Zanny Begg is a Sydney based cross-disciplinary artist, writer and organiser. Her work uses humour, understated drawings and found cultural artifacts to explore ways in which we can live and be in the world differently.
Zanny often works collaboratively and her work seeks a dialogue with the communities within which it is based, the people who inform it and/or its viewers. Her work probes the social and spatial architecture of life in urban environments and questions what it means to be political today. For a list of recent projects and exhibitions click here.
Begg’s expanded conception of artistic practice integrates the socially engaged function of self-organised activity, the strategic constitution of new publics, with the socially concerned content of her more properly artistic works, which offer a symbolic imagining of the political sophistication—potential and actual—of these new publics. Through this dual politicisation, Begg and her complex network of Australian and international collaborators, a continuation of the activist networks developed by the 1990s social movements who first realised the communicative power of the internet, participate in a significant revitalisation of the social function of aesthetic production that works with and against existing institutional structures to stake a claim for symbolic and political autonomy - Reuben Keehan, Of Beatial Acts and Rabbits in Hats, Broadsheet, Volume 38.3, Sep/Nov 2009.
The 256-page full-colour catalogue acts as a record for the evolving 12-week programme of exhibitions and events, curated by Annie Fletcher, that took place at various locations across Limerick City from 19 May to 12 August 2012.
Contents of the After the Future catalogue include: Annie Fletcher's curatorial essay "Our Recent Past" Luc Deleu's "Orban Planning Manifesto" and "Proposals" Franco 'Bifo' Berardi's keynote lecture and "Post-Futurist Manifesto" Galit Eilat interviewed by Megs Morley Essays by: Vaari Claffey, Tessa Giblin, Noel Kelly & Lily Power, Pádraic E. Moore, Paul O'Sullivan, Kate Strain
Artist profiles: Yael Bartana, Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler, Marcel Broodthaers, Anibal Catalan, Fergus Daly & Katherine Waugh, Kate Davis, Luc Deleu, Priscila Fernandes, Soren Thilo Funder, Aoibheann Greenan, Emma Houlihan, Greg Howie, Sanja Ivekovic, Sam Keogh, Barbara Knezevic, KwieKulik, Hyewon Kwon, Art Links Limerick, Jose Carlos Martinat, Gavin Murphy, Ailbhe Ni Bhriain, Doireann Ni Ghrioghair, Adrian O'Connell, Sara O'Gorman, Mark O'Kelly, Niamh O'Malley, Sarah Pierce, Deirdre A Power & Jacki Hehir, Alice Rekab, Laura Smith, Faber Studios, Pilvi Takala, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor
Interview with Peter McKay, curator of Social Networking, Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland.
New Video
The Right of Passage (2013)
“We can’t imagine a global citizenship or any concept of dynamic citizenship if we also don’t think about it not only in terms of law but in terms of the political economy of bodies that move. There have to be structures that can receive and host this kind of movement - This is why citizenship is not simply a subjective phenomenon but also an “objective” phenomenon of hospitality”, Antoni Negri, The Right of Passage.
A film by Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler, 19mins
In their third collaborative film Zanny Begg (Sydney) and Oliver Ressler (Vienna) focus on struggles to obtain citizenship, while at the same time questioning the implicitly exclusionary nature of the concept.
The Right of Passage is partially constructed through a series of interviews with Ariella Azoulay, Antonio Negri and Sandro Mezzadra. These interviews form the starting point for a discussion in Barcelona, one of Europe’s most densely populated and multicultural cities, with a group of people living “without papers”. The film is set at night, against a city skyline, providing a dark void from which those marginalized and excluded can articulate their own relationship to the arbitrary nature of national identity and citizenship. Spain was chosen for this project as it is teetering on the brink of financial meltdown and is testing the limits of European cohesion.
The title, The Right of Passage, refers to the stages, or “rites of passage” that mark important transitions on the path to selfhood. The exchange of “rites” with “rights” suggests that freedom of movement must become a right granted to every person – regardless of his or her place of birth. As the film explores these journeys not only transform those who embark upon them but also the places they inhabit.
In the film, the conversations around citizenship are interwoven with animated sequences.
Concept, film editing and production: Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler
Passport sequences: Zanny Begg
Camera and interviews: Oliver Ressler
Camera in Barcelona: Carlos Chang Cheng, Roberto Martín
Sound recording: Oliver Ressler
Sound design, mix and color correction: Rudi Gottsberger
Original music: Kate Carr
Participants: Ariella Azoulay, Lucía Egaña, Sandro Mezzadra, Antonio Negri, Daniela Ortiz, Will Sands, Katim Sene, César Zúñiga
Production assistance and translation: Daniela Ortiz, Xose Quiroga, Jason Francis Mc Gimsey
The project was funded partly through a grant of BMUKK and the Australian Council for the Arts Barcelona Residency Program
