks.

Mateo López creates studio-like situations in which the production and display of the work overlap. His source material includes drawings, notes and photographs which are often taken in his journeys. In many of his installations, López combines real objects with drawings, expanding the latter into three-dimensional forms to unfold narratives constructed by fragments and associations.

David Bestué and Günes Terkol open their studios to the public to show and discuss the development of their work during their stay in London.

David Bestué uses different media to manipulate ideas drawn from philosophy, art history, architecture and film. By making small changes to public and domestic scenarios, his works create absurd situations that question the conventions of human behaviour. David Bestué was born in Barcelona, Spain where he lives and works.

David Bestué, Mateo López and Güne? Terkol introduce their practice and discuss their plans for the three-month stay in London.

Gasworks presents an exhibition linking two feature-length films: I Want to See (2008) by Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, and Struggle in Jerash (2009) by London-based artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White.

Respectively set in Lebanon and Jordan, the films emphasise cinema's potential to create new ways of confronting the past and negotiating the present in the context of the Middle East. Mixing fiction and documentary, I Want to See (2008) and Struggle in Jerash (2009) further foreground the power of the subjective voice in the production of history

A bout de souffle

24 March, 7.00pm at Cinephilia West, 171 Westbourne Grove.

Emilie Bickerton will be introducing A bout de souffle. Her own critical take will be a breath of fresh air! With free wine and snacks.

For more information and to book look here: http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/west/.

Pierrot le Fou
France/Italy | 1965 | col | 110 mins | dir. Jean-Luc Godard, with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina | cert. 15

"How odd other people are. How the world seems full of coincidences and signs meant just for me one moment, and utterly meaningless the next. How everything seems coherent, and then suddenly falls apart.