Michael and I have the keys to Studio M* and have begun to move in! We posted the Studio M* manifesto on the door of Studio 6 as our first exhibit and signed it. Sharing a few shots of the space which is housed in the McHugh House Beltline Arts Hub, a heritage building. Just a few blocks south of downtown Calgary: when you come out the Center St. door you see the Calgary Tower. Can’t quite believe we are living back in Calgary and stepping right in so easily. We are looking forward to what will co-emerge from our matrixial artworkings and dreaming in this space and within this community. This is the first time in 10 years I am not starting my fall with teaching art at a university. This year is about making art. Michael and I, two ants making socially engaged art that dreams for the future.
I end with a quote from Carol Becker’s book “Thinking in Place.” She wrote;
“But there are people, even now, who are constantly reimagining not just the future but also their present, and the present and future of the collective. They are the creative minds to which one must turn in times like these, when the world is sent into turmoil and the failure of a coherent vision for our own society’s future is all too apparent. They are the green ants dreaming. They make the “art,” as Bauman writes, “that transforms the improbable into the inevitable.” And they create innovative structures that help humanity.” (p. 101).
The manifesto in text:
Studio M* Manifesto Exhibit #1.0 ( Aug-Sept. 2017)
– WE are a research creation lab intersecting Arts. Culture & Healing
– WE are committed to an inclusive & expansive curatorial practice that stems from the Latin root curare – “to take care”
– EVERYTHING is encountering others, human & more-than-human, a tableau of unique creative collaborations
– WE commit to a Matrixial co-poetic paradigm of Artworkings in radical trust
– We practice a co-relational Aesthetic as foundational and preceding the Ethical, while both ought to inform the shape of the Political
– We live with the premise that EVERYTHING began without fear… imagine that!
– SPONTANEITY is the life-blood-water of play, humour, sociality, sustainability, health & ecological sanity
Signatories:
R. Michael Fisher
Barbara Bickel
*M stands for “Matrixial” theory based on Bracha L. Ettinger’s art & philosophy. See, for example her book “The Matrixial Borderspace” published in 2005 by University of Minnesota Press.
Studio M* is a restorative and transformational learning, teaching & inquiry space for all. Co-conceived by artists-researchers-teachers Drs. Barbara Bickel & R. Michael Fisher.
Studio M* 