THE CRITICAL DRINKING CURRICULUM

at Juxtapose Art Fair


with the rubbles of old palaces presented "The Critical Drinking Curriculum" at Juxtapose Art Fair in Aarhus, Denmark on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of September 2023.

"The Critical Drinking Curriculum" is a collaborative project between Vita Buivid and Hannah O'Flynn.

This project has been supported by Culture Moves Europe.

We thank Juxtapose Art Fair for their invitation.

"SMASHED: Speaking Histories of Insurrection" is an audio piece by Hannah O’Flynn interviewing Michelle Turley, Pádraigín O’Flynn, Ian Nolan & Niall O'Flynn; with sound design & post-production by Pablo Giménez Arteaga.

The drunk letters displayed were by: Margo van de Linde, Eric Anderson, Ian Nolan, Vita Buivid, Natalia Papaeva, Niall O’Flynn & Joana Cuiko.

We thank all participants for taking part.

 

with the rubbles of old palaces showed "The Critical Drinking Curriculum" at Juxtapose Art Fair in Aarhus (Denmark) on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of September 2023.

“Alcohol is no longer just a drink for me. It is always a social and political substance.”

- Vita Buivid

The “Critical Drinking Curriculum” is an ongoing program that enquires into alcohol’s global political entanglements. The project looks at alcohol as a political substance and a place of intersection for the relationship between the body and the State. It thinks it from the scope of race, gender, class and age, between others; considering how the historical production, trade and consumption of alcohol, together with the cultural codes surrounding these practices, entangle themselves with global politics. The curriculum opens up this entanglement by doing an artistic enquiry into some of the different histories of alcohol production, trade and drinking. The “Critical Drinking Curriculum “takes the form of a cognitive map that delineates local histories’ relation to the global through the everyday object of alcohol as a prism.

The “Critical Drinking Curriculum” is a public program created by Vita Buivid and Hannah O’Flynn. The program takes place in both Berlin and Amsterdam, under the umbrella of “with the rubbles of old palaces”, a cultural space located in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

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“Juxtapose Art Fair” is a biennial for organisations run by artists. The word “juxtapose” means to bring together for contrasting effect. At “Juxtapose Art Fair”, we exhibit different artist-run projects side-by-side, so we can better appreciate the different ways in which artists contribute to the larger art world — with galleries, studios, publishing houses, performance groups, research projects, political activism, etc. Juxtapose is a non-commercial art fair. We focus instead on supporting artists. We offer our exhibitors a variety of learning and networking programs, such as our Think Tank discussion groups and Nordic Visitors Program. We also celebrate their work and try to make it more visible to the public through our Platform and Off-Site exhibitions.

You can find out more about the “Juxtapose Art Fair” here.

We thank Juxtapose Art Fair for their invitation.

This project has been supported by Culture Moves Europe.

Disclaimer: This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

*Poster image by Gerrit van Honthorst.

 

 

SMASHED: Speaking Histories of Insurrection

 

For Juxtapose Art Fair "The Critical Drinking Curriculum" will be presenting a reworked version of Hannah O'Flynn's "SMASHED: Speakingh Histories of Insurrection", which has been edited and sound designed by Pablo Giménez Arteaga.

“SMASHED: Speaking Histories of Insurrection” enquires into the Irish pub as a political space for community building, transmission of oral history and anti-colonial organising within the context of the long British colonial occupation of Ireland.

The work is a sonic collage of conversations with Michelle Turley, Pádraigín O’Flynn, Ian Nolan and Niall O’Flynn on the space created around the practice of collective drinking, and its relation to the disavowal of and organisation against an oppressive colonial regime. The research on the collective memories of Ireland’s colonisation and resistance is approached through storytelling and the re-telling of personal and family histories deeply entrenched in this history.

The space of the pub becomes the prism into this research due to drunkenness’ close relationship to the transmission of oral history. This is of particular importance in the Irish context due to its long history under colonial rule, where official written history was controlled by the British — drunk oral history becoming, thus, a possible space for insurgency.

What place does the pub occupy within the social fabric? In what ways can the pub be a space of learning? How do the voices of the oppressed move through and around a system of violent silencing? In what ways does drunk speech escape discipline? What are the ways in which one listens? What does contagious singing have to do with collective political activation? Is there a direct relation between higher alcohol consumption and political despair?

 An audio piece by Hannah O'Flynn interviewing Michelle Turley, Pádraigín O'Flynn, ian Nolan and Niall O'Flynn.

Edited and sound designed by Pablo Giménez Arteaga.

LISTEN TO "SMASHED: SPEAKING HISTORIES OF INSURRECTION [REWORKED]" HERE.