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D A V I E S
Reading Franko B: Moments in Love (2013)
Archival Exhibition curated with materials from The Franko B Archive, housed at University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
Reading Franko B: Moments in Love was an exhibition I curated to explore and disseminate the contents of Live Art artist Franko B's archive. The exhibition presented a fragmented narrative of his creative and personal histories, asking: who is Franko B? What do we perceive about his identity through the archive? What relationships does this provoke between audience, document, and artist? Why might we fall in love with him?
The exhibition showcased the diverse range of documents in Franko’s archive, challenging what they embody and disseminate about his artistic practice and the contexts he works in.
Due to the sexual content and blood-related nature of certain documents the exhibition generated a fascinating debate around the ethics of display and moral respect for upholding the integrity of an artist’s work in the maintenance, display, and dissemination of archival collections of a challenging nature. I, therefore, worked alongside the Theatre Collection and the University of Bristol to not present these works of art in order to glorify the acts depicted, but, instead within a framework that celebrated and embraced the artistic context of Franko’s artwork. For Franko, art and life is one and the same thing, and the different disciplinary approaches he adopts, from painting to installation, from blood-letting performances to video art, are an integral part of his practice. This exhibition aimed to give audiences a flavour of the richness, excitement, breadth, and depth of Franko’s archive, from an academic perspective. By investigating the contexts in which he produces, performs, and disseminates work and the ways in which people perceive and receive him and his practice, the exhibition asked what do we get to know about an artist from the documents they keep in their archive, how might we read and interpret their identity.
Exhibition Poster for Reading Franko B: Moments in Love (2013).
Image Credit: Franko B (2002) I Miss You, photo courtesy of Manuel Vason.
For further information on and documentation from the exhibition please visit: