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2022 Exhibition Reflection Form- Copy copy

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Michael Armitage’s Amongst the Living, with Seyni Awa Camara at White Cube Bermondsey

Amazing space in itself

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I found the ceremonial viewing area sign very eerie and creepy

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I wonder how many people he has convinced

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Blending old nations favourites together

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I found this exhibit very emotional it explored the loss of each other and ones self as well as the interesting history of South Africa. I loved the use of all different mediums as well as his limited colour palette

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I really enjoy using plaster as a sculpture medium so it was nice to see how she used all diffrent materials to create interesting textures and forms, it reminded me of the female body

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My aunt is the perfect example of the impact of being stuck in a country which is ‘stuck in time’, her first husband died after the war because he was in trouble with the police because he performed multiple abortions on Bosnian Muslim women who were raped by Serbian soldiers, he jumped of the balcony on his sons 18th birthday. Her second husband was so warm and loving, but he failed to care for his health and died of a stroke in 2017. After this she was so lonely and spiralled she went to a mental hospital for a bit. She has recovered now but is no longer a doctor, she is still very lonely, I try to be empathetic but it’s hard watching her become the woman my grandmother was.

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My aunt dzjnana she is my fathers sister she used to be a doctor until her mental breakdown.

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Childhood games become more serious as we grow

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Sjećaš li se, Dolly Bell: Na morskome plavom žalu

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I really enjoyed this exhibit, as someone who has experienced psychosis, it was fascinating hearing how other people experienced it.

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It's art to shock and shake you, art to give people a voice. And it's brilliant. ★★★★★ Time Out

The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis. Positioned behind the camera, each of them directs Coates in a filmed restaging of particular episodes from their lives.

Following extensive research and discussion, the five short films challenge cultural stigma through an attempt to understand different realities. Each director chose a location of personal significance where they filmed Coates embodying and performing their own experiences.

The five short films were screened across five locations in Pimlico, in and around the Churchill Gardens Estate, each within a short walking distance of the other.

They were presented in London from 4 September - 30 October, alongside a contextual programme of talks and workshops to encourage open public discussion around the nation's mental health.

The five films now form part of the Artangel Collection, available to be shared across the UK and beyond.

Image: Still from The Directors: Mark, Marcus Coates (2022)

To mark World Mental Health Day on Tuesday 10 October 2023, King's College London will host a free public screening of one of the films, The Directors: Marcus, followed by a panel discussion between the artist Marcus Coates, the director Marcus Gordon, with contributions from clinicians and experts in psychiatry. The event is the flagship event of a programme featuring all five films in the series for King's students and faculty and will draw on the themes of World Mental Health Day 2023, which focuses on the duty of society to promote good mental health as a universal human right. The events are ticketed and free to the public.

The Directors: Marcus
Free public screening
Tuesday 10 October, 17:30 - 19:00 BST (Denmark Hill campus)
Screening + panel discussion exploring themes of stigma, and public attitudes towards psychosis. Speakers include Marcus Coates, Artist, Marcus Gordon, Director, Dr Isabel Valli, Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist, and Dr Preety Das, Medical Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist. This session is chaired by Sally Marlow, Professor of Practice in Public Understanding of Mental Health Research.

The Directors: Mark
Free public screenings
Tuesday 10 October, 19:00 - 20:30 BST (Guy's campus)
Screening + panel discussion exploring the role of art and filmmaking as a powerful tool to unlock new perspectives into mental health conditions. Speakers include Mark Banham, Director, Stephen Rudder, Audiovisual Artist and Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and Sotiris Posporelis, Consultant Liaison Neuropsychiatrist and chaired by Sophie Leighton, Director, Bethlem Gallery.

Image: Still from The Directors: Marcus, Marcus Coates (2022).

Marcus Coates

Marcus Coates lives and works in London. Through his attempts to become animal, to his vicarious experiences on behalf of people, his work offers an inquiry into the degrees to which we can understand, know and relate to others. Often performative - using a process of radical empathy as a motivation to create, examine and critique relational tools - he tests actual and perceived boundaries between individuals, within communities, and with other species. New ways of relating are proposed and often put into practice. His approach is often functional with a social and ecological impact in mind.

Coates has collaborated with people from a wide range of disciplines including anthropologists, ornithologists, wildlife sound recordists, choreographers, politicians, psychiatrists, palliative care consultants, musicians, and primatologists amongst others.

His recent exhibitions include: The Limits of Humanity, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, 2021; The World is in You, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, 2021; Joseph Beuys and the Shamans, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany 2021; The Animal that therefore I am, OCAT Institute, Beijing, China, 2020; The Land We Live In, The Land We Left Behind, Hauser & Wirth Somerset 2018; Functional Improvisation with percussionist Terry Day, William Morris Museum, 2017; As Above, So Below, IMMA, Dublin, 2017; Ape Culture, HKW Berlin, 2015; The Trip, Serpentine Gallery, London and Implicit Sound, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, 2011; Psychopomp, Milton Keynes Gallery, 2010; Marcus Coates, Kunsthalle, Zurich, Switzerland, 2009.

Find out more at www.marcuscoates.co.uk

Image: (left) Still from The Directors: Mark, Marcus Coates (2022).

What's Going On? is a resources hub created to highlight and share The Directors and associated background materials for free as an educational resource: for example, in judicial, medical, psychiatric and other health care settings. It will continue to be updated with research, resources and conversations.

Explore the What's Going On? resources hub here.

What's Going On? is produced by Artangel with special thanks to James Brett, Robert Devereux, Gerry Fox and those who wish to remain anonymous.

Artangel is generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, and The Company of Angels.

Selected Press

In all of these films, the dominant sense is of inescapability, of these scenarios being permanent. The fear, paranoia, anxiety, isolation and sadness here feel like they'll last forever. 'I literally can't imagine coping with this' says Coates at one point, But people do cope with it, every day, all the time, and they survive. This isn't easy, pleasant, aesthetic art. It's not a painting to brighten your living room, or a sculpture for a bank lobby, it's art to shock and shake you, art to leave you feeling completely ground down, exhausted, worn out, art to give people a voice. And it's brilliant. - Eddy Frankel, Time Out, 2 September 2022

[Coates] is willing to fall short in his ability to understand and perform, and inevitably does, but these are not failings. To achieve what he has takes trust, when trust in the world, in others and in one's own perceptions is often lost in psychosis. It also takes time and a willingness for both parties to feel discomfort and be happy to expose it... Perhaps the true lesson of The Directors is in identifying some conditions and tools required for such individual and isolating experiences to be shared and begin to approach a more public understandability. - Adam Hines-Green, Art Review, 18 October 2022

Inspired by a 2017 residency at the psychosis unit of Maudsley Hospital in London, Coates's effort to embody and express the breadth and complexity of psychosis is, in part, a learning experience. - Simon Ings, New Scientist, 3 September 2022 (paywall)

Returning home by bus after his first visit to Dr Valli's clinic in 2017, Coates writes "I was thinking about the difficulty of everyday life for people experiencing psychosis", adding that "It made me grateful for my reality, looking at the world and feeling safe and calm. I try not to take it for granted now." 5 years later, it would be hard for anyone watching The Directors not to feel the same way and not to find more empathy for people going through experiences where reality feels shifted. - Colin Martin, The Lancet Psychiatry, 9 October 2022

The Directors

The Directors comprises five short films first shown in five locations in Pimlico, in and around the Churchill Gardens Estate, each within a short walking distance of the other, from 4 September - 30 October, 2022. Anthony was shown at Pimlico Health at The Marven; Lucy in a 5th floor flat of Chaucer House, Churchill Gardens Estate; Marcus at Churchill Gardens Residents' Association; Mark in the antique shop, The Cave and Stephen in the closed restaurant, Pimlico Spice.

A collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis, each of them directs Coates in a filmed restaging of particular episodes from their lives.

The Directors is now part of The Artangel Collection.

Credits

The Directors is produced by Artangel and commissioned with Art Fund Support.

Supported by Artangel's Guardian Angels.

With special thanks to The Executive Producers for their generosity:

Andrew Abdulezer, Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon, James Brett, Robert Devereux, Gerry Fox, Gabriela Galcerán Ball, Kate MacGarry, Gabrielle Rifkind & Jonathan Levy, The Sigrid Rausing Trust and those who wish to remain anonymous.

Artangel is generously supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, and The Company of Angels.

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The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from varying lived experiences of psychosis, who each direct the artist through select moments in their experience as it's captured on film. The Directors was presented in London at Churchill Garden Estate in September and October 2022.

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Korean wave exhibition at the V&A 12/10/22

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Korean wave exhibition at the V&A 12/10/22

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Artist page for Šejla Kameric (born 1976)

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Children are the ultimate victims of war, they become desensitised to violence

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Spreading a message in Tate Britain using the Tate draw room.

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The unfinished conversation- John AkomFrah

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The unfinished conversation- John AkomFrah

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Birth is miraculous I have never seen a baby been born until I watched this, everyone is born pure it’s a shame that the world will damage a child’s purity and it’s unfair that the circumstances of the child’s environment and upbringing will affect its happiness

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I always wondered why we find war photography interesting and the book really explains how it’s purpose impacts human beings 

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Sensationalists: The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art

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Sensationalists: The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art

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Watched this three part series before attending the lecture on art worlds on 17/10/22. I didn’t know about some of the background of some of the most controversial art. I don’t want to become someone like Emin or Hirst they seem a bit cocky. Also Emin is a Tory

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I think Bosnian Muslims are very proud of there ethnicity because of the attack on them and the attempt to ethnic cleanse

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Life of Pi, Wyndham theatre London 17/10/22

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Life of Pi, Wyndham theatre London 17/10/22

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Went to watch life of Pi in theatre, the set, use of stage and most of all the puppets used for the animals were incredible

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My favourite Bosnian dish is potato pita with Thomy mayonnaise it is delicious, this was in 2019 and we were showing our Chinese friends from the uk how to make pita as both of them were interested.

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My Dad singing the song from Dolly bell 

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My Dad singing the song from Dolly bell 

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I think my dad sings it better than the guy in the movie, he wasn’t that present when i was a child, and i think i used my Bosnian side and my interest in it to connect with that side of my family. I missed meeting my grandfather because of selfish adults and that will forever anger me. When my dad did come visit he would sing this song and a Bosnian football song as a lullaby for me, I would cherish those moments because they were rare. Recently he found the song on facebook and sent it to me, i forgot about the song but when i heard it again the extreme flood of memories and nostalgia returned. I barely knew my dad when i was young I always felt slightly abandoned by him but this song and the way he sings it reminds me of his love for me, my sister and my mum.

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Suada is a family friend, she is a wonderful woman, she cared for my grandma after my grandfather died and I cant imagine that was easy. She is a widow after her husband was killed when his harvester overturned. She is the most brilliant cook and was taught many of her recipes by my grandmother. She proudly shows off her cooking ready for us to share together.

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Mosque muezzin calling for prayer, Sarajevo

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Mosque muezzin calling for prayer, Sarajevo

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I will order some ceramic decals from foto ceramics just working out which images i will use on procreate

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Making the base for the slip mould to make the worry dolls inspired by Georgian ceramic figures dressed in traditional Bosnian clothing.

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Alkonost comes from Russian folklore and she lives in Iriy (Heaven). She is represented as bird with head and torso of woman who has beautiful voice and is sending messages from otherworld. During winter, she lays eggs on sea shores, then drops them on the bottom of sea. At that moment, sea is calm, but after seven days, when eggs hatch, strong storms are wreaking havoc. By that, Alkonost is responsible for weather.

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Photographs from Sarajevo in the 1990s before and after the war

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Photographs from Sarajevo in the 1990s before and after the war

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A series of photographs shown in the group crit set up, they sit under the beast to represent how the people were sat under, living under fear for years in the siege. The personal connection in each photo is to show how every citizen has there own life there own family and how they interconnect with everyone. One of the men seen in the series of photos is one of my dads best friends from school, Nermin, he is a lawyer and during the war he was blown up with another man, the other man died but Nermin survived with serious injuries in his face and wrists that still effect him to this day.

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This will be shown with a projection

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Susan Sontag-Regarding the pain of others

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Susan Sontag-Regarding the pain of others

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I just finished the book regarding the pain of others by Susan Sontag, when buying the book i didnt know what to expect, I hadn’t heard of her and her books until our first theory lecture. I wanted to read it because im focusing my project on war and humanity during the war in the balkans in the 1990s and i knew her book mentioned that war in its references. To be honest I haven’t read a book front to back since i was 15 reading of mice and men, i think having a mix of ADHD and dyslexia made reading a book difficult, but this book wasnt too long and i was doing travelling between places on the tube in london and it saved me from wasting my phone charge. Anyway, the book took an in depth study on the purpose of war photography, and how its existence is integral in reporting wars as well as giving the normal human a closer understanding of the tragedy of war. We as humans are facinated in others pain we are creatures who depend of empathy to understand emotions and war photography is a way for people to connect to people they don’t know. I learnt some new things as i didnt know that some war photographs were posed and now looking back at those photos she mentioned it makes sense the emotion in those photographs are only one level. Anyway I learnt a lot of this book as well as i giving me a self boost back into reading, i am going to read ‘England your England’ by George Orwell next.

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I think if you knew me ersonally you would understand why im so connected with my Bosnian side, the knowledge of my heritage when i was a child brought me closer to my dad who wasnt very present at the time. My interest in his ast gave us something to bond over, after not knowing him very well when i was young. Sarajevo is a perfect example of how devastating war can be on a very small unknown country. The main basis of the project lays on the mix of childhood and my Bosnian Muslim heritage, the damages of war on children as well as raising awareness of a tragedy that many people didnt know even occurred. When you tell someone that mass ethnic clensing took place in the west in the 1990s many wont believe you and i think that’s why i wanted to do a project on the Bosnian war. However as i go into the future i want my work on Bosnia not just to focus on the war because the country is more than the war that happened 30 years ago, it is a beautiful land with fascinating culture, people and food and i am proud that half of me comes from there.

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Carolee Schneemann-Body politics at the barbican

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Carolee Schneemann-Body politics at the barbican

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Hayward Gallery- Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art

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Hayward Gallery- Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art

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Featuring 23 international artists working across recent decades, the exhibition examines the plasticity and the possibilities of ceramics.

The artworks on show encompass fantastical creatures and uncanny representations of the everyday, as well as ranging from small abstract works to large-scale installations that take the medium beyond the kiln.
Strange Clay explores the possibilities of thinking through making.

The artworks vary in scale, finish and technique, and address topics that range from architecture, to social justice, the body, the domestic and the organic.

While contributing to the broadening dialogue between art and craft, this exhibition provides a closer look at this tactile medium.

The exhibition features works by Aaron Angell, Salvatore Arancio, Leilah Babirye, Jonathan Baldock, Lubna Chowdhary, Edmund de Waal, Emma Hart, Liu Jianhua, Rachel Kneebone, Serena Korda, Klara Kristalova, Beate Kuhn, Takuro Kuwata, Lindsey Mendick, Ron Nagle, Magdalene Odundo, Woody De Othello, Grayson Perry, Shahpour Pouyan, Ken Price, Brie Ruais, Betty Woodman and David Zink Yi.