Join us on Wednesday 21st August from 6-8pm for our Art/Work Association event, ‘How Many Hands’
The evening will feature a talk by artist and writer Aliaskar Abarkas, followed by an opportunity to meet fellow A/WA members and the Auto Italia team.
In this talk, Aliaskar will share his experiences with alternative education programmes, how these learning environments have shaped his artistic practice and the strengths and challenges of various operational models for learning in the UK and abroad.
Highlighting the current structure of public funding in the UK and its direct impact on the narrative of artistic practice, Aliaskar will identify available resources for sustaining alternative practices that prioritise collaboration, engagement and collective learning. He will examine the evolving role of artists within complex infrastructures and will propose ways for artists to mediate between individuals and institutions, fostering connections that could transform contemporary art practice.
This event is free to attend and will be held at Auto Italia. Please register here or email info@artworkassociation.org
Aliaskar Abarkas is a London-based artist and writer. Committed to alternative and communal art education, he employs a choreographic and sonic approach to facilitate the dynamic interplay between individuals, guiding a transition from isolated experiences to collective expressions. Through strategic engagement with institutional infrastructures, he proposes and tests methodologies that reimagine open contexts within which his practice evolves and circulates, resulting in contingent shifts in the dimensions of ideas and material forms. In the project “All The Whistlers,” Aliaskar collaborates with diverse creative networks and participants, documenting the process leading to musical compositions, visuals, and performances.
Aliaskar holds a fellowship at Sadler’s Wells/Rose Choreographic School (London, 2024-26). He is a resident artist at RTM.FM with a monthly radio show: “On Alternative Education.” He was an associate artist at Castro (Italy), Open School East (UK), the Institute of Postnatural Studies (Spain), Rupert (Lithuania), and Syllabus V (UK). Aliaskar holds a BFA and MA in Fine Arts and Theory of Art from the University of Tehran and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Additionally, he has contributed to various programmes and institutions, including LUX Critical Forum, The Sonic and Somatic Transdisciplinary Research and Practice Programme, Advanced Practices, The Centre for Arts Design & Social Research, The New Centre for Research & Practice, and the Barbican Centre’s Communities and Neighbourhoods. He is a recipient of an Arts Council England Project Grant. Most recently, his projects, performances, and other interventions have been supported and presented at The Mosaic Rooms, TACO!, Swiss Church (London), CAPC (Bordeaux), and LOCALES (Rome).