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• Living Sculpture

Open Discussion at Tate Liverpool – “Why do artworks need people?”

‘The Alchemy Between Us’
Tate Exchange, at Tate Liverpool (1st floor gallery)
Tuesday 13 December, 12.30 till 2.30pm

‘The Alchemy Between Us’ is an exhibition and series of events hosted by Laurence Payot in Tate Exchange, inviting gallery visitors and invited guests, scientists, artists, philosophers, writers to explore the invisible exchanges traded between artists and people through the medium of the artwork.

“Why do artworks need people?” will be the first open discussion to take place in the gallery, led by artist Laurence Payot, Dr Yiota Vassilopoulou (philosopher at University of Liverpool) and Laura Robertson (writer and director of The Double Negative), focusing on the value of viewership and participation in contemporary art. Artists working across a range of methods and mediums will be invited to discuss ways in which viewers or participants are integral to their practice, or indeed necessary to the completion of works. With a focus on practice, the session is aimed at artists who work with people as a central feature of their work (sometimes called ‘social practitioners’), to share their techniques for initiating collaboration and involvement. Acknowledging that art need not be ‘participatory’ to be socially-engaged, studio-based artists will be asked to reflect on their relationships with viewers, and the importance of reception to their approaches to making.

14 December: What happens in the process of creation-reception?
15 December: Art as Symbiosis