Artist Communities with Francis Whorrall-Campbell and Mary Maggic
07.11.2024
Curated by Vanessa Cimorelli, Artist Communities is a cycle of public encounters and conversations featuring La Becque residents and other artists and protagonists of contemporary art-making. Based primarily on the concept of “community”, each discussion circle offers the public the opportunity to exchange with the speakers on their practices and experiences with regard to key contemporary themes.
For this edition, we invited you to join British artist, writer, art critic and current resident, Francis Whorrall-Campbell, and Mary Maggic, a Chinese-American artist and researcher.
Both Francis and Mary are particularly interested in the intersections between biology, biotechnology and cultural discourse. Together, they examined the history of hormones and how they (through processes of synthesis and isolation, then their relative dissemination and accessibility) help to form the “molecular sociostructures” that influence our perceptions of love and alienation alike.
In a conversation that combined theory, examples of transposition into the practice of both artists, shared personal experience and collective acts of experimentation, Mary and Francis recounted the emergence and sense of belonging to fluid, temporary “tribes”, as well as their potential to found lasting solidarities.
Artist Communities, La Becque, 2024, photo Lucas Erin