Symposium: Heritage, Immigration and Temporary Fabrications: Abandoned Facilities & Housing Immigration
with Material Conjectures, Andrea Delaplace and invited speakers.
The Beaconsfield Commission is part of a wider research project reflected in a symposium planned during the exhibition in conjunction with the Centre for Sculptural Thinking at University of Huddersfield, the University of Reading and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Symposiums in London and Paris will bring into focus the parallels between temporary structures of refugee camps and changing policies of museums regarding the representation of immigrant communities, drawing attention to expedient and shifting national policies around immigration. A variety of different speakers will be invited to present papers and discuss these strands during a series of Symposia in London at Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall and later in Paris at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Speakers:
Material Conjectures is a partnership co-authored by Dr Dale Holmes and Dr Kirsten Cooke, who are interested in how ad hoc crisis architectures can engage with the ‘post-critical’ age: a vacuum that has been left between the rejection of modernist ideologies and critical postmodernism.
Dr Jonathan Darling is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Manchester University with research interests in the relationship between geography and ethics and, here, the role of space within asylum politics.
Andrea Delaplace is a PhD candidate in Museum Studies and Heritage at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, focussing on the crucial role that museums play in the narrative of national identities.
Dr Jaspar Joseph-Lester is Reader in Fine Art (Art, Urbanism and the Moving Image) at the Royal College of Arts. He will deliver his thoughts through a tour with participants of BGV’s surrounding urban environment.
Donald Smith is Director of Exhibitions at CHELSEA Space, University of the Arts London. He will focus on exhibitions at the gallery that have approached issues of immigration from different perspectives.