Until 12 December 2014
Herbert Read Gallery
University for the Creative Arts
New Dover Road
Canterbury
UK
“The true goal of the system, the reason it programs itself like a computer, is the optimization of the global relationship between input and output—in other words, performativity.”
–Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition
Inefficiency can be understood as an effort without reward; as the negative result of a system designed to produce a benefit, to be profitable. In relation to present conditions of labour, the dialectic of efficiency/inefficiency is at the core of new working paradigms. From life-hackers who propose efficient uses of technology to minimize the time spent at work, to the vindication of sleep and its power to resist capital’s constant demand of attention, and from the rise of the artist’s job—self-motivated, flexible, instable—as exemplary, to the reliance of many creative industries on the exploitation of unpaid work (internships), labour is today intimately connected to debates around (in)efficiency. Taking this panorama, the project Despite Efficiency: Labour aspires to create a (working) space where these ideas can be played out in different formats and shapes, independently of their utility.
Despite Efficiency: Labour consists of two phases. The first one involves the guest architecture and design studio Aberrant Architecture collaborating with students to transform the Herbert Read Gallery into a stage for (in)efficient work. Once built, and over a three-week period, the transformed gallery hosts a number of live performances, videos and other time-based projects presented by a group of international artists interested in situations and models of unprofitable, futile or ineffective work.
Curated by Emma Brasó.
Exhibition design: BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design students, UCA + Aberrant Architecture, London
Video works: Marilou Lemmens and Richard Igbhy, Terry Perk and Ed Oliver, Kleines Postfordistisches Drama, Greta Alfaro and Inutile d’insister /with Stéphane Trois Carrés.
Calendar of performances
All events are at the Herbert Read Gallery, unless otherwise specified
21 November, 5–8pm
Performance by Marilou Lemmens and Richard Igbhy
26 November
The right left by Fermín Jiménez Landa across Kent and Surrey
3 December, 10am–5pm
Office of Ecological Labour: Surfacing Deep Correlation, by Mirko Nikolic
10 December, 6pm
Name Readymade by Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša at Turner Contemporary, Margate
11 December, from 5pm until late
Book launch and performance by Salon Flux in collaboration with Jane Frances Dunlop followed by live visuals & music at UCA’s Bar.
The project has been supported by Recreate and ICR, two initiatives selected under the European Cross-border Cooperation Programme Interreg IV A France (Channel) – England, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
