Psychogeography Workshop #1: Last exhibition on earth

Sat 16 Jun 2018
3pm

Francis Alÿs, Paradox of praxis 1: Sometimes making something leads to nothing 1997 (video still), video, colour, sound, 9:54 mins.

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This is a past program.

Meet in the ACCA foyer

$10

Image: Francis Alÿs, Paradox of praxis 1: Sometimes making something leads to nothing 1997 (video still), video, colour, sound, 9: 54 mins

Join eminent artist, writer and curator Dr Peter Hill to explore the concept of psychogeography and how it relates to ACCA’s current exhibition Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, a case study.

The term psychogeography was developed by the French theorist and film-maker Guy Debord in 1955 in order to explore the ways places and environments make us feel and behave. Debord was a founding member of the avant-garde Situationist International movement, and proposed a ways of exploring the modern city through improvisation and play within the urban landscape, by registering the effects of urban geography on personal emotions and the behaviour of individuals whilst drifting and wandering through the urban environment.

In this workshop, Hill will pair stories from Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s renowned 1997 book Last Evenings on Earth with each of the 12 works in the exhibition. The workshop will also include a ‘silent walk’ around ACCA and its environs to actively demonstrate some of the ideas and concepts discussed. Chance elements, such as the throw of a dice or the changing of traffic lights, will be used to distribute short texts and readings. The outcome of the workshop will lie somewhere between literary fiction and participatory art practice.

Please note: No prior knowledge or skills are required to take part in this workshop, although attendees might prefer to wear comfortable shoes, and read Roberto Bolaño’s Last Evenings on Earth (before or after).

*This event is booked out: a second session is now open on Saturday 23 June, 3pm*

Dr Peter Hill is an artist, writer, and independent curator. He is an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne. Since 1989, he has been creating what he calls Superfictions, artworks that exist in the gaps between literary fiction and installation art, between the analogue and the digital. He is currently on a two-year round-the-world lecture tour called: True Lies and Superfictions.