GDR GOES ON: Derry

26 January–23 March 2013 / Derry–Londonderry

The Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON at the Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry (CCA) (opening 26 January), in its new phase and new venue, developing further upon its previous iterations at The Showroom, London and Casco, Utrecht.  

The Grand Domestic Revolution (GDR) is an ongoing “living research” project initiated by Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht, in October 2009. Inspired by US late nineteenth-century “material feminist” movements that experimented with communal solutions to isolated domestic life and work, GDR has involved artists, designers, domestic workers, architects, gardeners, activists and others to collaboratively investigate and re-articulate the domestic sphere, challenging traditional and contemporary divisions of private and public. The aim is to imagine new forms of living and working in common and put them into practice. GDR shares its ongoing research with presentations of newly produced and referential art works, an exhibition as a platform for a series of public activities and the growing project library. In particular, the touring programme of GDR is conceived as a special form of international collaboration, embedding it in the local context of each host venue and creating closer ties between the organization and surrounding communities.  

GDR at the CCA focuses on the contemporary working conditions of caregivers—primarily mothers and grandmothers—in the domestic sphere. In an investigative system of exchange, CCA will offer free childcare in an environment created by artist Andrea Francke and SureStart Edenballymore staff, and in return ask that the parents and care-givers making use of the service tell us about the conditions of domestic work in their lives. We will also look for inspiration in the historic housing conditions of Derry, together with the struggles for change and alternative experimentation undertaken. Research into local conditions, past and present, includes lectures by Laurence McKeown on the history of collectivisation in Irish prisons; Patricia Swann on her experience living in the Meitheal Community on Inch Island, Donegal; and Greg Claeys from Royal Holloway, University of London, on utopianism, communitarianism and the domestic. Artist Christian Nyampeta is being commissioned to produce the exhibition design at CCA, which will act as a framework for bringing together existing works by the aforementioned artists, the GDR Library, and new research. The design will include a reading room that will become a permanent feature of CCA, embedding the organization’s commitment to research and social space in the fabric of the venue.  

Additional events comprise talks by curators Binna Choi and Maria Lind; a workshop with self-proclaimed action weaver Travis Meinolf; a graphic design workshop by Åbäke’s Patrick Lacey; and a film and lecture hosted by scholar Marina Vishmidt.

For more information on the programme please also see the CCA Derry website.

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