triangle shopping centre, exchange square: fri 18 feb – sun 6 mar
Entrance located on Fennel Street, opposite Cathedral Gardens/Urbis
Open Wed – Sun, 12:00 – 18:00
cornerhouse: thu 24 feb – wed 9 mar
The Manchester based art collective Archipelago present Consulate of Cornerhouse, an exhibition-as-provocation that will inhabit both a retail unit facing Cathedral Gardens at The Triangle Shopping centre as well as the Cornerhouse cafebar.
Exploring the emancipatory potential of the new “participatory” trend in arts organisations, the Consulate will re-imagine essential elements of Cornerhouse off-site – operating as Cornerhouse “on foreign soil“. Allowing a look behind the scenes, visitors will enter a fabrication of the Director’s office, complete with programming plans for possible future projects.
Archipelago will work to realise one of these projects; that of memorialising the current Cornerhouse staff with face casts, which will then be displayed in the “real” Cornerhouse. Also watch out for the approaches of the self driven official/unofficial market researcher, as well as a screen based web interface visible from the street outside – displaying live edits to a series of problematic statements; enticing anonymous editorial decisions from audience members and passers-by.
Archipelago are a group of practitioners with diverse experience across art and academia who share a common interest to artistically engage with contemporary notions of organisational structures and how this affects the various actors involved; artists, curators, institutions, and audiences.
A Cornerhouse Micro Commission, supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
With support from Katja Nurminen and Philip Rafael from BDP, Manchester City Council , Kinnarps and the Triangle Shopping Centre.