The ARTS ASSEMBLY (AA) unites a diversity of art actors in participatory and peer-to-peer platforms. At Manifesta 8 the AA acts as a CRITICAL ORGAN of the curatorial process. Evaluations of the Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS), Manifesta 8 (M8) and its processes will be hammered out. CPS is one of the three curatorial teams of Manifesta 8, Spain.

Arts Assembly Locations:

• 5 Live events will take place in the AA Amphitheatre, Los Molinos Auditorium, Murcia

• The Space for Archive and Reverb, which documents, processes and allows post-live public interaction with the AA is in the same building -- The Los Molinos del Rio Segura Hydrological Museum. An Open House will be held during M8 Preview. It – and its multiple possibilities for audience participation - will remain open for the duration of Manifesta 8, from October 2010-January 2011.

• The trailer of On the Amphitheatre's Ruins, a forthcoming film on the AA process, will be seen in CPS Media Lounges in Murcia and Cartagena. The full-length film will later be shown as part of M8 and on TV.

The AA is a reflexive model for cooperation in the creative field. Participatory evaluation, decision-making and amphitheatrical action take place in the Chambers of the AA. Each Chamber has its own features – acting like a gathering of an ancient Greek polis in the amphitheatre, the Roman Senate, a gladiatorial fight, a whispering dance hall, an non-monetary auction or a parliament..

At Manifesta 8, the ARTS ASSEMBLY will have two chambers:

The AA Valuation Chamber:

This chamber was first conceived (during the collapse of casino-style markets) to address the crucial question of value in the art world. If market-valuations of artworks are highly volatile, and if they subject art to the ever greater domination by heteronomous forces, then an independent system of valuation of art is a crucial, indeed existential need for art. The Value Chamber is designed to provide non-monetary procedures of evaluation – critical, practical, aesthetic, political, philosophical or otherwise – of artworks presented to it. These Valuations of the work are carried out through the step-by-step coordination of the artist of the artwork, the Jury of the Chamber, and the participating audience. The results may determined by polls, surveys or ratings, choreographed theoretical analysis, or even by proposals coming from the audience..

The AA Round Chamber:

This chamber will debate - in gladiatorial style - the curatorial strategy of CPS, its implementation and the obstacles and issues it faces. Likewise, it will address the themes, discourses and institutions of M8. Historical and theoretical aspects of M8 and the Murcia region will provide one point of departure.

How does the ARTS ASSEMBLY work?

Before a whole AA can take place, it needs to be 'constituted' by what is called the Charter Process. This process 'writes the rules' of the Chambers by developing step-by-step procedures for action called Charters. A Charter is a structure, schedule and plan of participatory action within a given event. This defines a Chambers format, the scenography and schedule of what happens, but not its content or outcomes. The content results from actually carrying out an AA: with specific artists, juries and participants and Charters, and in a given historical, institutional and geographical context.

Overall, each AA is a self-constituting collective of people and participatory procedures in action. It is not a meeting, simply a debate or an exchange of opinions. A whole AA is a closely-timed and self-choreographed series of performative events with outcomes determined by all members and participants in the ARTS ASSEMBLY.

The First Pilot for an Arts Assembly took place in Helsinki on the island of Suomenlinna/Sveaborg in November, 2009. The Arts Assembly - CPS at Manifesta 8 is a programme of critical evaluations of the Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS) in the context of Manifesta 8. CPS is one of the three curatorial teams of Manifesta 8, Spain.

The Arts Assembly is a Perpetuum Mobilεzation (http://www.perpetualmobile.org).

www.TheArtAssembly.org

USEFUL LINKS 

Perpetuum Mobilε: www.perpetualmobile.org