GSPF22 x Composite: Conversation Series - Practice + Place

The stories we tell through artworks are often borne of a specific time and place, celebrating and examining the lives of the artists themselves, and the communities in which they live and work. In this conversation, we will discuss how their works in the festival have been influenced by the times and places in which they were created, and what it means to locate the meaning in their works in different contexts.

Artists:

Dr. Bon Mott _/\_ is an emerging artist, curator and facilitator of Second Space Projects (2SP) in, Ngár-go (Fitzroy). _/\_ identifies as lightning, queer, nonbinary, and neuro-diverse. Bon Mott _/\_creates process-driven installations activated by performance, IAP informed by the ghost of a man who said he was lightning. Transdisciplinary process-driven IAP acknowledges complex, interconnections by learning from Indigenous knowledge, quantum physics, and the Queer ecologies of lightning, trickster, and nurturing through collaboration with non-normative creatives for positive social change. _/\_ exhibits in Australia, France, Italy, Serbia, Turtle Island (Canada and USA) and the UK.

Anna Schwann works in an expanded sculptural practice that investigates the encounter between art and audience. Through playful resistance and embracing failure, Schwann facilitates conversation using sensory engaging tactics as means of connection. Taking a D.I.Y approach to technique, Schwann utilises provisional, accessible materials for making and uses everyday objects in her narratives. Schwann’s work has been exhibited locally and interstate in artist-run spaces, milk bars, subways and toilets. Alongside her practice, Schwann has worked on live and participatory events, most recently with Long Prawn and Punctum INC. and in theatre, producing set design and costumes for shows in Melbourne Fringe Festival, Geelong Arts Centre and La Mama. In 2021 Schwann completed a Masters of Fine Art at RMIT, was a recipient of the Evan Lowenstein Award and recently completed the Situate Residency Program 2022. Schwann lives and works in Naarm and on Jaara land with grateful respect to First Nations peoples as the traditional and rightful caretakers of these lands and waterways.

Luigi Vescio is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, educator and 2019 Green Room Awards nominated performer creating works for theatres, galleries, digital, and outdoor spaces. Vescio's process-driven approach negotiates the animate and inanimate, materiality and immateriality, intent and unknowing. Vescio's work predominantly manifests as live performance, installation, moving image, and participatory encounters. Vescio has been supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Chunky Move, Temperance Hall, Dancehouse, PACT, EIRA (Portugal). Vescio completed a Master of Contemporary Art at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (2020) and a Diploma in Dance Performance from New Zealand School of Dance (2013). His work sits in the Nillumbik Art Collection.

The conversation series will be catered with light refreshments and food included.

When: Friday 29 July, 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Where: Composite Moving Image Agency & Media Bank, 4/35 Johnston St, Collingwood VIC 3066

Image: Luigi Vescio, The year we didn't work together, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.