7th-14th January 2024
Rediscovering Nature in Urban Spaces
The first part of my secondment in Coventry took place in January 2024, during the last week of the Coventry Biennial 2023. The events of the Biennial were displaced in Coventry and in its surroundings, precisely in Leamington Spa and in Compton Verney. My research activities were split across visiting the events of the Biennial, networking and collecting material for my research about site-specific immersive performance in urban spaces.
Sevven Kucuk, director of operations at the Biennial and member of Space X, was an important point of reference during my stay. I was glad to connect Dr. Francesco Chiaravalloti (Amsterdam) and Dr. Charlie Ingram (Warwick), both Space X researchers, and to spend some time together at the Biennial. Furthermore, I am very glad of the connection with the curator of Mothers Who Make Coventry, Adele Reed, with whom I am keeping in touch for further research-related projects.
A particularly enriching focus of the exhibits and of the talks I managed to attend was nature, nourished as a necessary element of urban landscapes, studied as an artwork, transformed into a manufact, artificially (re)created, used as a performative setting.
Events and exhibits I attended:
Symposium: Transformations – Herbert Museum, Coventry;
… LIKE A SHORT CUT THROUGH THE BRAMBLES AT THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL – Old Grammar School, Coventry;
Coventry Biennial in the Glasshouse – Leamington Spa;
Jo Gane: Liquid Silver – Compton Verney.
I am very grateful to all the people I met, and I talked to in this full week, who gave me new impulse to my research.
I will finish my secondment before September 2024.