City’s renewal takes centre stage at Hungarian exhibition
Published On Wed 3 Dec 2014 by Roddy Isles
Dundee’s urban regeneration is the subject of a new art exhibition that will open in Hungarian capital Budapest tomorrow, Thursday, December 4th.
Students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), part of the University of Dundee, have been invited to join contemporaries from seven European art schools for the exhibition “Spaces of Uncertainty”.
Art, Philosophy and Contemporary practices student David MacKay said changes in the city inspired the group’s work.
“We decided to focus on the fact that Dundee is in a state of regeneration - transitioning from the old industry of textiles to the emerging industry of biomedical science,” said David.
The nine artists merged the old and the new by making lab coats out of waxed cotton produced at Halley Stevenson's Factory, one of the last functioning textile mills in Dundee. The group also created a wooden deconstruction of the factory chimney to feature as part of the show.
The Hungarian University of Fine Arts is hosting the exhibition, which has challenged around 50 young European artists from across the continent to respond to “the consequences of globalisation and the precariousness of fragile urban and planetary ecosystems.”
As part of the work, the DJCAD students created the fictional organisation “The Bakery” – whose stated purpose is to “oversee the current transformation processes”.
David MacKay explained, “The function of The Bakery is ambiguous. They can be found dressed in their lab coats taking scrupulous notes on their clipboards.
“We will present one lab coat on the wall during the exhibition - splayed and pinned open in a manner similar to that of a dissected frog. Alongside this we will have clipboards and prints of The Bakery's investigations.
“This will contain images of our process, and visual responses to the themes of regeneration and transition. On the opening night of the exhibition we (The Bakery) will be wearing our lab coats and identification badges as we observe.”
The exhibition will run in Hungary until December 13. A parallel exhibition will also be held in DJCAD on Thursday December 4th.
You can learn more about the bakery at the group’s tumblr http://theallnightbakery.tumblr.com/
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
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University of Dundee
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Email: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk