2019incidental

A Incidental Futures meeting forming part of a touring public programme which explores the ongoing relevance of APG’s ways of working. The meeting will be led by artists and feature incidental expanded documentation by Dawn Bothwell and Paul Stewart. The programme aims to collect material, facilitate conversation and inspire action. The IU calls upon anyone to share thoughts and practice to continue researching the impact of APG and O+I.
This incidental meeting is part of a seven-city UK tour to explore the long term impact of the radical work of Artist Placement Group (1960-70s). In this context, the term ‘incidental’ refers to activities without a predetermined intention. The only item on the agenda of incidental meetings is the ‘unfinished business’ of Artist Placement Group and its commitment to placing artists beyond the worlds of art, thereby interrupting norms in law, health, industry, education, administration and more.

At BALTIC 39 Bad Spirits will create three stages of experience to discuss collaboration and methods of making influenced by two key themes of Artist Placement Group, Thinking in Public and Context is Half the Work.
Initiating an act of 'space appropriation' - starting from Robert Filliou & Joachim Pfeufer's 'Poipoi Drome' and Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Domes, Bad Spirits will construct a nomadic structure comprised of three spaces.
They will then lead an open session to consider 'thought exchange' in relation to site. Through writing exercises, and sound experiments inside a temporary architecture in the space, Bad Spirits will facilitate a meeting in public which moves through different forms of expression, synthesised into a performance (of sorts).

Curatorial support for this incidental meeting is provided by Barbara Steveni, Marsha Bradfield, and Polly Wright, who are all members of Incidental Unit, the current iteration of Artist Placement Group (2016 - ongoing). This incidental meeting is part of Incidental Futures, a public programme and UK supported by Arts Council England, The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) of the University of Westminster Flat Time House and University of the Arts London. Incidental Futures is coordinated by Polly Wright and co-curated by Marsha Bradfield and Polly Wright.
Bad Spirits is a curatorial project / a performance / an artistic collaboration between Dawn Bothwell & Paul Stewart. The central theme is how to create contexts to 'think in public'. Bad Spirits creates environments that support collaboration, collectivism and making in the company of others.