Amy McDonnell

Participants, What Happens to Us. Photo: Ben McDonnell, 2017

Curated by Amy McDonnell and Marsha Bradfield, this exhibition examined democracy as a system of community formation.

What Happens to Us | Wimbledon Space | 15 November – 9 December 2016

Communities don’t just happen, they’re made

The exhibition unfolded in the long shadow of the UK’s referendum about whether to stay in Europe or not, as well as the threatening prospect of Donald Trump leading the so-called free world, which compelled many at that time to ask, should we ‘just say no’ to democracy? What if the philosopher Joseph de Maistre was right: people really do get the governments they deserve?

What Happens to Us takes as its departure the exhibition Democracy by the collective Group Material (1988–9), which was determined by round table discussions on the (still) pressing issues of AIDS, cultural participation, election and education. Today, we might add climate change, mass migration and economic disparity to this list. At What Happens to Us we ate together, made decisions and researched collaboratively, and built the exhibition and its ethos over time, hosting daily workshops, talks and screenings in four, weekly phases – ‘Build’, ‘Elect’, ‘Use’ and ‘Account’ to explore the politics in our communities.

With participation from

Acts of Searching Closely, Francesca Baglietto, Manuel Batsch, Brad Butler, Jaya Clara Brekke, Helen Brewer, Georgia Brown, Elliot Burns, Ève Chabanon, Cinzia Cremona, Carla Cruz, Neil Cummings, Neil Farnan, Michael Freedman, Sharon Gal, Naomi Garriock, Alison Green, Isabelle Gressel, Gabriele Grigorgeva, Mark Herbst, Karem Ibrahim, Helen Kaplinsky, Pippa Koszerek, May Project Gardens, Rosia McGinn, Zoë Mendelson, Radical ReThink, Susan Rocklin, Susanna Round, Scott Schwager, Barbara Steveni, Neil Tait, Jessica Tanghetti, Jennet Thomas, Binita Walia, Wright and Vandame

The full programme and archive of the project can be found at www.whathappenstous.org

A bustling pop-up market with artists, designers, economists, civil-society groups, academics, ecologists, activists and others who creatively explore existing structures and actively produce new ones.

#TransActing: A Market of Values | Chelsea College of Arts (UAL) | 11 July 2015

Organised by Critical Practice, #TransActing took place on the historic Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground, located between Tate Britain and Chelsea College of Arts (UAL). The Market showcased a skillshare, a peoples bureau, organ donation, an economy of promises, commoners, a fablab, a bring your own BBQ, virtuous communities, a speakers’ corner—even a kiosk buying tears. Care, trust, creativity and generosity are forms of exchange that coexist with money but cannot be made equivalent to pounds and pence. It’s wealth beyond capital that was produced at #TransActing.

The Market of Values was hosted in bespoke structures built by Critical Practice, Public Works and others. These stalls were interspersed with other spaces of assembly and exchange: a speakers’ corner, a social cinema, while multiple currencies circulated, not all of them monetary  . Whilst the values of competitive markets dominate contemporary life, including art and its education, other kinds can and do coexist. Some even flourish in alternative communities of evaluation.

#TransActing will nurtured and celebrated these value relations in a spectacular one-day event.   Critical Practice is Metod Blejec, Marsha Bradfield, Cinzia Cremona, Neil Cummings, Neil Farnan, Angela Hodgson-Teal, Karem Ibrahim, Amy McDonnell, Claire Mokrauer-Madden, Eva Sajovic, Kuba Szreder, Sissu Tarka and many more besides.

This market contributes to a wider project – Market of Value Research

Further information can be found on the Critical Practice (CCA) research wiki

Funded with assistance from Arts Council England and National Lottery