The Crown Letter roundtable discussion

Natacha Nisic recognized that the conditions of confinement created by the COVID pandemic and lockdown posed a threat to the visibility, exchange and experience of contemporary art, particularly of the work of women artists. Nisic invited women in her global network to contribute to the project and over time the network has expanded. Over 50 artists have now contributed to the publications and they maintain the online project collectively. As well as weekly publications, since the beginning The Crown Letter has hosted a weekly Salon for its contributors, where the artists exchange experiences, ideas and stories. In these times of confinement, where the effects of systemic inequality are felt across the globe, The Crown Letter harnesses the power of artistic exchange, collective energy, support and dialogue. As it approaches its first anniversary, some of the artists gathered at a salon to reflect on what The Crown Letter means to them.

Temenos 2022

Once while speaking with art students in a class at the Vienna art academy, I listened to their fears for their future and their questions about how to continue, frequently mentioning their parents’ concern; and I thought how helpful it would be if they could experience the nature of the Peloponnese and the imaginative freedom that I associated to filmmaking and Greece. I continue to hope that the Temenos screenings might give a certain number of individuals an experience of freedom that comes from a temporary removal from one’s own environment and immersion in the different scale of time that Markopoulos’s Eniaios provides.

The genesis of TRANSMISSIONS, an online DIY TV show

In March 2020 when COVID-19 collectively forced us into isolation, it became clear that all forms of community were more important than ever. It was (and still remains) vital that we find mechanisms to support each other through this precarious time. In the extraordinary landscape that we have found ourselves in, it is clear that many artists, writers and thinkers have had (and continue to have) exhibitions, opportunities and subsequent fees cancelled for the foreseeable future. In response to this, TRANSMISSIONS was established. It is an online platform that commissions artists, writers and thinkers to share their work within a classic DIY TV show format. This text reflects on the genesis of the project.

Reflecting on grounded: A lens on COVID through Screendance

Like much of the United Kingdom, arts communities in the South East were largely paralysed during the lockdown in spring 2020 through the temporary closure of venues in Brighton, the Towner Eastbourne, the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill, Hastings Contemporary and Hastings Museum, and numerous smaller arts, music and theatre venues along the coast. Many gallery staff were on furlough and online content tended to be provided by larger institutions elsewhere, apart from grassroots activities such as Hasting’s Isolation Station broadcast on Facebook. The closure of arts institutions all along the East Sussex Coast and the absence of their habitual signalling felt like an inverse phenomenon and uneasy foreboding. grounded was devised in response to this regional silence and the curators, Claudia Kappenberg and Fiontán Moran reflected on the project for MIRAJ.

Documentary in the time of a thousand deaths: A despatch from the Philippines

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, people did not only contend with anxiety stirred up by being community quarantined. While virtually house arrested, concerned citizens have had to cope with and struggle against the government’s relentless authoritarian practices. In this context, the pandemic is a backdrop and a metaphor for a different upheaval.