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Artist Networks

Cafe Artistique is a new initiative supported by the city council, it is a relaxed and informal opportunity for art lovers and enthusiasts to listen and take part in some lively conversation and inspirational debate. Special guest speakers and artists will be invited to use the events as a platform for their work, research and ideas. Anyone involved with art, from artists, curators, writers and researchers to those with a keen interest, is welcome to attend.

Launch Event

The Portsmouth launch focused on contemporary artist's film and video as part of Screen 07: Portsmouth Festival of Film and Screen-based Media. The first meeting of this new partnership was held at Le Café Parisien from 8pm - 10pm on Wednesday 14th November 2007.

The special guest speaker was Benjamin Cook, Director of London-based Lux which supports and promotes contemporary and historical artists' moving image work, and those who make it, through distribution, exhibition, publishing and research. He was joined by performance artist and film maker Victoria Melody, the curator of the Phoenix Video Art Festival in Brighton. She was commissioned to produce new work after the event and in response to the evening.

The first meeting was a great success with some lively debate in competition with noisey roadworks and student events in the street! To see more information on the first event have a look at the link to axis web on the right of this page.

Forthcoming Cafe Artistique, Wednesday 19 March 2008, 8pm-10pm

Le Cafe Parisien, Lord Montgomery Way, Portsmouth

As part of National Science and Engineering Week 2008 Cafe Artistique presents an evening of both creative and scientific exploration with guest speaker and celebrated British Artist Phillip Warnell.

Over the past 15 years, Warnell has produced a series of iconic performance, visual and sonic artworks using the body - often his own - as a source sound or image. In 2006, Warnell famously swallowed a pill-sized camera to record a video journey through nine metres of his own gastro-intestinal tract, part of a conference, performance and video work entitled Endo-Ecto.

His most recent video work documents his encounter with Natasha Demkina, known internationally as The Girl with X-ray Eyes, a Russian teenager and medical student, purported to have the ability to look directly inside bodies utilising a form of supplementary vision or second sight.

Though central to his practice, his work is not simply about the body. For Warnell the body in fact becomes a place rather than a person, an object rather than a subject, and a host for investigative procedures which record and transmit hidden chemical and biological information.

Phillip Warnell will be joined by Artist and Director of The Institute of Unnecessary Research, Anna Dumitriu who has been invited to produce new work in response to this evenings event. Her practice has most recently utilised DNA extraction and mobile technologies to explore links between microbiology and philosophy, as part of her residency at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University.

Her Normal Flora Project affirms the fact that only 1% of bacteria are considered to be harmful to humans while the other 99% are either harmless or beneficial to us. Rather than question 'How clean is your house?' Dumitriu asks 'How sublime is your eco-system?'

National Science and Engineering Week 2008 (formerly National Science Week) is coordinated by the British Association for the Advancement of Science in partnership with the Engineering and Technology Board, and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. 

The Partners

Cafe Artistique was initiated by Cibas and is a partnership between Cibas, Arts and Cultural Development Service, Portsmouth Cultural Consortium, the University of Portsmouth and Axis, the online resource for contemporary art. Steve Fisher is the partnership’s main co-ordinator. For more information can email steve.fisher@port.ac.uk or call him on 023 9284 6205.

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