Preview: Friday 4th April, 7-9pm. All Welcome Exhibition: Sat 5th April - Sat 17th May BIllboards: 27th March - 10th April
Part of The GRZEWCZY Season
Freee’s work uses slogans, performances, billboards and publications. They are interested in the traffic between the gallery and the street, between art’s institutions and everyday culture, and between art and politics. As a group they do not make work that addresses issues in a thematic way; instead they aim to divide opinion and challenge debate. In this new work, they aim to use the Polish experience to trigger a much wider debate about the underlying issues of global capitalism that Polish immigration is just one part of.
The exhibition How to be Hospitable will accompany the three Billboard commissions that are being shown within Edinburgh.
Billboards: Edinburgh City Centre Billboard Locations:
Location 1 – Salamander Street Location 2 – Abbey Lane Location 3 – Easter Road end off Brunswick Road
Three new billboard works commissioned by the Collective Gallery’s One Mile Project and created by artist collective Freee are on display in Leith. These striking billboards have been created in response to the recent wave of Polish immigrant workers in the UK and particularly in Edinburgh. They will read: Fight Against Multiculturalism Commodifying Your Difference; Immigrants of the World Unite!; and I am a Foreign Citizen; I am a Local Outsider; I am a Migrant Worker.
The GRZEWCZY Season 3 months of participatory Polish projects at the Collective Gallery. The Collective Gallery is extending a welcome to Edinburgh's newly immigrated Polish community. During this season of exhibitions and events we hope to provide a platform for cross-cultural investigation, participation and collaboration.
Event Gallery: Collective Gallery Event Title: Plato's Table: Hospitality and Participatory Practice Symposium @ The Drill Hall, Dalmeny Street. Date: Monday 14th April Time: 10am - 7pm Price: Institutions £80, Individuals £50. Speakers: Phil Collins, Charles Esche, Gob Squad, Kate Gray, Sarah Munro, Simon Sheikh, Angharad Wynne-Jones and Matt Stokes. At the heart of this symposium will be two meals eaten together around six tables where facilitators and delegates will debate issues arising from keynote presentations. To book: please ring Tramway's Box Office on 0845 330 3501.
Event Gallery: Collective Gallery Event Title: Publication Launch Date: Monday 14th April Time: 7:30 - 9:30pm Price: Admission Free Collective are delighted to be hosting the launch of Matt Stokes' first monograph publication 'Lost in the Rhythm'. Music subcultures have been central to the development of Stokes' recent projects, including Northern Soul, Acid House and Black Metal. Exclusively, Matt will be in the gallery to sign copies on the night. No need to book.
Event Gallery: Collective Gallery Event Title: Discussion Forum Date: Thursday 17th April Time: 6-7pm Price: Admission Free Join us at the Collective Gallery for this discussion forum where Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North & Leith, poet and recent émigré Joanna Jarzymowska and One Mile Co-ordinator, Siobhan Carroll will be in the gallery commenting on the themes in Freee's exhibition. Places are free but limited, to book your space please contact mail@collectivegallery.net or tel 0131 220 1260.
Event Gallery: Collective Gallery Event Title: Tasting Evening Date: Thursday 24th April Time: 6-8pm Price: Admission Free Want to try something different? Ever sampled Polish food? Deli Polonia visit the Collective's gallery space to host a unique evening of Polish food tasting. One of Edinburgh's original Polish Deli's, Deli Polonia and Collective invite you to come along and find some new tastes to broaden your palate! All welcome.
Exhibition Artist: Paul Rooney Exhibition Title: Lost High Street Dates: Sat 31st May - Sat 12th July
In Paul Rooney's single screen video projection, a tourist can be heard speaking as he is filming his tour-bus ride around the city of Edinburgh, commenting on what he sees and on what the tour guide is telling him. The bus in this video appears to be going at breakneck speed. Also, as we listen to the tourist as he is speaking, we realise that he is stuck forever on a tour that never stops, on an accelerated cycle of bus circuits that repeat themselves exactly.
This four minute video piece is new commission by the Collective Gallery. Artist Paul Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1967, and trained at Edinburgh College of Art. Paul primarily works with text, sound and video, focusing on the voices of semi-fictional individuals, which often explore the presence of history within the everyday. The works use or reference narrative forms such as short stories, songs, audio guides and sermons.
