Karen Mirza and Brad Butler's multi-layered practice consists of filmmaking, drawing, installation, photography, performance, publishing and curating. Their work challenges terms such as participation, collaboration, the social turn and the traditional roles of the artist as producer and the audience as recipient. Since 2007, Mirza and Butler have been developing a body of work entitled the Museum of non Participation. The artists have repeatedly found themselves embedded in pivotal moments of change, protest, non-alignment and debate. Experiencing such spaces of contestation both directly and through the network of art institutions, Mirza and Butler negotiate these influences in video, photography, text and action. Recent exhibitions include The Museum of non Participation: The New Deal at the Walker Art Centre (April - July 2013), Performa 13 (2013) and Derin Devlet (Deep State) at Galeri NON (Jan - Feb 2014). The Museum of non Participation is nominated for the Artes Mundi Award 2014 for visual artists who engage with the human condition, social reality and lived experience. In 2004, Mirza and Butler formed no.w.here, an artist-run organisation that combines film production with critical dialogue about contemporary image making. It supports the production of artist works, runs workshops and critical discussions and actively curated performances, screenings, residencies, publications, events and exhibitions. no.w.here’s role as a cooperative environment is directly related to the centering of Mirza and Butler’s own practice upon collaboration, dialogue and the social.
no-w-here.org.uk