FOTAM 2020 / Reconsidering the Local: Learning to be Local

About

FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value in the Art Market

Event 3: Reconsidering the Local | Learning to be Local

Co-conveners: Patricia Fleming & Thalia Spyridou

Speakers: Rose LeJeune, Curator; Zain Dada, Programme Manager at Maslaha and co-founder of Khidr Collective; more TBA.

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The contemporary art market as we know it is bound to international art centres - London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York to name a few - the high concentration of galleries, art fairs and auction houses in these locations offer visitors the experience of an assured global network.

As the market continues to evolve amid the Covid-19 crisis, its dependence on ‘economies of presence’ has been challenged. Travel, the economic fall-out of the pandemic and the rise in digital experiences has seen the international calendar of biennials and fairs, private views and pre-private views, exclusive dinners and parties paused, for the meantime at least.

With the physical, economic and environmental sustainability of this system in the spotlight more than ever before, new models could emerge to replace the dominance of international art centres, to create space for other value systems in a more open, locally connected and fairer Global Marketplace.

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For this event, curator and gallerist Patricia Fleming challenges us to reconsider the values that drive two interdependent but not always compatible pillars of the contemporary art sector - communities of artists and the art market.

Bringing together voices from within and outside of the sector, contributors will share their knowledge of working within local networks and different economies. The panel will explore the value of the artistic communities operating outside of international art centres, often economically poor but critically rich centres of artistic production.

Fleming will ask contributors and audiences to consider the value of the authentic experiences of these locations and communities where art is made, the barriers to the marketplace and the impact the distance to the marketplace has on these communities, posing the question:

What does it take to build smaller, multiple, connected art markets? What values must we reconsider or compromise in being local and building global, or can we have it all?

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This event will take place via Zoom. A link to join the event will be sent to you shortly.

Full panel lineup to be announced shortly.

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About Patricia Fleming

Patricia Fleming is Director and curator at Patricia Fleming, Glasgow. The gallery represents some of the UK’s leading contemporary artists.

About Thalia Spyridou

Thalia Spyridou is Sales Director at Patricia Fleming, Glasgow. She also co-founded Cake Journal in 2016, a project that involves creative practitioners in a conversation around social, economic and cultural issues.

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About FOTAM 2020

FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value In The Art Market is a series of events and interactive discussions taking place online from 19 - 30 October 2020

FOTAM 2020 is produced by Creative United and curated by Lucy Rose Sollitt, with support from Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and UCL Innovation & Enterprise.