Transformations NGX

Speakers: **Kay Watson (Serpentine) & Natasha Trotman | Curators & Speakers Art in Flux: Aphra Shemza, Maria Almena & Olive Gingrich |** Chair National Gallery X: Ali Hossaini

Performances: Analema Group | Augestine Leudar | Kimatica Studio

During the pandemic media artists provided a silver lining of cultural activity. Post-Covid, the role of technology in society has changed the way we work, communicate, consume and create culture globally. This technological transformation necessitates a reflection on the artists’ role in forging this societal change. How can artists help to ensure that digital resources remain accessible, affordable, ethical, and human-centred? As active agents, visionaries and pioneers of rapidly changing techno-cultures, media artists lead by example through their own practice, frequently identifying public deficits through their art. Through talks, performances and a hybrid exhibition, ‘Art in Flux: Transformations’ spotlights intersections between arts and society.

Photographs by Sophie le Roux.

Over the last 3 years, Art in Flux in collaboration with National Gallery X, led a public discourse on artistic strategies to address societal needs including the need for equal representation, environmental change and wellbeing. By asking important questions around agency, accessibility and the role technology and creativity play, this discourse now culminates in the ‘Transformations’ event at National Gallery X. In this event we come together to reflect on tectonic shifts in society, and how media artists encounter, engender and question such ‘Transformations’.

Introduced by NGX co-director, Ali Hossaini against the backdrop of the National Gallery’s collection, with presentations by Art in Flux founders Aphra Shemza, Maria Almena and Olive Gingrich, FLUX artist Natasha Trotman and Kay Watson, ‘Transformations’ opens a discourse on seismic changes, and how media art practitioners contribute to societal change through their artworks. Three performances by The Analema Group, Augestine Leudar and Kimatica Studio will frame the evening. A hybrid exhibition curated by the Art in Flux team presents artworks by Analema Group, Aphra Shemza, Augestine Leudar Jake Elwes, Kimatica Studio, Kira Zhigalina, Natasha Trotman, Olive Gingrich, Shama Rahman and Stuart Batchelor.

Transformations has been commissioned by National Gallery X and supported by the Arts Council of England.