31 July - 2 August
Spike Island, Bristol

Spike Island has developed the second retreat in the year-long Syllabus programme.The artists who have been selected for The Syllabus 2015/16 are Simon Bayliss, Noel Clueit, Susie Green, Mathew Parkin, Rory Pilgrim, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Tom Salt, Lucy Steggals, Tom Varley and Rafal Zajko.

Public workshop
Friday 31 July, 6-8pm
Fluid Medium is a work by Susie Green, one of the Syllabus participants. An experimental life-drawing class with exercises in drawing and simple sculptural practices, it is led by Green, who takes on the role of model, performer and facilitator. Green will choreograph a collaborative, immersive environment through music and lighting, offering an alternative to the typically one-way experience of artists observing a silent model.
Fluid Medium is presented as part of Spike Island’s public programme and will be attended by members of the public as well as the Syllabus participants.

Saturday 1 August
This workshop is led by Pil and Galia Kollectiv, whose practice is collaborative and interdisciplinary, encompassing film, performance, sculpture, costumes, music and collage.

Their work addresses the legacy of modernism and the avant-garde and the relationship between art and politics. They are especially interested in the role of art and creativity in post-Fordist labour, and the day will focus on this area of concern with an introductory lecture on the idea followed by a discussion of Josephine the Songstress or The Mouse Folk by Franz Kafka.

The afternoon will feature a screening of the film The Man Who Sleeps, a 1974 film directed by Bernard Queysanne and Georges Perec, based on Perec's 1967 novel A Man Asleep. A 25-year-old male student in Paris becomes indifferent to the world around him, and subsequently feels a strong sense of alienation and hopelessness.

Following this, there will be a discussion about the film and Paolo Virno’s text, Virtuosity and Revolution: The Political Theory of Exodus in relation to the artists’ possibility of withdrawal from the production of the self.

Sunday 2 August
The second full day is led by Andy Holden. Participants are asked to present work in the light of conversations initiated at the first session at Wysing and to discuss the development of their ideas.

The day will begin with a studio visit at Spike Island with the artists Harrison and Wood. The artists will then be given a tour by Richard Long on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Arnolfini where they will discuss his work in the light of some of the conversations from the previous day with Pil and Galia around the notion of ‘labour’. Following this will be lunch and then a studio visit with artist Linda Brothwell back at Spike Island studios.

Please note that we have selected the participants for this year's The Syllabus programme.
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