Dundee Contempo rary Arts Annual Report 2018 – 19 Contents Welcome from Beth Bate, Director 3 DCA 20 4–5 Exhibitions 6–9 Cinema 10–13 Print Studio 14–17 Learning 18–21 Discovery Film Festival 22–25 Editions & Publications 26–27 DCA Shop 28–29 Audiences & Communications 30–33 Support 34 DCA Team 35 This page: Photograph by Erika Stevenson Opposite: Photograph by Alberto Bernasconi Dundee Contemporary Arts Annual Report Page 3 Welcome In a remarkable year for Dundee, when the Our international reach expanded with DCA cultural landscape has shifted and grown, Print Studio staff presenting papers at the and the eyes of the world were upon us, renowned IMPACT 10 Encurentro, the we were thrilled to celebrate DCA20, our International Multidisciplinary Printmaking twentieth birthday. Conference in Santander, with research playing a key role in the studio, alongside affordable It has been inspirational to look back at the early access to outstanding equipment and expertise days of DCA, the ambition and determination for artists at all stages of the careers. of the pioneers and politicians, the staff and supporters, who made it all possible. Widely The range of projects delivered by DCA’s seen as kick-starting Dundee’s rebirth from post- Learning team continues to have incredible industrial decline to becoming an internationally impact across Dundee and the wider Tayside renowned city that has placed culture at its region. From hosting two PhD researchers, heart, DCA is now one of Scotland’s most loved exploring the impact of creative activity on cultural centres, with over 409,000 visits a year. families with young children to delivering Rooted in the city and international in vision, creative workshops with people in the DCA has delivered on its early vision year after Hilltown and Stobswell areas, from working year, thanks to our fantastic audiences, artists with schools and teachers developing creative and staff. The opportunity to celebrate everyone’s skills to our long-term partnership with Tayside successes has been seized enthusiastically Healthcare Trust on the ST/ART project, DCA’s and we’re delighted to continue our DCA20 ethos ‘see, think, make, do’ continues to enrich programme throughout 2019. people’s lives. 2018 saw some of the busiest exhibitions ever All of our work is made possible by our held at DCA, with Santiago Sierra’s Black Flag stakeholders Creative Scotland and Dundee and Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead attracting City Council, as well as the many partners, over 13,000 visits, and we are pleased that our trusts, foundations, sponsors and donors who gallery numbers have continued to increase. support our important work. We are grateful to With media attention focused on Dundee, we all of them. As part of DCA20 we were pleased were delighted to attract such positive national to launch our first patron scheme and my and international press, including reviews in particular thanks to the individuals who have The Observer and Frieze , as well as coverage started on this new and exciting journey with us in The Art Newspaper , The Financial Times , The and for sharing our commitment to art, artists, New York Times and the South Munich Times . audiences and Dundee. Our rich and diverse cinema programme Beth Bate, Director continued to delight audiences and it was a pleasure to host so many events, with special guests, directors and producers visiting DCA. Lively debate, conversation and connection helps make our cinema, programmed in-house, so successful and relevant to our audiences. Top: Vinyl Dreaming wall at our DCA20 open weekend Bottom: State of Print at our DCA20 open weekend Photographs by Erika Stevenson Dundee Contemporary Arts Annual Report Page 5 “Dundee’s cultural successes and continued aspirations were founded upon, and can very clearly trace themselves back DCA2 0 to, important cultural milestones such as the creation of DCA.” Cllr John Alexander We launched a long weekend of specially programmed In March 2019 we kicked off our 20th birthday events and activities, starting with Gallery 2 being programme of events, celebrating two decades of being completely taken over by the exhibition. bold, open, meaningful and magical, enriching people’s State of Print This interactive artist-led nation was a makeshift state built with lives through art, creativity and culture. ink and recycled cardboard. Complete with border control, Cllr John Alexander, leader of Dundee City Council, said, currency exchange, maps, laws, national anthems, a TV “Dundee’s cultural successes and continued aspirations station, films and music, audiences immersed themselves in were founded upon, and can very clearly trace themselves this wildly creative response to national identity and power. back to, important cultural milestones such as the creation of DCA. DCA has and continues to play a pivota l role; culturally, Community groups from across Dundee were amongst the socially and economically and I’m very proud of what the first to visit State of Print when we welcomed our community team at DCA has achieved over those 20 years. Given the partners for tea and a slice of our wonderful DCA20 cake. city’s current position and vibrancy, I think we owe a large DCA’s acclaimed cinema has enjoyed bringing a range of thanks and congratulations to an institution which is as fantastic films, both home-grown and international, to our passionate about Dundee as it is about art and culture.” loyal audiences over the years. We launched the big birthday Our celebrations launched with an artists’ talk between weekend with a sneak preview of mid90s , Jonah Hill’s new Royal Academicians Jane and Louise Wilson, and DCA coming-of-age drama, the perfect film to remind us of DCA’s former life as Dundee’s unofficial skatepark. This was Director Beth Bate. Jane and Louise graduated in 1989 from Newcastle Polytechnic and Duncan of Jordanstone followed by a specially curated programme of best-loved College of Art and Design (DJCAD) respectively; their final films from the last two decades, with cinema tickets rolled degree show comprising a joint exhibition held in Newcastle back to 1999 prices. Audiences flocked to these sell out and Dundee. In 1999, they were nominated for the Turner screenings, which included modern classics such as Pan’s Prize and in 2012 exhibited at DCA with a show that brought Labyrinth , Ratcatcher and The Illusionist . Our ever popular film quiz was a special birthday edition, with people putting together two bodies of work: Atomgrad (Nature Abhors a their film knowledge from the last 20 years to the test. Vacuum) and Face Scripting – What Did the Building See . Artists continued to play a central role in our celebrations, Our open weekend provided plenty of opportunities to get with the symposium Artists in Print. This day-long event was creative, with free, drop-in workshops and events happening a celebration of print making and was an opportunity for across the building. These busy days were thriving with artists, academics, theoreticians and historians to consider creative activity, with visitors screen-printing DCA20 tote issues around print and contemporary art in Scotland. bags, creating a collaborative vinyl wall collage, making Through artists’ talks and chaired discussions with Tessa birthday badges and short animated films, and celebrating Lynch, Scott Myles, Claire Barclay, Helen de Main, Edwin our ‘see, think, make, do’ approach in exciting and fun ways. Pickstone and Jacqueline Butler, DCA Print Studio DCA Print Studio was packed with workshops for visitors to celebrated its twenty-year history of working with cutting take part in, from traditional printmaking techniques such as edge and traditional print technologies. This was a rare Japanese woodblock printing and shadowgraphs to newer opportunity to hear how practitioners think about using technologies including 3D printing and laser cutting. We held print processes in innovative and inventive ways, a display of the brilliant work created through ST/ART, our connecting to its social histories, collaborative processes long-term partnership project with Tayside Healthcare Arts and technological materiality. Trust, and a team from DCA’s Young Photo Club were on hand to document the whole weekend. Top: Eve Fowler, what a slight. what a sound. what a universal shudder. Photograph by Erika Stevenson Bottom: Mike Kelley, Mobile Homestead Photograph by Ruth Clark Dundee Contemporary Arts Annual Report Page 7 Exhibitions “This is how her mind In a year that has seen the cultural offering of Dundee grow exponentially, DCA’s exhibitions programme has gone from works, through metaphor, strength to strength, developing a mix of Scottish, British and international art projects across the galleries for our deep thought and delicate audiences. We welcomed 3 7, 487 visitors to the galleries across transformation: so much 2018/19 and are happy to report that this figure once again reflects a steady increase in attendance from previous years. like that of poet.” We devoted our entire summer season to the incredible work of American artist Eve Fowler with what a slight. what a sound. what Laura Cumming in The Observer on a universal shudder. This was the first solo exhibition of Fowler’s Lorna Macintyre: Pieces of You Are Here practice in Europe, and drew together a body of work focusing on the queer, experimental writing practice of Gertrude Stein. The exhibition in the galleries took the form of posters, prints, paintings, and installations employing materials such as vinyl, “The artist’s new film neon, collage, print, painting and film. Fowler’s work also reached explores unprecedented beyond our walls to appear as temporary public artworks on billboards, bus stops, and poster sites, spreading art and poetry levels of intimacy and across the city over the summer months. empathy with its subjects.” Over autumn, as the city around us was transforming faster than ever before with the opening of V&A Dundee, we developed two Eliel Jones in Frieze Magazine on distinct presentations of work by major international artists that Margaret Salmon: Hole in unique ways reflected on ideas of citizenship, nationhood, ownership and agency within very different parts of the world.